  We construct a new perfect action for free staggered fermions, which is more
local than the one obtained from the standard block average scheme. This pays
off in superior properties after a short ranged truncation. This action is
``gauged by hand'' and tested in Schwinger model simulations by means of a new
variant of hybrid MC. Using ``fat links'' for the gauge field, we obtain a tiny
``pion'' mass down to \beta \approx 1.5, and the ``eta'' mass follows very
closely the prediction of asymptotic scaling.
