How light do you like your production trigger?

[joedodge]

Hello all im wondering how light do you like the triggers on your production guns? And what do you think is more important the pull weight or the travel and reset.

[Sin-ster]

As to the reset, I even heard Rob Leatham say the other day that people pay too much attention to this very minor aspect of trigger pull. If you're shooting bullseye, it's one thing; for any kind of speed shooting discipline, you're not going to notice OR be able to hit that perfect reset every time. (I think he said 1 out of 10 people might be even physically capable of being that good-- but it seemed like he was being generous.)

As to the weight vs travel vs "feel", that one's going to be entirely up to you. What feels best, in a dry gun? What do you shoot better, in the gun in which you're doing the work?

I shoot Production, and slowly pieced together my trigger instead of buying one of the expensive kits. It's pretty light-- ~2.2 - 2.5 pounds. The snappy Glock reset is totally gone, but the mushiness is basically maxed out. It's picky about it's primers to an annoying degree, but will go through ~200 rounds of (poor QC) WWB and only spit out one round with a light strike. (A non-issue if you reload, or tune it properly.) It feels good to me-- if for no other reason than I've shot tens of thousands of rounds through it. You might think it was the worst thing in the world.

A lot of better shooters than I am have gone back to closer-to-factory settings in the Glocks, in part for reliability reasons but mostly for the more solid feel and snappiness of the trigger. Their basic trend of thought is that you can learn your way around a (slightly) heavier trigger pull with practice, but the actual responsiveness of the trigger with near-factory settings provides a ton of feedback than you simply cannot replace otherwise.

If you don't have to compromise between the options, the decision is obvious-- as light as you can manage without ND's from just breathing on the trigger. In an imperfect world, you should really try out as many variations as you can and go from there. No matter how intricate your trigger work, replacement parts are always available if you happen to irreversibly head in the wrong direction. When it comes down to it, the money will be well spent-- not so much in actual performance improvements, but by the extra confidence and comfort you have with the "perfect" trigger.

[joedodge]

Wow thanks for the great reply. I have a stock m&p I started with and then moved on to a xd with a custom trigger in it. But the sear had worn to the point that the factory safeties didnt work properly so i replaced it with a stock one and the pull weight is heavier than the original but reset and travel is still 0.250. so i was curious what others prefer.

[DonovanM]

As to the reset, I even heard Rob Leatham say the other day that people pay too much attention to this very minor aspect of trigger pull.

Says the guy who likes 1lb triggers

I have no idea how much my DA/SA triggers weigh, I'd say around 7lbs for the DA and 3lbs for the SA. DA weight doesn't really matter, I run a 10lb as well as a 7lb, but with the lightened mainspring comes a lighter SA pull, and that's what I like.

[joedodge]

lol never thought about the DA/SA guys i think anywere around a smooth 3 pounds is great.

[mioduz]

I have the apex competition trigger on my m&p 9mm. I believe it breaks around of 2 lbs and I absolutely love it

[T_Linville]

i used the apex competition springs in my M&P and filed a stock sear and my trigger is 2lbs if not less, as others said i don't notice reset but with dry fire it resets ok. my trigger breaks at the end of the pull and i really like it.

[MoNsTeR]

As light as possible. Pull weight is everything, once you're at 2-pounds-and-under the feel gets lost anyway. Reset is a red herring. Pre-travel is good, I don't know why anyone would want to reduce it.

[twodownzero]

Anything under 5 lbs and totally smooth is good for me. I have given up on all but single action, though. The trigger pull is the most important ergonomic feature on a handgun. I wish the manufacturers would recognize that and take it very seriously.

[want2race]

If you just dropped in an Apex kit, but don't have a trigger pull gauge, you might be suprised. Some will drop in at a crisp 3.5#, some will drop in around 2.5#. I've had pretty good luck using their parts, I work it over though to get the trigger how I want it.

I like a short reset, but there does need to be a little overtravel. Short reset is so I don't short stroke the trigger when trying to hammer targets.

Pull weight, lighter the better but not at the cost of mushy. I hate Glocks 3.5# connector because it's very mushy. I've worked several M&P's that ended up at 2.0#-2.5# on my trigger pull gauge. The test mule M&P I had for a while was at 1.75# by the time I was done with it. Still had some pretravel and "just enough" overtravel but it had a better break than my 2011. It was very easy to shoot fast with it. Gotta be carefull of "dead trigger" and don't compromise striker spring strength for trigger pull wight, reliablity is more important than that extra .5# of trigger pull.

[pjb45]

I thought Robbie was referring to the reset in terms of resetting to when the sear gets engaged then breaking the shot. Maybe I misinterpreted the context of his discussion.

Reset travel is important. Reducing the amount of travel can be advantageous. It is a factor but perhaps not a critical success factor as trigger pull.

Scott Springer worked on my XD. It is pretty incredible.

Personally, I like a pretty light trigger pull.

[d_striker]

I'm not challenging anyone's response but I'm trying to understand why TGO says reset isn't important.

I had a Sig with an unbearable amount of over travel and thus, a long reset. A lot of times when shooting pairs, while stepping on the gas, the trigger wouldn't reset because I didn't let it travel forward enough. Both annoying and a huge time waster, IMO.

To me this was a huge issue.

[DonovanM]

I'm not challenging anyone's response but I'm trying to understand why TGO says reset isn't important.

I had a Sig with an unbearable amount of over travel and thus, a long reset. A lot of times when shooting pairs, while stepping on the gas, the trigger wouldn't reset because I didn't let it travel forward enough. Both annoying and a huge time waster, IMO.

To me this was a huge issue.

You can fix that. My SIG resets 1/8" away from the frame

I could probably halve that by doing something crazy with the firing pin block, but I've never suffered trigger freeze so haven't bothered.

[d_striker]

I'm not challenging anyone's response but I'm trying to understand why TGO says reset isn't important.

I had a Sig with an unbearable amount of over travel and thus, a long reset. A lot of times when shooting pairs, while stepping on the gas, the trigger wouldn't reset because I didn't let it travel forward enough. Both annoying and a huge time waster, IMO.

To me this was a huge issue.

You can fix that. My SIG resets 1/8" away from the frame

I could probably halve that by doing something crazy with the firing pin block, but I've never suffered trigger freeze so haven't bothered.

I sold that gun....But to me, it seems the issue is more important than some people are saying.

Edited June 29, 2011 by d_striker

[Blcksmk]

My current production Glock 17 is about 2-2.5 LBS but with some extensive trigger work done and a Jager aftermarket striker.

[beltjones]

Let the trigger all the way out between shots, and suddenly reset distance isn't an issue.

I fully release and prep the trigger for every shot. Sometimes I slap the hell out of it, and for distance or "penalty" shots I prep and press.

Consequently, I set my glock triggers up to be very similar to factory specs, but with a few tweaks. I like the pretravel to be as light as possible. By lightening the pretravel I can also lighten the breaking weight and still have a nice crisp break.

Right now I have a Vanek trigger bar, Vanek firing pin safety and spring, Ghost Patrol connector, and Wolff competition trigger spring. Everything else is stock. The result is about a 3.75lb crisp break.

[spanky]

as long as there is a smooth transition in my trigger pull from start to finish then i'm not too picky.

i did think it was funny that I had a few EDs (early discharge) with my Shadow with that really short SA pull.

[joedodge]

thanks for the replys everyone im starting to like my xd trigger with the stock sear just polished the lil bit of pull weight added is nice and smoth and crisp.

[jarozzy]

My glock has the stock trigger. It does triple duty as competion, night stand, and ride in the truck. I am afraid that if I mess with the trigger it will no longer be "safe" when I carry it on the truck or conceal it.

[leadslinger275]

I have a 3 pound trigger on my Glock 34. Seems to work fine and not slow me down as long as I "press through on my reset and don't stop. I only stop my reset when shooting 30 to 35 yards and out. Works for me, but then again we are all different. Just my .02.

[Sin-ster]

As to the reset concern/question:

I don't think Rob was saying that it can be completely ignored. I think his intention was to suggest that people who are (super) fine tuning their triggers tend to put too much emphasis on this aspect.

I believe it was more a matter of feel that he was "writing off", and not so much distance. A long reset typically comes with a long travel-- and we can all basically take it for granted that anything we're shooting in competition is going to be relatively free of either of these concerns.

I shoot a G17 in (literally) all of my competitions, and it's pulling about 2-2.25 right now. I discovered that with lots of presses under my belt, it actually started to feel pretty crisp. The take up is soft (some might say mushy) and the return is fairly long, due to a lack of an overtravel stop. Someone with a full Vanek (or comparable) job would probably hate it. But the reason why Rob's comment registered with me was because the only time I've ever noticed the reset at all is during slow fire.

For comparison, my EDC is an M&P 45 that Dan Burwell did trigger work on. The reset is almost imperceptible, but VERY short. It took a lot of dry fire to even be able to shoot the reset on that pistol, and doing functional drills like NSR's and Zippers, I don't have a snowballs chance in Hell of shooting perfect reset without experiencing some trigger freeze. It is at the same time my favorite pull of the two, without question. (Thanks Dan, if you see this!)

YMMV of course-- I'm far from a great shooter!

[Lior]

With my limited experience in shooting I wish to add my two cents:

The most important modification a practical shooter can make is to himself. Production division tries to level the playing ground a bit, in an attempt to contrast with the other divisions in IPSC where people with sexy raceguns may gain a competitive advantage. At the moment I am using the stock 5.5# trigger on my G17, which serves for concealed carry and home defense, military and police uniformed duty and a bit of IPSC shooting. My Shadow also has the stock trigger. IMO learning the trigger and how to prep it is more important than having a pull with little resistance. Then again I might change my mind in a few months time. Nothing like dry fire to learn a DA/SA trigger with.

[az_shooter_11]

With my limited experience in shooting I wish to add my two cents:

The most important modification a practical shooter can make is to himself. Production division tries to level the playing ground a bit, in an attempt to contrast with the other divisions in IPSC where people with sexy raceguns may gain a competitive advantage. At the moment I am using the stock 5.5# trigger on my G17, which serves for concealed carry and home defense, military and police uniformed duty and a bit of IPSC shooting. My Shadow also has the stock trigger. IMO learning the trigger and how to prep it is more important than having a pull with little resistance. Then again I might change my mind in a few months time. Nothing like dry fire to learn a DA/SA trigger with.

I think that's a great attitude, improve your skills not your equipment in the beginning. I did that when I started as well and now I regret it because now that I am into the "game" I wish I did not have to keep unlearning how to shoot a heavy long trigger

[Neomet]

I like my triggers as light as I can get them with a short reset in case I shortstroke.

When I talked to Robbie the discussion he had was around people who wanted to be able to feel the reset in order to then break their second shot rather than either slapping the trigger or releasing to a predetermined distance. His point was that unlike when we are sitting on our couch in the living room, once the buzzer goes off very, very few people can actually ride the reset. (There was some testing around this but I can't find it.) He didn't talk about the distance of the reset.

[Shelly76]

My friend has a Vanek trigger in his Glock 34, which he said measured at 2.5 lbs. It was light and very smooth with a short reset. After getting a feel for the trigger pull, I shot it well.