Jump to content
Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

Triggers: KE Arms SLT-2 vs AR Gold vs CMC vs POF vs Calvin Elite


thegeneric

Recommended Posts

Hoping someone has personal experience they can share between these triggers before I spend $$$$ trying them all out. I am trying to standardize the triggers across all my AR's including PCC's. With the obvious goal of reliability first, but also.... I'm looking for the fastest one out of the bunch.

 

I have a POF trigger in my 9mm and a CMC single stage in my 223.

 

I have used the CMC since it came out and I like it, but apparently they haven't worked out all of the kinks with their PCC triggers.

 

I bought the POF because it was highly recommended for reliability in 9mm's, but I just like the CMC so much more.

 

I had an AR Gold years ago and I remember liking it a lot, but they don't have a flat faced offer in their PCC line yet, is it worth waiting for a flat faced version?

 

The KE Arms trigger seems interesting with the whole "no disconnector" thing. I'm interested because some people are recommending them for PCC's as well. They seem like they could fast. 

 

I'm a little weary of using the Calvin Elite due to it being relatively new, lots of extra parts, and no real long term reliability testing for now. Is the logic sound here?

 

 

 

 

So I'm leaning towards trying out the KE Arms, does anyone have the first hand experience with this trigger vs the others mentioned?

 

 

 

Is there another good option that I'm leaving out?

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited by thegeneric
Info
Link to comment
Share on other sites

HyperFire triggers give you some tuning options that others don't. The extra hammer springs used to "lighten" the trigger pull can also be used to tune bolt carrier speed. This is done by increasing or decreasing the hammer spring tension when the hammer is forward. More spring tension = slowing the bolt down. This is important on blow back style PCC's. The other thing that you can easily adjust is the trigger return spring tension by bending the trigger return spring legs. Increasing the trigger return spring tension helps push your finger forward after the hammer has dropped which usually mitigates trigger freeze issues.

 

I like the feel of the AR Gold triggers because their 2 stage design "Feels" very similar to a nice 1911/2011 trigger. This is nice for precision slow fire shooting, but I always had trouble with trigger freeze when rage blasting because they don't have enough trigger return spring tension and its not adjustable. This is especially true in a .223 AR that has the gas, comp, and bolt/buffer mass dialed in which produces very little gun movement. PCC's are usually better because the heavy blow back style bolt carrier produces more gun movement by default.

 

With all of this being said, I have had a couple HyperFire triggers that had gritty sear to hammer hook engagement right out of the bag and I had to stone the engagement surfaces to smooth it out. You would think that paying $200+ for a trigger it would come with the sear & hammer hook engagement already polished up. But the HyperFire stuff doesn't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Taking into consideration all the good info you gave about the hiperfires, i think I'd like to stay away from them. These triggers are also going into my defense guns and the fine tuning and fiddling to get them just right doesn't seem like the best idea. 

 

Your thoughts on the AR Gold are the same as mine as far as reset goes, but I do recall some shooters saying that once they "got used" to them, they could be run quite fast. But I'd rather stay consistent across rifle/pistol with a moderately forceful reset.

 

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Steve RA said:

Check again about the CMC trigger.

Just did some more googling. Saw an enos thread from may '19 where a user claimed that his failed to reset occasionally and two others who stated that theirs failed when there was debris in the disconnector. Still a bit hesitant about using it for 9mm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I shoot a Calvin on my main 3gun rifle and have the KE SLT-1 on my PCC.  

 

I love both triggers. I recently acquired a new lower and ordered an SLT-2 for that one. It has a great feel to the trigger and i like that it can go on safe regardless of the hammer position. Also like that it works normally if junk gets into the trigger well. 

 

the Calvin is light. It wasn’t intended as a defensive trigger. I love it, but it’s designed for a flat range. I don’t know if it works well in PCC. I think you’d be better served by one of the timney 3-4 lb triggers for a defensive gun.  (Having said that, the first gun I’d pick up in a riot is my 3gun with the Calvin. And the SLT-1 would be used by other family members)

 

I’ve had 100% success with Timney Calvin, KE SLT-1, Hyperfire Eclipse.  

I’ve had less that 100% with adjustable triggers from 2 other makers.

Note: i don’t like 2 stage triggers on rifles 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, thegeneric said:

These triggers are also going into my defense guns and the fine tuning and fiddling to get them just right doesn't seem like the best idea. 

Then the Calvin Elite is not for you. Other than having no experience with the KE Arms I would echo everything emjbe said.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, emjbe said:

I shoot a Calvin on my main 3gun rifle and have the KE SLT-1 on my PCC.  

 

I love both triggers. I recently acquired a new lower and ordered an SLT-2 for that one. It has a great feel to the trigger and i like that it can go on safe regardless of the hammer position. Also like that it works normally if junk gets into the trigger well. 

 

the Calvin is light. It wasn’t intended as a defensive trigger. I love it, but it’s designed for a flat range. I don’t know if it works well in PCC. I think you’d be better served by one of the timney 3-4 lb triggers for a defensive gun.  (Having said that, the first gun I’d pick up in a riot is my 3gun with the Calvin. And the SLT-1 would be used by other family members)

 

I’ve had 100% success with Timney Calvin, KE SLT-1, Hyperfire Eclipse.  

I’ve had less that 100% with adjustable triggers from 2 other makers.

Note: i don’t like 2 stage triggers on rifles 

 

 

Perfect, thanks for the SLT feedback.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My JP Triggers, tuned by a JP person at RM3G, had issues with Russian ammo.  I would get a misfired per stage and sometimes per mag.  I loved the light trigger.  It worked fine for all other brands of ammo.  But for local short matches the russian stuff was cheap and I had thousands of it.

 

I went to HyperFire.  No issues with russian ammo.  

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My top fuel drag car would occasionally choke on regular 87 octane gas......matter of fact it ran down right poorly, but I had a lot of 87 octane gas, so I switched to an engine from a stock Honda civic and have been happy ever since!.....well I'm not placing that well, but hey!!! Pump Gas!!!😆

Edited by kurtm
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, kurtm said:

My top fuel drag car would occasionally choke on regular 87 octane gas......matter of fact it ran down right poorly, but I had a lot of 87 octane gas, so I switched to an engine from a stock Honda civic and have been happy ever since!.....well I'm not placing that well, but hey!!! Pump Gas!!!😆

 

I had a similar problem in a maxima.  It really liked 91 octane and was marginal with 87.  My daughter took it to college and tried using 85 to save money.  It misfired constantly with 85.  She switched out the entire car (after being rear-ended) to a 4-cylinder and it runs perfectly with 85 octane.  She complains occasionally about missing that “giddy up” she used to have.

 

 

@kurtmseriously this is the best analogy I’ve seen about problems with cheap steel case ammo.  I will be borrowing your reference many times in the future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I run a Calvin Elite with the knurled rod shoe and it's hands down the crispest, fastest trigger I've ever shot. Im consistently impressed with its ability to run around a pound and a half (I don't have a trigger scale) and to retain safety lock up/drop safe. The adjustment for the forward/rearward trigger length is an added bonus, as well as the multiple shoes it comes with. If there's anything I can do to show/share with you, let me know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

since this thread came back up I should point out that KE recently released the RTS-1 trigger.  Similar feel to the SLT, but nearly completely enclosed to stop popped primers or other garbage from blocking your hammer. I saw one at a local match and is now on my list.

 

I like elftman also - And they stand behind their products. I asked a local arms manufacturer about them a few years ago - he switched to Elf triggers in the rifles he makes because they always took care of any problems very quickly. I have their 3-gun trigger. It's not my favorite, but I do like it. I found that when I adjusted the trigger weight lower, the over travel increased proportionally. I ended up setting it at a heavier weight which felt better due to almost no over travel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Having an AR platformed pcc with reset issues with a standard (designed for AR not pcc).   I've been a fan of CMC and their PCC triggers for AR guns.   They (CMC) told me that there was insufficient amount of metal on the bottom of BCG for proper reset from standard type AR triggers.   After installing 1 of their PCC AR triggers I've hadn't had anymore reset problems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...