Trigger Pull Weight

[Duane Thomas]

My Wilson .45 came from the shop with a 3-1/2 pound trigger pull. A year or two ago, while pinning the grip safety, I used the technique of inserting a piece of rubber between the bottom of the grip safety and top of the mainspring housing - which works great BTW. I'd been told to use a piece of rubber than went from side-to-side of the grip safety/mainspring housing interface, with a V-notch cut in the middle for the hammer strut. In a thread on the second incarnation of this Forums Board, Brian said that when pinning the grip safety you should only use a piece of rubber on the right side of the hammer strut, otherwise you'll press on the "finger" of the sear spring that controls sear release and up your trigger pull. And that was what had happened with me. Pinning the grip safety had upped my trigger pull to 4 pounds even. But at the time I'd said, "Ah, what the hell, who cares" and ran with it.

Then we got into a long discussion on the board where I was told the virtues of the 2-1/2 pound trigger pull. Shortly thereafter I had to detail strip the gun to install a new trigger. As long as I had the gun apart anyway, I cut down the rubber "pin" to the appropriate width. After 22,000 rounds, my 3-1/2 pound trigger pull had worn in to 3-1/4 pounds.

Went to Arizona for a class with Matt Burkett. Matt seriously recommends a 1-1/2 pound trigger pull to me as a great aid to marksmanship. Quote: "It's really easy to not pull the gun off target when the amount of pressure required to pull the trigger is less than the weight of the gun." Dry fired and shot Matt's .40 SV with 1-1/2 pound trigger. After that, my 3-1/4 pound trigger did seem a bit clunky.

Came home, thought about it, finally called Chip McCormick Corporation and ordered some Trigger Job (what Brian calls "Chippie Lube"). Applied to hammer hooks/sear engagement surfaces, this dropped my trigger pull 3/4 pounds right there. So now I've got a 2-1/2 pound trigger. Right after that, an injury to my shooting hand thumb prevented me from shooting or dry firing. Shot a little on the range a few days ago, shot a match yesterday (the thumb's still tender, but usable) and that's all the shooting I've done in the past two weeks. So I haven't had the opportunity to give the 2-1/2 trigger pull a full work-out. It worked just fine at the match, though.

I'm just gettin' lighter and lighter. Can a 1-1/2 pound trigger pull be far behind?

[benos]

Duane,

I think, eventually, it's a sensitivity issue. I've noticed, over many years of experimenting with trigger pull weights, that if I went too light (below about 18 ozs.) AND the shots I had to make were very difficult, like 4" steel squares at 35 yds at the STC, I couldn't "feel" the trigger IN THE MATCH. Although I could shoot fine in practice, when I was juiced up in the match I didn't have the sensitivity necessary to release clean shots.

be

[SteveZ]

I completely understand what Brian's saying here....I'm really sensitive to trigger pull....I like my triggers light but if I set the preload too light, I feel like I'm not getting feedback from the trigger like I should be. Consequently, I run my triggers at about 2 to 2.25lbs but it takes some trail and error tweaking to set the preload such that I like it but then not too high such that my final trigger pull is over where I like it to break at.

[Patrick Sweeney]

Duane,

And when you get to lighter and lighter weights (and other fine-tuning) you must be more and more consistent in your trigger stroke. I found if I tried to get too light I would short-stroke the trigger (and if I tried to adjust overtravel to the absolute minimum, too). As Brian said, when you get juiced up and don't have the sensitivity to work the advantage, what's the point?

1-1/2 works for Matt, but that light just gets me in trouble. Maybe it is from my insistance on shooting 3-gun, where the shotgun and rifle triggers are in the low 3# range, and if I gave them up I could adjust. (Fat chance.)

[Loves2Shoot]

I agree with Brian, the only wya to make the tough shot for me is to feel the trigger.

[Ron Ankeny]

I agree with Brian too. I think I am going to increase my 1.5 lb trigger to 18 ounces.

[Flexmoney]

I agree with Brian too. I think I am going to increase my 1.5 lb trigger to 18 ounces.

[tightloop]

while I like them light too, I finally settled on a compromise weight of about 2 lbs. Mine is currently 30 oz. Basically I am lazy and settled on this because it gave some feed back while shooting, was light enough to provide deliberate let off of the shot, and held up well to thousands of rounds without having to continually tweak the trigger or worry about the thing falling to half cock or going full auto sometime.

Unless you are a master 'smith yourself, and few of us are, constantly reworking the trigger to the lowest let off pressure is a pain. To each his own, but I think you can go too light just as easily as you can go too heavy.

[EricW]

You guys are totally beyond me. I can't even feel my 8 lb Glock trigger when I'm blazing. I do know *that* heavy of a trigger definitely is pulling shots off at distance, but for everything else, somehow I make it *work* for me. I actually like the feedback.

Anybody think they're fooling themselves when they're totally focused how *how* the trigger breaks? I used to really worry about it. A LOT. Now, except for slow-fire, notably with a rifle, I don't even notice the trigger, so beyond a certain point, I wonder how much of it is even a real concern.

[JRBean]

I like mine a little over 2 pounds. I tried it under 2 and had problems with taking precision shots during the match. The gun would fire before I was completely ready to call the shot. I brought it back up to 2 1/4 and now the shot breaks when I'm ready.

[Luiz Francisco Ramos]

My friends:

I love my 1 1/2 Lbs. trigger!

I think, in the near future, the triggers will be digitals...

Just see and the shoot breaks without anyone else movement.

There is an ethernity between the hammer fall down and the finaly ignition.

Is that delay time large enough to make me flinch subconsciously...

Ramos

[benos]

Slang lingo that worked for me as a mental directive: Don't make the trigger so light that you can't "stand on it," if necessary.

be