DA or SA

What kind of triggersystem do you prefer for your EDC gun?

  • SA

    Votes: 39 36.8%

  • DA

    Votes: 48 45.3%

  • DAO

    Votes: 19 17.9%
  • Total voters
    106
  • Poll closed .
I am comfortable with different trigger systems at the range, but my EDC is a Glock, partly because of the consistent moderate weight trigger. I own SA, DA/SA, thumb safety up, down, and absent, and they are all fine once you practice with them. Different strokes and all that.
 
The idea of the DA/SA gun was to have a stronger trigger pull on the first shot to avoid NDs. Those are usually caused by lack of trigger finger discipline.

The problems are:

1. Some folks have problems with transition from the first to second shot.
2. They are inaccurate with the heavier pull - probably because they get little practice with it.
3. It may not help - human factors folk indicate that if you put your finger on the trigger, the glitches that cause an ND are strong enough to pull a DA also.
4. You rest your finger on a DA level pull and feel confident (dumb) but then you rest it on a SA after the first shot and you ND because of the lighter pull. You may try to take up the DA but it's SA and it goes boom too soon.

I go for a consistent trigger on a Glock or 1911 and trigger discipline.

Now with DA revolvers I practice with that pull.
 
Strong side holster either IWB or OWB carry I prefer a SA, but for pocket carry or off body carry I prefer a DA first shot. I'm proficient enough that I'm comfortable with a DA/SA transition and don't have any problem with DAO and will carry DA or DAO guns strong side holstered at times.
 
My preference is single action in semi-autos. I carry 1911, a SAO Sig 220 and a Sig 238. The trigger on my Ruger LCP is atrocious but it serves a purpose. The DA trigger on my Kahr CM9, though, is actually pretty decent.

I carried a SW 3913 with a SA/DA trigger for awhile. As Tom Servo observed, it was more difficult to get to transitioning from DA to SA. However, I quit carrying it mostly because the safety worked differently than the other guns I like to carry.

I can't imagine too many people carry SA revolvers for defense, Jim March aside.
 
I suppose some would say I'm a pistol guy.
I have all kinds of handguns & practice a lot with those I carry.
I like the Glock trigger modified to 3.5 pounds.
My favorite carry piece is a G-23, with 3.5 pound trigger tho I often have a Smith M-60 revolver handy.
I suppose the so called d.a.o. trigger, which is an incorrect description, is a milli-second quicker into action than an s.a. carried cocked & locked.
Designs suck as the Glock are really carried in a stage of parital cocked, the trigger pull fully cocks & discharges the weapon so "finger actuated" might be a better term but I'm not going to pick that nit.
I really like my H&K USP .45 as it can be carried cocked & locked, or in finger cock, (d.a.) mode but it's way too large for concealed work.
 
For me, it's a da. It's the action I've trained with and, accordingly, the one I'm most competent and confident with. I've never found the da to sa trigger pull transition to be as difficult to master as some they have.
 
I said SA, as I usually carry a 1911 in a Galco super tuk, anything from a three inch, to five inch, they all carry about the same to me.
Once and a while I will carry a DAO(LC9) in a crossbreed super tuck, and my LCP in my back pocket.
 
SA for me. That includes Glock's "Safe Action" which is classified as DA by law enforcement/BATF but functions more like Single Action since the trigger cannot fully cock the hammer/striker.
 
DA, SA, DAO
Click to expand...

Those aren't the only options, you know.

Or rather, trigger type should be defined more carefully. Observing Internet Gunboard yammer about this over the years, I see different people use the terminology in different ways.

A lot of people seem to think the whole double action/single action distinction has to do with the interaction of a trigger with a hammer, and doesn't apply to guns without a hammer (striker fired). These folks make up other classifications for striker fired guns.

Others (like myself) read the SA/DA/SAO distinction to be about the trigger only, and what actions it performs. Does it only drop the hammer (or striker)? Single action. Does it cock the gun as well, bringing the hammer (or striker) up from a full rest position before releasing the sear? Double Action. Does it have to bring the hammer (or striker) up from rest, each and every time? DAO. There are examples of each in both striker and hammer equipped guns.

And some guns don't fit the distinctions well. Glock -- striker is under a certain amount of tension at rest. If you pull the trigger and release the striker on an empty chamber, it's dead. You must manually cycle the slide before you can attempt to fire again. Is it single action? No. Double Action? No. DAO? Certainly not. Glocks are a "Safe Action(R)". Its own thing, albeit widely copied these days.

What's on me right now? Snubby with a DAO hammer. I may in a little bit put on a Springfield XD*, with what is (to my mind) a single action trigger.

I'm fairly agnostic about it at this point, CCW having only just recently become an option in this state.

-----edit to add---

*I had some guy (on a Internet gunboard, of course) once try to tell me the XD was "just like a Glock", because the process of releasing the sear from the striker in the XD cams the striker back a fraction of a millimeter. :rolleyes:

"Uhhhh. No."

(I didn't bother arguing with him.)
 
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For me I like the S/A best. Showing my age here but when I changed from revolvers to bottom feeder the only real selection aside from a bunch of oddball .32 acp's was the 1911, BHP, Luger, Or the P-38 and the german guns cost far more than I could come up with. So long story shortened I just do not care as much for any trigger that has 2 different trigger pull feel depending on SA/DA.
 
I choose the gun, not the trigger. When I get the holster, I'm going with a 10 mm because of the caliber. Bears and mountain lion require big bullets.
 
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