How much does a good trigger matter to you?

I

irish52084

New member
I was reading a thread on another forum and there was some discussion about one gun being better than another due to it's better trigger. I sometimes feel like I'm one of a very few people who don't really notice much of a difference, in my range accuracy, in a glock, "mush box", trigger and a tuned 1911 trigger. How many of you guys feel the same or at least don't freak out when your new pistol doesn't have a crisp, creep free, 3lb trigger?

I have another question for you guys as well. Why would I not seem to notice a difference in triggers? Do I just have good trigger control? I'm not any sort of special pistol shooter or even a competitor. I did come from high power rifle shooting with very crisp and light triggers, maybe that altered my view on a "good" trigger?
 
I am in the same boat as you, although I shoot best with my 1911 and 686 revolver in SA. If I competed in bullseye events, I guess having perfect triggers would be more important to me. I have an M&P 9c and XD45 striker fired pistols and find their triggers fine. Many people hate the M&P triggers though.

With rifles, it's another story. For long distance shooting, I need a crisp trigger.
 
Last edited:
I shoot revolvers in double action almost exclusively, so don't shoot semi-autos enough to notice what others might. I do notice a bad DA revolver trigger, and am pretty fussy about it. Here's my tuned 686.

You'd think a bad trigger only becomes an issue the more accuracy is being tested, but a good trigger helps a whole bunch when accuracy and speed are important, such as IDPA, USPSA, PPC, Bianchi, etc.
 
A bad trigger is a bad trigger. Good triggers are anything thats not "bad". Other than a defective trigger, from what complaints you usually see posted, a bad trigger seems to be one that a person doesnt seem to be able to shoot well with. Hand the same gun to someone else, and its a great trigger.

Just because its heavy and/or long doesnt make it bad, and just because its light and short doesnt make it good.

Seems to me, except for a few odd cases, the problem isnt the trigger. :)
 
The trigger almost makes the gun for me. Regardless of how well the gun fits my hand, if the trigger is bad....the whole gun is bad to me.....the trigger is my main problem with Glock pistols.
 
Spend some time with a good revolver shooting double action only. It will only help you with your trigger skills.
 
Trigger matters to me, but the "gold standard" for a handgun trigger is totally different from a great rifle trigger. For the most part a light trigger would be undesirable, even dangerous for most day-to-day handgun purposes. And with barrel length of 6" at the very most with only a few exceptions, the perfect trigger on a carry gun wouldn't be of much use. Nor needed when the desired accuracy is COM rather than covering with a dime, or even less.

And there aren't many double-action rifles that immediately come to mind, definitely none that are match grade--perfect double-action trigger comes close to being an oxymoron, but that's what you're dealing with on many handguns other than 1911's.

But, the DAO trigger on a Kahr, or most Sigs, or Glock (yeah I know strikers usually are technically not DAO) beats the heck out of a trigger like the LONG, when-are-ya-gonna-go-bang trigger of an LCP, in my opinion. Or that of a Seecamp, or Beretta's such as the 92FS. Not that I think those are bad handguns just because I don't care for the triggers much, but they're lot lot harder for me to shoot with even COM accuracy than a Kahr or other with a "better" trigger.
 
I want a good trigger on my guns. It doesn't have to be my ideal trigger, I can adapt to just about any thing. With that said, while I think overall the Sigma is a good gun for the money, I wouldn't buy one because the trigger is pretty bad. So yes, a good trigger matters a lot to me.
 
In my opinion, the trigger makes very little difference. My focus when firing my gun is a straight pull and sights on target. I rarely think of trigger length to pop or weight. I cut my teeth on a Glock 23 then bought a Sigma 9. Opposite triggers to me but I spent plenty of time dry firing the Smith. I learned it and became accustomed to the heavy pull. If I don't shoot the 23 before or after the Smith I can't tell the difference. My focus and muscle memory take effect after my first shot. Now we all know the Glock has a better trigger but it doesn't effect my accuracy. That's just me. Other folks have to have the same pull and break every time.

Also, my XDm, in my opinion has the best trigger/ergonomics combination which makes me shoot it alot better. It feels good and strong in my hand so I'm worry very little of when bang happens. That's advice I give to people who ask me for it. Something that fits good and feels good is easier to shoot.
 
matters a lot. I sold my sig because the trigger pull was to long/heavy. I love the glock trigger. 3.5 connector is nice too.
 
Thinking back I just realized I've never kept a gun with a crappy trigger. I've sold only a few that were very good and have improved the trigger on almost every handgun and more than half of the rifles I own. If it was crappy and I couldn't or wouldn't make it better it didn't stick around long.
Short answer: yes, it matters very much to me!
 
This is the reason I like K-frames; the trigger pull is generally pretty good. I have a Model 14 with a gloriously ultra-slick trigger pull and, yes, it's very important to me.

With semi-autos, I kinda prefer a slightly heavy trigger pull. I guess it's my revolver background showing itself.
 
I sorta split it like this. Say you have two identical guns, but one has a great trigger and the other has an OK trigger. Consideration #1 is whether you can tell the difference when dry-firing. Consideration #2 is whether it makes a difference in *your* shooting. IMHO these considerations are (or at least can be) independent.

The thing about #2 is this...a great trigger won't necessarily make you a great shot. But it should help you get there more quickly. The less the equipment is "in the way" the faster you can concentrate on the fundamentals and then the finer points of marksmanship. A great trigger is part of getting the gun out of the way. Having a gun that is accurate (either out of the box or after work) is of course the most important aspect of getting the gun out of the way. But ergonomics, weight, trigger, etc. are all part of it too.

Me, I had trigger jobs done on all 4 of my current stable (2 Blackhawks and 2 Sigs) and now that I see what can be done I will never ever have another gun that doesn't go right to the smith after purchase. Well, hammer-fired gun, at least. Not much you can do for a striker-fired gun IMHO. To me a great trigger is night-and-day different from an OK trigger and contributes greatly to my enjoyment of target shooting.

-cls
 
For my personal tastes, I put the fit and feel of the gun ahead of the trigger, unless the trigger is pretty bad. I shot a glock 30 or 21, can't remember now it's been a while, with the 13.5# trigger and it was pretty terrible. It was still accurate, but not very much fun to shoot.

I've had several pistols that have arrived with triggers worse than I had hoped, or worse than the average gun of that make and I was disappointed at first. I ordered an XD sub compact 40 and it's trigger was a bit heavy, 7#'s or so, and I had some buyers remorse until I shot about 200 rounds and it broke in nicely. Got it down to about 5#'s and it was a surprisingly accurate small gun, kind of wish I still had it. The other trigger disappointment I had was on my now favorite pistol, a CZ SP-01. It was heavier in SA than I would have liked stock, and the DA was heavy and stagey. I was not pleased, but I fired 500 rounds and dry fired it a ton. It smoothed out nicely and is more accurate then I'll ever be.
 
I'm pretty much just a plinker now. So a good trigger isn't the most important thing in the world. But I sure do notice the difference.

A clean breaking single action trigger or a real smooth double action make things more fun.
 
I was like you and indifferent to triggers having grown up shooting crappy triggers. I didn't know what I was missing until I coincidentally got to shoot a good trigger one day. It was like night and day.

Being able to shoot well with a crappy trigger is more of a testament to the shooter than the gun.
 
Triggers:\
In a rifle it makes about a 50% differance. That's enough to miss a target at 100 yards, don't let anyone say differant.
Training; Correct Training, is everything, trigger pull is not an instictive reaction and it SHOULD BE a pre-instctive reaction with a bodyguard.
\Trigger pull is everything unless you are just a walking sandbag, then trigger
pull is not even manditory.
you want to live? learn EVERYTHING
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top