Trigger pull

G

Green Lantern

New member
I understand that trigger pull is a part of accuracy.

What is a good trigger pull?

Noticed the Ruger SR9 is 6.5 lbs striker fired. It's listed as double action only. Interesting how odd triggers can be called by different names.
 
What is a good trigger pull?
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A good trigger has a crisp and clean break every time
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Add minimum take-up, short travel, short reset, not over 4 lbs. and very consistent to that and you have an excellent trigger.

That is a tall order .......... You'll be hard pressed to find that outside the 1911 family .....
 
Being just a one year old gun guy, I have not pulled to many triggers. I do like the Ruger 22/45 MarkII trigger. Best I've found so far.
 
I do like the Ruger 22/45 MarkII trigger. Best I've found so far.
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I'ts got to be better than my MkIII .... I am told that the magazine disconnect thingy is at fault and fixable ....
 
What does crisp and clean mean?????
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It means you feel even, steady resistance and then snap, you don't. Some have likened it to the breaking of a thin glass rod, like the ones us old guys used last century in HS chemistry class ....
 
What does crisp and clean mean?????
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It means that the trigger pull does not "drag", feel "mushy", or "gritty", that it is the same weight and feel throughout the full length of the pull.

The most often used term for the desired best release is "like a glass rod, breaking", which means there is no change to the feel, of the pull until the weapon fires.

The actual weight of the trigger pull is the least important part. A gun with an 8lb pull but a clean and crisp "glass rod break" can be fired more accurately than one with a 4lb pull where the trigger feels like its being dragged through the dirt.

Add minimum take-up, short travel, short reset, not over 4 lbs. and very consistent to that and you have an excellent trigger.
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This is an opinion, and quite valid, but not universally held by all.

That is a tall order .......... You'll be hard pressed to find that outside the 1911 family .....
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This is another opinion, however this one isn't as valid. I have dozens of revolvers, single shots, and even some non-1911 family semi autos that meet those trigger pull requirements. It's not JUST 1911s that have good/great triggers.

(and this IS the General Handgun forum, so all types apply) ;)
 
Oftentimes I wonder if the popularity of the cheap plastic wundernines is not based on the fact that the largest part of the buyers of these things don't know any different ..... this thread is confirming that theory....
 
Basically trigger pulls generally involve a mechanism that must slide a sear off some hammer/striker surface to fire.

Therefore, there are 4 parts of the pull: takeup, pull, overtravel and reset. In theory, you want 0 takeup, 0 pull length, 0 overtravel and 0 reset at a light weight of pull. On the practical side of things, usually 0 isn't best.

In a combat handgun, I like some ~1mm or 1-2 lb takeup, a 4-6 lb pull with no creep feeling and just a smidge of overtravel with a short tactile reset.

Or.....the shooter can adapt to he gun. This is generally the better way....most shooters can adapt to mat popular guns with some training. The benefit is you get full safety and economy of a stock trigger.
 
A gun with an 8lb pull but a clean and crisp "glass rod break" can be fired more accurately than one with a 4lb pull where the trigger feels like its being dragged through the dirt.
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Not by me .... 8 pounds is a bit much force to apply with one's index finger and still keep the rest of the hand from moving at all, especially if one must pull that 8 lbs through an arc of 1/2 and inch or more ...... and for all the praise that tuned S&W revolvers get as being "buttery smooth and cracker crisp", some of them have DA pulls well above 10 pounds ..... but anything can be compensated for with enough training .... I just thinks it's a fool's errand when there are easier learning curves out there.... That is definitely my opinion.

I have dozens of revolvers, single shots, and even some non-1911 family semi autos that meet those trigger pull requirements. It's not JUST 1911s that have good/great triggers.
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Excepting the single shots, the word "consistent" in my criteria DQ's most of the rest .... I did not say it was impossible to find a good trigger outside of the 1911 family .... just not easy.
 
You guys talk of the "1911 family". Which one?

A lot of companies make a 1911. Are they all the same trigger?

Edit : Went to look on a buying site and 23 companies make the 1911.
 
A lot of companies make a 1911. Are they all the same trigger?
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They are all roughly the same design ..... John Moses Browning was a Genius.

Different companies execute the design with varying degrees of success ..... but I have a Charles Daly 1911 (made in the Phillipines by what I believe is now called ARMSCOR) that I paid less than $400 ..... no it's not as good as my Springfield EMP, but by my criteria poste above, it still beats any plastic gun's trigger ....
 
jimbob86 said:
Not by me .... 8 pounds is a bit much force to apply with one's index finger and still keep the rest of the hand from moving at all, especially if one must pull that 8 lbs through an arc of 1/2 and inch or more ...... and for all the praise that tuned S&W revolvers get as being "buttery smooth and cracker crisp", some of them have DA pulls well above 10 pounds .....

Excepting the single shots, the word "consistent" in my criteria DQ's most of the rest .... I did not say it was impossible to find a good trigger outside of the 1911 family .... just not easy.
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Almost every new revolver has a double action trigger pull over 10 lbs. My new S&W 929 Jerry Miculek had an 11 lbs pull out of the box and its supposed to be a custom tuned performance center model. The single action pull was right around 4 pounds. A 4 lbs single action trigger pull is an easy target for any quality revolver with a little work. Replacing the trigger return spring lowered each of these numbers considerably.

There are tons of other guns 4 lbs trigger pulls or less. Just looked in my safe and I have 2 Colts woodsman's, a Hi Standard Sportking, Star model B, a CZ 75B that all have under a 4 lbs trigger pull. This is over half the semi-autos that I own that aren't 1911's. Most of my 1911's don't have a 4 lbs trigger pull. Colt Delta Elite-5 lbs, Colt GCNM-4.5 lbs with a 17 lbs mainspring, Kimber TLE-4.5 lbs. I have a couple of 1911's with under 4 lbs triggers but they have all had work done to get them that low. 1911's are nice but there are plenty of other guns out there that have triggers as good or better.

If an 10 lbs double action trigger pull on a revolver is too much, than you need to spend some time dry firing the gun.
 
2 Colts woodsman's, a Hi Standard Sportking, Star model B, a CZ 75B
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All SA, with the exception of the CZ75b (which can be carried C&L so it gets a pass ....) so they have consistent trigger pull on every shot .... the Browning Hi-Power can be great, as well ..... but as I said above, they are not not an easy thing to find, unless you go with a the ubiquitous 1911: the Star has been out of production for a quarter century, and the remaining two centerfire guns don't exactly constitute "plenty of options" .... granted, there are many .22 cal SA target guns with very nice light triggers out there ..... but to me those are not serious handguns.
 
I was just looking at what's in my safe...

My point is that plenty of guns have as good of or better triggers than a 1911. Most striker fired guns don't have trigger pulls in the 4 lbs range but than again most factory 1911's don't either.
 
Ok, What is too heavy a trigger for a single action?

The original post mentions the Ruger at 6.5 lbs. Hickok45 thinks it has great trigger.
 
Anything over 6.5 for SA in my book would be heavy. Between 6 and 7 is probably the point where you go from the moderate range to the heavy range. At least for me. But as mentioned before it depends on "the feel" of the trigger. Another consideration is how well the gun fits in you hand. Too big a gun and you're having to stretch the finger out unnaturally. Too small and you're having to contort you finger/hand to get proper contact with the pad of your finger.

Another consideration is how much experience you have shooting in general. For someone who shoots regularly a 6.5 pound trigger is still easy to get good shots off. For a new shooter it might be too much. Every person is different. Every gun is different.
 
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