Triggers

[Winelover]

Never met a really bad trigger. Only ones that are too light. Three to four pounds, on a rifle, is perfect. I fall in the hunter category. Hate set triggers. First thing I did with my TC Renegade was convert it to a single trigger. Set triggers don't work for cold climate hunting. Not enough room for even light weight gloves. When you hands are cold and numb, a light trigger is asking for trouble.

I have one aftermarket trigger ( HB Industries) on a CZ Scorpion 9mm carbine. Purchased it to see if groups would shrink........not that a big difference.

Never stoned or cleaned up a factory trigger. Most of my rifles are Model 70 Classics' (early 90's). All I did was adjust the little nut on the threaded rod to lighten pull. My AR-10 Armalite carbine has a single stage stock trigger. It will shoot ten shots in one hole with 150-168 grain jacketed with AA-2520 powder using just a tripod rest.

Aside from a few SA's, most of my handguns are DA or DAO. I prefer DA, even for hunting at treestand distances...............where manually cocking a SA can spook game. My very first handgun was a Python. My first and last Colt. However, it never did spoil me from the various other manufactures' products. Other DA revolvers include Rugers, S&W and CA. No problem switching back and forth. Only complaints are that the S&W J-frames have very heavy triggers. They won't register on my RCBS Trigger gauge that tops off at 8 pounds. I own three J-frames (two 642's) and only the Performance Center (Talo) one has a decent trigger...............still not as good as my 357 LCR, out of the box one.

Doesn't take much to make me happy.

 

[david s]

I have a pair of two stage triggers on a couple of AR's. The pre–Remington Bushmaster Stainless Varminter trigger is a bit difficult for me. There really isn't a positive stop between the two stages. A Stag Arms heavy varmint rifle has a surprisingly good two stage trigger. I swapped the trigger on my 7mm Mauser for a Timney trigger, so I guess I'm not really a fan. I don't care for set triggers. My CZ 527 rifles come set up as set triggers. They invariably get a spring swap (.4 tenths of an inch cut from a Bic lighter flint spring) and adjusted to a single stage trigger. They then get adjusted up in poundage to two pounds. My hunting rifles and cold weather varmint rifles are four-pound triggers. My fingers just don't work as well when there cold so more resistance is needed. An old S&W model 57 that I use to shoot Silhouettes with needed the factory trigger adjusted up as it wouldn't hold the 2-pound minimum trigger weights at various matches.

 

[RBHarter]

I have THE grand master of looooong gravely triggers , an OM Model 14 Rem .
I tracked the rub down and polished that point down to a point where 75% of the tool marked were gone . It still bumps about 5 times before it breaks and it feels like it's about 5 miles long , total travel is more half of the first stage take up of a OM 98 Mauser . The second runner up is probably the SKS ...... I'm not sure why they went with the reverse bull pup trigger but you could cut an 1/8-3/16" off the top of the sear and still have a 1/4" of engagement . At least that one was smooth .

 

[Missionary]

When dealing with troops who are scared to near death and have just picked up the rifle from the dead hands of the man in front, you do not desire that the new shooter accidentally fires a round in the wrong direction wasting ammo that is viewed as more valuable than the shooter.

 

[Ian]

Ha! The single-stage, extra-long, feel the sear angle load up like a DA revolver, count the slip-stops and hold on the last one until the sight picture is perfect triggers definitely stink.

I dislike set triggers, either double or single. Like Brad said, a good two-stage is the best of both worlds and in my opinion the best compromise for all worlds.

Thinking about it now, I have NO IDEA what the triggers feel like on any of my shotguns, in fact I can't recall ever considering it before. I'm not a big shotgunner and am absolutely no good at it (shot a 72 last time at sporting clays with my 20" cylinder bore front door gun, and that was near personal best), but whether wingshooting with a pump or auto or gaming with O/U's or SxS's I can't recall feeling the trigger and certainly never missed a shot because the gun failed to fire exactly when my brain wanted it to. By the way, I am NOT now about to go dry fire a dozen-odd shotguns and spoil my ignorant bliss.

 

[fiver]

when you get one with a too light trigger pull you'll know it.

 

[oscarflytyer]

when you get one with a too light trigger pull you'll know it.

Have CZ set that is close - def need some dedicated trigger time to get comfortable with it. But as a varmint gun, think I will like it. THe std unset is perfect for all around.

The only trigger that I have run into that is DEF DEF too light - in SA - is a buddy's Mdl 625. His carry gun. He set it up specifically to carry and shoot DA. I tend to always shoot SA on the range, especially testing out a new gun. He let me shoot it, but forgot to tell me DA. That damned SA trigger broke at how light I don't know, but it surprised even light trigger me!

 

[Petrol & Powder]

Single Stage, Two Stage, Double Set Triggers?
Handgun, Rifle, Shotgun?
Target Shooting, Hunting, Self-defense, Plinking, Pest control, a little bit of everything?
Cold weather (gloves), Hot weather, Maybe both?
Single action, Double Action, A little of both (Glock), Double Action Only (DAO)?


A lot of paths and maybe a few rabbit holes to go down.

 

[Winelover]

I'm in the same boat.

 

[L Ross]

Meh, shotguns. The single most detrimental activity for my off hand rifle shooting is a few days of duck hunting with a fair number of rounds fired. I am inordinately lucky at shooting ducks but it is a swing and yank proposition that is an anathema to deliberate rifle shooting.

 

[Winelover]

IICC, I put a spring kit in my Remington 1100, specifically for use with the slug barrel.

 

[Snakeoil]

I noticed something the other day. I tend to like very light triggers and am fortunate enough to have rifles that meet that criterion. I have an original Low Wall in .22 and was shooting it offhand the other day because my offhand shooting has shown my lack of attention to it lately. What I noticed is that I seem to prefer a slightly heavier trigger for offhand shooting as it forces you to take up on it slowly. An ultra-light trigger tends to tempt me to grab the trigger. I've gotten lucky and had a grab result in an X ring. But you are really fighting the odds if you try to pull the trigger when it is where you want it.

 

[RBHarter]

You just have to master the swing squeeze bang . If you consciously remember to squeeze instead of slap the back and forth isn't bad .

I'll dismiss myself from any DA discussion as that's not a place that I have any sort of shiny place any brighter than a antiglare panel in the dark .

I would guess that every trigger I have on hand breaks at 4-6# and those I shoot the most , about 4.5-5# .
I don't know what the BPS breaks at but it and a couple of M12s with the samish 10-12,000 round life count have almost certainly removed any burrs or rough places . I had the triggers out of the Boito O/U when it broke the upper F pin and shined them a little but it was shot a bunch before I got it too . A $350 O/U ain't a Citori or a Superpose either so it is what it is which is a fall in mud , wash it out in the creek , spray whatever is under the seat in it back at the truck , worry about it when you get home next week , gun .

 

[Snakeoil]

You just have to master the swing squeeze bang . If you consciously remember to squeeze instead of slap the back and forth isn't bad .

I'll dismiss myself from any DA discussion as that's not a place that I have any sort of shiny place any brighter than a antiglare panel in the dark .

I would guess that every trigger I have on hand breaks at 4-6# and those I shoot the most , about 4.5-5# .
I don't know what the BPS breaks at but it and a couple of M12s with the samish 10-12,000 round life count have almost certainly removed any burrs or rough places . I had the triggers out of the Boito O/U when it broke the upper F pin and shined them a little but it was shot a bunch before I got it too . A $350 O/U ain't a Citori or a Superpose either so it is what it is which is a fall in mud , wash it out in the creek , spray whatever is under the seat in it back at the truck , worry about it when you get home next week , gun .

Shotguns are another animal entirely. I shot a lot of trap, 99% out of 3 guns, my first trap gun, an Iver Johnson Trap gun with an external hammer, (bought it for $45.00 and sold it several thousand rounds later for $45.00), a Mod 12 that I still have and a 682X Beretta top single that I still have. All of those guns had a crisp 5 lb trigger. Pulling the trigger on a shotgun is a very deliberate act and not a squeeze and wait situation. And to tell the truth, after all those years of shooting shotguns competitively and in practice made shooting a pistol and a rifle a bigger challenge than one might expect. Watching the front sight instead of the target was big challenge number 2.

Last winter, a guy at the club brought up his Rolling Block pistol. It was an oddball that was made for the Navy at a time when boarding vessels was still part of the battle plan. Only a few were made. I don't remember the caliber, but it was a big fat sucker, but short. So, he loaded a bunch of rounds for everyone to shoot as the chances you'll even see another one is slim to none. Once of our members is retired Secret Service and one heluva offhand rifle shooter. He was taking aim and I watched the pistol start to quiver. The quiver turned into a full blown earthquake and he lowered the gun and checked to make sure he'd cocked it. The owner says, "Yeah, the trigger is a little stiff.". He brought it back up and the earthquake resumed until it went bang. When it was my turn, I figured I was in better shape because I knew the trigger was stiff. Nope. I too looked like I was being electrocuted as I waited for the shot to break. I too put it down and rechecked that it was cocked. I finally broke the shot, but I had two hands on the gun by now. I'll bet that the trigger pull was somewhere in the 20 to 30 pound range. We all had a good laugh over it. I don't think anyone hit what they were shooting at.

 

[RicinYakima]

It was a .50 Pistol and made to be fired once then used as a club with cutless in other hand.

 

[RBHarter]

Maybe it's just me .......

Out west deer , elk , Chucker , blue/roughed grouse and ducks opened the same weekend . One area I hunted with a friend I actually shot my deer Friday a limit of ducks in a beaver pond Saturday afternoon , a blue , 2 Sagehen on Sunday morning and a snowshoe hare that afternoon . His elk hunt was a wash even with me bird dogging the quakeies across the burn areas that covered most of his hunt area . Several times I know I pushed them out of beds but not far enough to get them out of trees .

I shotgunned , shot a lot of rifle , and single action for many years out west .

 

[david s]

I don't care for the CZ set trigger on my ground rodent rifles. Having to constantly push the trigger forward gets to be a nuisance after a while. On something like a ground hog rifle then maybe, but not in a target rich environment. The fact the CZ 527's trigger become perfectly usable single stage triggers just by twisting a few screws makes this a non-issue, to each there own.

 

[Rockydoc]

When dealing with troops who are scared to near death and have just picked up the rifle from the dead hands of the man in front, you do not desire that the new shooter accidentally fires a round in the wrong direction wasting ammo that is viewed as more valuable than the shooter.

Does that thought come from the movie "Enemy at the Gates". Jude Law playing Vasili Zeitsev and Ed Harris as Erwin König.

 

[Bret4207]

Last winter, a guy at the club brought up his Rolling Block pistol. It was an oddball that was made for the Navy at a time when boarding vessels was still part of the battle plan. Only a few were made. I don't remember the caliber, but it was a big fat sucker, but short. So, he loaded a bunch of rounds for everyone to shoot as the chances you'll even see another one is slim to none. Once of our members is retired Secret Service and one heluva offhand rifle shooter. He was taking aim and I watched the pistol start to quiver. The quiver turned into a full blown earthquake and he lowered the gun and checked to make sure he'd cocked it. The owner says, "Yeah, the trigger is a little stiff.". He brought it back up and the earthquake resumed until it went bang. When it was my turn, I figured I was in better shape because I knew the trigger was stiff. Nope. I too looked like I was being electrocuted as I waited for the shot to break. I too put it down and rechecked that it was cocked. I finally broke the shot, but I had two hands on the gun by now. I'll bet that the trigger pull was somewhere in the 20 to 30 pound range. We all had a good laugh over it. I don't think anyone hit what they were shooting at.

I have a Rolling Block in 43 Spanish or Egyptian, not sure which. The trigger pull is a good 15-20 lbs I'd guess. I can't imagine shooting groups with it, just point in the direction of the other sides cannon fodder and yank it...

 

[fiver]

i bet the adrenaline rush got that trigger pull down to about 2lbs. or so... LOL