Hello all, I have carefully stoned the surfaces on my trigger to achieve a smooth pull but it is still pretty heavy. Any suggestions as to swapping springs and where and what to buy. Thanks, Jim

Alg Trigger, Bcm Pnt trigger, or check out right to bear fire control group.
All these are available for under $65. The right to bear fire control group is under $40. Cheap insurance for a quality, mil-spec type trigger.
I currently use an Alg and BCM, and have a right to bear fire control group waiting on assembly.
I had a polished ar trigger that malfunctioned after about 500 rounds. Never again will I have one "polished". In my opinion ar triggers don't respond well to polishing.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/579878/jp-enterprises-trigger-spring-kit-ar-15-3-1-2-lb-reduced-power

These work well. If you have any light primer strike issues just use the stock hammer Spring. I put them in a friends rifle build and he said they work great. I only shot about 10 rounds while testing it but it was a noticeable improvement.

The idea of polishing a stock AR trigger falls into the same category as several other things AR builders like to disagree on like- proper way to hold the upper receiver/barrel when torquing barrel nut or muzzle device, whether you check head spacing or not, do I need to stake the castle nut on the receiver extension, etc... etc....


It depends on who you ask.


If the polishing is done correctly and by someone who is competent and careful, I don't see a problem with it. I have several rifles with self-polished stock triggers in them and I've never had a problem. I have documented how I do mine: http://acatholicmechanic.blogspot.com/2016/07/improve-your-triggerfor-next-to-nothing.html





My opinion on JP reduced springs- NO. They will take your trigger pull down to 4 to 4.5 lbs but at a cost- light primer strikes.  I have taken these out of all the rifles that had them and put stock springs back in. Too many issues with fails to fire because of light primer strikes- even with various domestic ammo.





In my experience- any hammer/trigger spring combo that yields under a 5 to 6 lb. trigger pull, you may or will have light primer strike issues. (when using a mil-spec FCG, polished or not)





I've seen stock AR trigger/hammer springs in the range of 6.5 lbs. (Palmetto State Armory) to 9 lbs. (DPMS), so it really depends on where you buy from. Wolff Gunsprings makes aftermarket springs.





This is just my experience. I be glad to hear the experiences of other who have done the same experimentation.



Edit: typos




 

Uhh......well I have polished several triggers and never had light primer strikes.
The polishing improves the "Break by making it smoother" and if I want it to have a softer "pull" I put a slight bend near the end of the trigger spring.
The Hammer spring remains stock and unmodified so the "Strike"  remains at factory tension and impact ratings.
That way I get good results overall for the modded trigger....YMMV

I was not implying that polishing your trigger will result in light primer strikes- I was referring to the selection of lighter springs.



 

Rather than mess w/the factory trigger, I went w/the Hiperfire EDT. Excellent 4.5 or 5.5lb trigger (your choice) for $89 w/o risking light primer strikes: https://www.hiperfire.com/product/hipertouchedt/
I now have them in all my AR's. Everyone who's tried it at the range or classes has loved it and wanted one (I've currently installed 9 of them for friends/family).
Tomac

I have had very good results with using the JP reduced power spring kit, along with polishing the trigger group parts. I also use the JoeBobs adjustable grip screw to shorten trigger takeup. I always cut the hammer down as well. I usually see a 3 to 3.5 pound pull with the combination. Not one light primer strike with this set-up.

Double post......

Agreed. I'm sure there are many successfully polished triggers. But for my money, and safety , I'll buy a better trigger.

I have extensively modified a standard trigger group. The rifle this trigger is in is ONLY fired from a bench at paper or varmints. I would not do this modification to a gun that is going to be used for any other purpose.

I used a VERY FINE stone to CAREFULLY polish the sear surfaces on the trigger and hammer, did not change any angles, just polished out tool marks.
Installed 3.5 pound reduced power springs.
Bobbed the tail on the hammer to speed the hammer up.
Used a set screw to take out the trigger over travel.
Re timed the disconnector. (Required because I also removed some metal from the top of the trigger where is contacts the safety to further reduce over travel.)

The result is a 4 pound trigger with almost no over travel or creep and faster lock time with the reduced weight hammer.

I have fired hundreds of rounds with no malfunctions, and no light primer strikes.

I really want a 3 pound single stage trigger, but there is no way to do it safely with the stock trigger. If I ever have problems with the trigger I will replace it with an aftermarket trigger.

Gary

I think a light touch polish is usually fine

I had one that was just a bit more than just "lighlty polished" start doubling just recently

Please provide the specific example/ case where a person has served or been incarcerated for polish in a trigger and it went beyond single semi auto.

Given BATF’s current interpretation if your semi-auto doubles you are in possession of an unregistered full-auto.
If this is witnessed by a LEO of any flavor you can be bagged and tagged.
Even if the charges are dropped a person will likely have spent many times the cost of a good aftermarket FCG.

I don't disagree with any of this but would like to see specific example of case law. I can't find anywhere it exist. I have a friend who is BATF Area Agent in Charge and he has no record of such. It is very easy to tell technically where intent existed to modify FCG to multi-round fire rate vs that of performance enhanced.

I polished the surfaces on the trigger and hammer on my old Colt A2 rifle with my Dremel tool.  I used the little round wool pads with some polishing compound.  Doesn't remove any material just polishes the metal surface..  I also purchased a reduced power trigger spring and disconnector spring.from Wolff springs. I left the stock hammer spring for reliabilty and the  trigger pull is much smoother, less gritty, and feels like its is pulling a pound or so less, but I never measured the difference though. Wolff spring set is $6.99 + shipping directly from Wolff.  I think it was well worth the cost and effort to polish the stock trigger.  I've shot this rifle probably 100 rounds since and had no mis-fires or problems.

Even a felt wheel with jeweler's rouge will remove some material.  The question is how much.  And of course, NOBODY has sufficiently calibrated eyeballs to visually monitor this sort of task and be certain "I didn't change any angles."

There are fairly easy to find jigs that will maintain angles and ensure you don't change anything other than the finish of the surfaces you're working on, like this one at Brownells for less than $180.  Yes, you need to spend about that much for a precision jig to manage this sort of work.

OR....  You could get some rouge paste, apply it to the sear surfaces of an installed FCG, and dry fire it. A lot.  You can do this and pretty quickly make a big difference in the feel of the trigger.

OR... You could spend $65 and buy an ALG ACT, or $45 and buy an ALG QMS, both of which start out really, really smooth.

IIRC, this guy put an M16 FCG in his rifle, but it didn't have the auto sear so it slam fired. Then he let someone borrow the thing, which is a really stupid thing to do.

You can reduce trigger pull weight in about 5 minutes and not spend a dime.  Bend one leg of the hammer spring upwards to about a 45 degree angle, at a point about 1/4" from the coil as shown in the pic.  The greater the angle, the lighter the pull but don't go past 60 degrees or the leg may slip off the trigger pin.  I've seen where people clip the leg completely off at that point but I feel bending the leg accomplishes the same task of reducing pull weight while retaining some spring tension, which helps to get the hammer moving while the straight leg maintains the momentum up to the firing pin.  I have never had a light primer strike and pull weight is reduced significantly.