I recently picked up one of the POF-5s and wanted to change up the trigger housing. I'm slowly getting acquainted with what's out there but just wanted to know if there's an idiot's guide to trigger housings somewhere or if anybody can help out with these basic questions.

I understand with the POF-5 I will need a push pin housing, not a clipped and pinned housing.

1) If I switch to a plastic housing, I also need a long axis safety/selector? Will any "SEF" selector work or does it have to be a two position selector (if there is such a thing)?
2) Are there different trigger packs for ambi housings or are they all the same?


On a different note, I noticed that my 3 lug won't fit over the thread protector that POF includes with the gun. Does anyone make smooth thread protectors that will allow a 3 lug adapter to slide over it?

Thanks!

The clip and pin deal is strictly cosmetic to give the appearance of a push pin lower. I personnaly dont give a shit if it looks pinned or not.

Plastic lowers use long axis safties; metal lowers use short axis safties. This is due to the different thicknesses of the trigger housing walls. Plastic is weaker than metal so it must be thicker.

To my knowledge, any safety will work. You will be able to move it to the burst or full auto position but without the auto sear, you will only have semi auto or single shot and have to cycle the action.

A trigger pack is a trigger pack in regards to ambi safetys. Unless the lower has some raised areas on the right side that prevent lever travel. (Some plastic ones maybe? Metal ones are flat on both sides).

If any of this is wrong, please correct me. I am going strictly off memory of my guns and in my experience of swapping lowers around.

I haven't seen a POF-5 in person, but my understanding is that it uses a true push-pin front housing, and also has a small block protruding in the middle to prevent a select-fire pack from fitting. So you should simply need a pushpin housing that's been modified to clear this block. The internal fire control pack will have to be semi-auto only, obviously. I don't know of any reason why you couldn't reuse your existing pack in a metal or plastic SEF housing. If you want a burst or ambi housing, you'd need a new fire control frame / trigger box (the steel housing which contains the pack's guts). It would need to be standardized to however your current trigger box is setup.



There are three main types of selectors to correspond to 3 types of factory housings:

1. metal with separate pistol grip (style of POF-5 and original HK94). These use a short-axle SEF steel selector.

2. plastic right-hand contoured SEF. These use a long-axle SEF steel selector. The packs between these first two are the same; only the housings are different.

3. ambi/burst, plastic with smooth contour, usually marked with the cool-looking pictograms. These always have selector switches on each side. There are some specific differences between navy (auto) and burst packs, and many total variations, but in general the trigger boxes are the same for this type only. The packs and selector levers (2-sided) in these are specific to this type.



Like 19Charlie_84, if you meet all of BATFE's other semi-auto requirements correctly, then it doesn't matter if your selector can switch to burst/auto positions, as it will only fire semi-auto in all except safe.



So first decide which style housing you want, and be advised if it's in category 3, you will need a new (and modified) trigger box to get there. You should have to modify a new stripped housing to clear your receiver block regardless of which type you want.

Thank you both for the information!

You've cleared up a lot of the questions I had.

I recently aquired a POF-5 and I swapped the steel factory lower for a polymer SEF lower.  The only modification that was necessary was to trim the metal shelf on the rear of the housing (because the one I bought was for a 91), open the front metal slightly to accommodate a tab on the magwell to enable it to swing down, and I purchased a long axis selector lever for a plastic lower.  I will be picking up my 5k today or tomorrow and for that I purchased a pictogram lower already profiled for MP5 so I do not anticipate many adjustments will be necessary to that one. You can use your POF trigger pack in the new plastic lower but it may be tight.