One of the most common complaints that we hear from the M&P is the trigger. Weather the complaint is that the trigger had no reset or that there is too much pre travel and over travel there is an obvious common complaint from the factory trigger. Apex Tactical Specialties has been a leader in improving the M&P trigger. Their Forward Set Sear and Trigger kits have been able to resemble the beloved 1911 trigger feel. But they didn’t stop there. Scott and Randy from Apex have announced their new flat face trigger for the M&P to further more allow the end user to replicate a 1911 trigger feel. I was fortunate enough to receive a prototype for testing. After shooting three local pistol matches and logging a few hours at local ranges for practice and accuracy testing, this is what I found.

The Apex flat faced trigger was designed to give the user a similar feel to the 1911 trigger while maintaining the trigger safety as found in the other Apex Enhancement triggers and trigger kits. As similar to the other Enhancement triggers, the amount of pre travel and over travel by about 20% and in conjunction with the Apex Forward Set sear kit, the achieved result is a smooth single action like trigger. Now where the Enhanced trigger stops in replicating the 1911 trigger, the flat face trigger continues to excel. While keeping the improvements to the pre travel and over travel, the flat face trigger now gives you the feeling of the commonly sought after 1911 flat trigger. The trigger feels like you are pressing the trigger directly to the rear of the trigger frame.

As another result due to the design of the trigger, the mechanical advantage allows the user to achieve a lighter trigger pull without changing any springs. In my specific case, I had the Apex Competition Spring Kit installed in conjunction with the Aluminum Forward Set Sear and Trigger Kit. The end result with this was a consistent 2.8lbs trigger pull. Once the flat face trigger was installed, the trigger pull came down to 1.4lbs.

The trigger came to me installed by Apex with the competition spring kit and Forward Set Sear kit. I immediately noticed how the flat faced trigger produced a very similar amount of pre travel and over travel to the 1911’s that I have felt. Even though the trigger breaks at 1.4lbs, I can still feel a small amount of take up in the trigger before hitting a wall right before the sear drops. Although it took a little practice to get used to, I was able to learn how to prep the trigger before breaking my shots on small steel plates during matches.

During each match and visit to the range, I kept having competitors and recreational shooters dry fire and live fire the gun to see their impressions of it. Regardless if they were a new shooter to the range or a regular USPSA shooter, the reaction was the same. After pulling the trigger, everyone would have a grin on their face and simply say “wow”. People truly thought that it replicated the feel of the 1911 trigger and were impressed in how clean the trigger felt.

In conclusion, Apex hit another home run with their product. The end result is exactly what I was personally wanting in a trigger to make the gun more comfortable and easy to shoot in competition while still maintaining every safety feature found on the other Apex triggers. I truly felt privileged to be able to test a prototype and hope that product overview can help you decide if the Apex flat faced trigger is right for you.

Drop one of those into one of the new 5" ported CORE pistols and you'd have a beast of a pistol. Makes it easier for people to play in open division without have to shell out 4-5k for a nice open 2011, and without a safety to fiddle with and give you a DQ.

Dang, where was this 5 months ago .Good thing one can buy just the trigger if you already have the FSS+trigger upgrade.