[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Best handgun trigger? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 8/18/2010 1:03:40 PM EDT
| I've only owned XDs, and I'm getting tired of the trigger - too much uptake, trigger safety is weird. I've never been accurate with them, and I'm wondering if the trigger is partially to blame. I don't like trigger safeties, so the Glock and M&P are out. I hear great things about 1911 triggers, but I don't want to deal with the reliability headaches. Other than those, which handgun has the best trigger? |
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Unfortunately a good 1911 will cost a lot more than your XD. The minimum I would purchase is a Springfield Loaded and if it doesn't run then take it to a QUALIFIED 1911 smith and have him do a reliability package on it.
The biggest issue with 1911's is the magazines. I like Chip McCormick mags and others will recommend Tripp or Wilson. |
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"Best" is highly subjective. I think the HK LEM triggers feel awesome. I think they have awesome functionality to them.
I don't like HK's standard SA/DA triggers on the USP series. I love the HK match trigger. Sigma triggers are terrible. Sigs have awesome double action triggers, but I don't like their SA. I don't know about FN FNP pistols. Don't know about CZ. Um... that's all I can really say. |
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Most revolvers shot in Single Action mode are ridiculously crisp. They should be considered separately from semi autos.
For semi-autos, S&W 3rd generation SA/DA guns in SA are great, as are Sig SA/DA guns in SA. The XD (and Glock, and all other striker fired guns for that matter), can't compete for crisp trigger pull with an SA/DA gun, though the XD is a good gun for many other reasons. Goto a gun store, and try out a 1911, S&W, SIG, Beretta, etc... with the hammer cocked and pull the trigger. |
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"Best" is highly subjective. I. Agreed, I have less then 500 rounds down range with my XD-9 and I can easily put 3-5 rounds into a 1.5" circle at 35 feet Both me and my brother(has a G22) like the XD's trigger. Neither of us can accurrately shoot his G22. |
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The cleanest breaking SA triggers I have felt on DA/SA production pistols have been on Beretta 92s.
The most shootable DA trigger strokes I have felt on DA/SA produciton pistols have been on Sig P series pistols. While 1911s can have excellent triggers, there are thoussands on our dealers' shelves right now that are full of creep and grit. 1911s don't generally have good triggers unless you paid for a higher end gun in order to get a good 1911 trigger. The two best production 1911 triggers I can recall pulling were both on Kimbers. One on a Custom I bought new in the mid 90s, and one on a Grand Raptor. I tried a Colt 1918 the other day that had a very good trigger as well. |
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The predictability of the Glock has it's merits, though. Can you explain this statement for me? The predictability? As in, if you pick one up, it has a trigger just like you would have prophesized? Or do you mean "predictability", as in it doesn't change it's mechanical internals and consequently also change the feel of the trigger like all the other guns out there... ? I just don't get it. 
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I agree the answer for the sweetest trigger I've experienced on a semi-auto is the 1911. A well worked-over High Power can be also. But OP, you say you don't want to deal with the maintenance headaches associated with it. You're going to have to compromise somewhere...either learn the 1911 inside-out, and deal with it's shortcomings, or dedicate yourself to getting good with some other type of pistol. With Glocks, you can easily modify the trigger pull and feel to your own liking. Alot of folks (not me) like them with a "-" Connector installed, which will yield a trigger pull of around 4.5 lbs. Lots of options out there, but there isn't any one pistol that has the BEST trigger, and is the LIGHTEST, and most MAINTENANCE FREE, and has the HIGHEST CAPACITY, etc. etc. There will always be trade-offs. Bottom line, choose a platform and train like hell. I mean thousands of dryfire repetitions. Dedicate yourself. |
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The answer is the 1911.
Reliability problems with the 1911 are like Glock ka'booms, real but extremely overstated. Most problems are magazine related, for some reason folks who willingly spend $30-40 for a new magazine for the latest wunderweapon expect a crappy $8 gun-show magazine to work just fine when it comes to a 1911. 
If you want some sort of double-stack 9mm instead of a single stack .45 the answer is a CZ-75SA |
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Quoted: The answer is the 1911. Reliability problems with the 1911 are like Glock ka'booms, real but extremely overstated. Most problems are magazine related, for some reason folks who willingly spend $30-40 for a new magazine for the latest wunderweapon expect a crappy $8 gun-show magazine to work just fine when it comes to a 1911. I've had a bunch of 1911's in the last 25 or 30 years and not a single one of them would feed any kind of hollow points reliability without tuning, and some of them, including a new in the box Series 70 Gold Cup, would not even feed ball ammo without work. All quality guns, mostly Colts, with new factory mags. So if a new, quality gun isn't reliable with with factory mags, what am I supposed to do, go out and buy aftermarket mags? This is why I only own one 1911, I got tired of playing the games, buy the gun, fire 500 rounds to break it in, send it out to be tweaked, get it back, buy special mags, shoot it some more, have it tuned to run one special hollowpoint, shoot it some more, then the ammo manufacturer changes the bullet profile and the gun isn't reliable anymore, send it back out to be tweaked again, shoot it some more, and by this time it's worn enough to need more tweaking. I'm glad you guys like them, you can have them. For me they're on the same scale as the Luger, collector guns and nothing more. Damn nice trigger pull though.  |
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Can you explain this statement for me? The predictability? As in, if you pick one up, it has a trigger just like you would have prophesized? Or do you mean "predictability", as in it doesn't change it's mechanical internals and consequently also change the feel of the trigger like all the other guns out there... ? I just don't get it. It steadily stacks until it gets tight and breaks. It's all very repeatable (unlike the da/sa difference), predictable, and something that can be quite easy to learn. That said, I think they feel like shit. Spongey, all creep, I dislike the stacking, etc. But..... the reset is good. I also have a stock XD and I'd take the Glock over the XD trigger any day. I still don't think the Glock trigger feel can touch a 1911 or a decent da/sa gun in sa from a purely trigger pull/feel point of view, but from a shooting point of view, they're pretty workable. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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The answer is a 1911. The reliability headaches don't exist on a well built specimen. the first reply was the correct answer. A well built 1911 is as reliable and anything. were it not, nobody would win IPSC with them. This. Only on this* forum have I heard of people who supposedly have had several 1911s and not *ONE* was a working example. Nowhere else have I heard that. |
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The answer is a 1911. The reliability headaches don't exist on a well built specimen. the first reply was the correct answer. A well built 1911 is as reliable and anything. were it not, nobody would win IPSC with them. Not to mention that they would not have lasted long as a military pistol. Or be used by so many as a carry gun. The 1911A1, as it came out of WW2, is a very serviceable pistol. Everything else has come from tinkering with it to glean every possible additional bit of performance out of the system. Sometimes, thosee tinkerers get things out of whack, but most out-of-box pistols should be perfectly reliable with factory SD ammo. |
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The predictability of the Glock has it's merits, though. Can you explain this statement for me? The predictability? As in, if you pick one up, it has a trigger just like you would have prophesized? Or do you mean "predictability", as in it doesn't change it's mechanical internals and consequently also change the feel of the trigger like all the other guns out there... ? I just don't get it. My customized Glock trigger has a light takeup, then a nice squeeze and a glass rod break. During rapid fire I don't let off of the trigger, so there is no take up just that glass rod. I'm running a Zevtech Fulcrum and Comp spring kit with a Lonewolf 3.5 connector. Zevtech Lite striker. I can work a well tuned Glock over better than my 1911's. The trigger still feels crunchy and cheap when I'm fingering it. But under pressure that all disappears. It is a really easy to shoot setup. Moving the trigger on a Glock feels more natural to me , under pressure, than the 1-2mm trigger pull on a 1911. The trick is to not go too light with the striker spring. Going too light will get rid of the nice squeeze before the trigger breaks. Instead it'll break too early and cause erratic acuracy at longer ranges. |
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For a trigger that can't be beat; a finely tuned 1911. Until some ignorant oaf drops the slide on an empty chamber and screws up your trigger job. Wow! That will seriously screw up the trigger? On a very light competition trigger yes, although it has nothing to do with the trigger itself but rather the sear engagement surface. |
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I'm just going by what I shoot personally here; My Beretta 92 in single action really does feel like a "glass rod snapping". Absolutely, positively no slack, takeup, or grit- nuthin but break. I think all I did was swap in a "D" spring, and ran over all the metal to metal contact areas of the trigger with some 2000 grit wet/dry paper followed up by some metal polish on a dremel-chucked q-tip. I also installed a heavier trigger return spring. Seems to make reset a bit snappier, which is good, because the reset is a tad longer than I like.
Even though it's smooth as butter, I still dislike the thing in double action though. Feels almost like a compound bow, if you know what I mean. It seems to start out heavy- relax a bit mid pull- heavy again, and finally break. It was like that even with stock mainspring, although less noticeable. My favorite by far is my 3rd gen S&W. Double action is almost crunchy feeling- but the pull weight is perfectly consistant all the way through, very much like their famous revolvers. I have no problem making my 1st shot count. Once you're into single action mode, you're golden. There's a tiny bit of mush to the single action break, but watch out for that trigger reset. It is incredibly short! The second I even think about pulling again, the darn thing resets itself with a nice, tactile click. You can hear *and* feel it. Rapid fire mag dumps are a piece of cake. The majority of my other handguns all have crappy triggers, so I won't mention them. 
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