Oh man, what a day it was.  The mail man showed up with a package for me from ADCO.  The Geissele SSA-E that I ordered Wednesday afternoon showed up today.  Of course, I took the three minutes that it took to install it and off to the range I went.  I took my 16" SS410 build that has a Nightforce 2.5-10X32 on top of it.  Today's trip had a couple of purposes.  The first was to see how my rifle shot with no flash hider and the second was to test the trigger.

As far as the trigger goes, it is better than the SSA, without qualification.  Is it the best trigger for a bench gun?  NO!  Although lighter, it's still heavy by bench standards.  It isn't as light as the last DMR that I shot.  Is it the best trigger for a field rifle?  ABSOLUTELY.  The first stage is still kind of heavy.  Heavy enough to let you know that you are squeezing the trigger.  Is the second stage heavy?  Maybe a bit (for target shooting), but it didn't matter.  As soon as I started to squeeze, boom.  Maybe not a break like glass, but VERY clean.  I mean, really clean.  I perceived no creep at all.  Squeeze, boom.  Simple as that.

Maybe some of you saw the SS410 build post that I put up a while back.  I was shooting the SSA with the 3.5lb JP spring kit and I was doing OK.  I was getting pretty consistent.  Shooting good groups maybe half the time.  Just to see if I could see a trend, I took pics of and measured every group that I shot today.

This is the first set of groups.  The group on the bottom right is the only one that I shot today with the Vortex on the rifle.  As soon as I put it on, the rifle exhibited that verticle stringing that it's been doing and I had been thinking all along that it was me.  Maybe it wasn't.  After shooting that group, I took the Vortex off of the rifle.


All of the other groups are marked for number of shots and group size.  Take note of the 20 round groups.  About a month ago, I was able to shoot a 20 round group that measured 1.2".  Today, I was able to do it (or close to it) a few times.







I think I'm starting to show a level of consistency that I just couldn't get with the SSA.  The SSA-E made a world of difference for me.

Oh, and get this.  I walked into the office at the range to sign in and, get this, they had a Spike's lower in the case.  I tried to leave without it, but, here's my rifle now with the Spike's lower, sans flash hider.


Not only did the SSA-E increase my consistency, but my rate of fire went up too.

I also have to give another plug for the SS410 barrel.  I spent 2.5 hours at the range to day and fired all of the rounds shown above.  The barrel's temp never got below HOT and it stayed consistent.  As for the differences in point of impact, I was fiddling with the scope between groups getting it right on, instead of having it hit an inch high.

And you were right.  If I were to build a dedicated bench rifle, I might try some flavor of Highspeed trigger, but for the purpose for which I built this rifle, the SSA-E is perfect.

Thanks for the good write up .. that's interesting about the vortex .. will try it again on a different type build or ditch it all together?

The funny thing is that I got better groups with the Vortex than I got with the A2.  It was better, but not better than not having one at all.  On my rifle anyway.

That's why I think I'll keep my varminter setup FH-less.

Great shooting, glad to see that the SS410 barrel is working out for you.

Thats some nice grouping and a sweet rifle.

Nice shooting.   What ammo were you using?

Did you use the springs that came with the SSA-E?

I used the SSA-E as it was out of the package.  Sweet trigger.

The ammo I'm running is a handload.

Load data follows.  I make no guarantee of its safety and you should work up to it, if you choose to try it.
OK, I'm running Sierra Match King 77gr projectiles over 24 grains of Reloader 15 using a Remington benchrest primer.  The cases were a mix of Black Hills, Winchester and Lake City mixed.  I load them to mag length and put a very mild crimp on them with a Lee FCD.

Interesting write up.  Been looking at this trigger for a while, and now you've made me want to build another SPR to make good use of it.

I myself have noticed that the best groups I've gotten out of any AR based gun have been with either a bull barrel with no brake/flash hider or from an HBAR with no brake/flash hider.  I remember cutting down a 20" barrel into a 16.25 to do a dissipator build and it wound up being more accurate afterwards than it was before at 20".  I did recrown it though. . . wasn't just a straight cut.

That's interesting about the fh.  I wish there was a comprehensive test on all the different fh, comps and brakes, but it sounds very cost prohibitive if done by one person.

I wonder how this will compare to the Wilson TTU.

Thanks for the field report. Gonna try one of these out soon. Nice shooting, BTW.

As an owner of the TTU....

Lets just say if Gieselle made a single stage trigger, I wouldn't own a TTU.

So I've heard

What?

Edit: Oooh...

Single stage SSA, same price point as the 2 stage?????

Thanks for the info, I'll take one when they come out.

Oh great.  Are you telling me that there's something else I'm going to have to buy?

Cold- on the geiselles - how is the trigger shoe/ lenth of pull?? I use a DMR with a MAID on my  3-gun setup and one of the things I really like is the lenth. I have large hands and stock triggers, in fact many single stages I end up engaging past my last nuckle- which is bad technique  The DMR- MAID with fat backstrap is best combo so far. If the new single stage is that good and retained the lenth, I'd be very interested.

where is this match being held??? I live in vegas and would like to come and watch...thx

I just used my SSA-E today for the first time. I replaced the SSA I had in a precision setup 6.8 SPC for deer/hog hunting with the SSA-E.  Definately worth the swap as the SSA-E breaks cleaner and is a bit lighter on the 2nd stage.  Took all of 30 seconds to install.  I do agree with the original post in how it isn't as nice as a finely tuned adjustable Geissele trigger, such as my DMR in another rig...but it is almost there!

Guys, I forgot to mention something that some of you may be able to take advantage of.  At some time in the past, I had a Bushmaster two stage trigger.  With that kit came a safety that had a provision (set screw) that serves as an overtravel stop.  It serves to give the trigger a much cleaner feel.

I know that I've posted that I wanted to stay away from adjustments, but as it turns out, on my rig.  The set screw is bottomed out when set correctly, so even if the loctite does give, it can't tighten to a point where the rifle can't go off.  It might loosen increasing the overtravel, but won't render the rifle inoperable.  Before you try this, be sure that you are familiar with the procedure to adjust an over travel stop.  Doing it incorrectly can ruin the mating surfaces of the trigger and hammer.

Where did you get the SSA-E from?

ADCO has them.

Sweet! Just sold my SSA and got a SSA-E! Can not wait to get it! COME ON ADCO SHIP IT TODAY!!!!

ADCO shipped mine on the same day.  I had mine in two or three days.

Thanks for the review.

I actually saw your previous post about the trigger and was waiting for the review.  Now I'm almost convinced to use this trigger for my Noveske SPR build.

Bud, all I can say is that I've tried at least a few other two stage triggers.  RRA, Bushmaster, LMT, etc.  In terms of the total package, the SSA-E is it, hands down.  For me anyway.  Just don't be looking for a "match" trigger.  It's probably a step below that.  The DMRs that I've shot are noticeably better in the break department.  If you are looking for the ultimate, then one of the High Speed rigs is the way to go.  If you want the best that you can get without having to sacrifice dependability (in terms of risking adjustment screws coming loose), the SSA-E is about as good as it get, from what I've seen.

If I were to criticize the SSA-E, I'd say that the break is clean, but not quite like glass, although close.  The overtravel bugged me, so I did something about that, although I don't know that it affected my shooting in any way.  I'll see if there's any improvement this weekend.  I also didn't like the grease that comes with the SSA-E.  It looked like vaseline and when the rifle got dirty, it caused the first stage to get a little gritty.  I removed the grease and went with Slip 2000 EWL.  No more grittiness.

What I like about the SSA-E is that it's idiot proof.  You drop it in and it does its thing.  No need to worry about re-adjusting anything if you go from one rifle to another.