Cheap trigger mod

[CajunMouseSniper]

Love shooting my 15-22, about the only complaint I have is with the stock trigger. Replaced the springs with the JP yellows and that helped lighten the pull but still had a lot of creep. Did not want to pay a couple hundred dollars for a drop-in, so I've been researching alternatves. On some of the AR forums the guys have used a set screw under the trgger to reduce travel. Decided to try it in 15-22 and am very pleased with the results.

I removed grip and the fire control group and tapped out the grip screw hole with a 1/4 x 28 tap. The stock screw holding the grip in place is 1 x 1/4 x 28. I replaced this with 2 shorter screws. On top I put a 1/4 x 1/4 x 28 set screw which protrudes about 2 mm under the trigger. I replaced the fire control group and adjusted this set screw until I had eleminated most of the excess trigger creep and insured the safety still funtioned properly. Then I replaced the stock grip screw with a shorter 3/4 x 1/4 x 28.

Entire process took about 15 min and cost about $2 because I already had the tap. My trigger breaks much better with minimal creep. A little nervous at first about accidental discharge but none of the AR guys reported any issues. Maybe some of our more technical members like BELT FED can comment, but I shot 100 rounds and everything cycled fine with no issues or accidental discharge.

 

[Slider_]

I installed a set screw as well. Only took about .5 mm out of the pull though.I ended up keeping the blue springs and polished the hammer and trigger to a mirror finish with a dremel. Then used motul offroad chain lube instead of grease. Short, smooth as glass, and breaks around 7 lbs.

If you're worried about accidental discharge then make sure the chamber is clear, cock it, and give it the bang test to see if you can trip the hammer.

 

[johnnywitt]

Love shooting my 15-22, about the only complaint I have is with the stock trigger. Replaced the springs with the JP yellows and that helped lighten the pull but still had a lot of creep. Did not want to pay a couple hundred dollars for a drop-in, so I've been researching alternatves. On some of the AR forums the guys have used a set screw under the trgger to reduce travel. Decided to try it in 15-22 and am very pleased with the results.

I removed grip and the fire control group and tapped out the grip screw hole with a 1/4 x 28 tap. The stock screw holding the grip in place is 1 x 1/4 x 28. I replaced this with 2 shorter screws. On top I put a 1/4 x 1/4 x 28 set screw which protrudes about 2 mm under the trigger. I replaced the fire control group and adjusted this set screw until I had eleminated most of the excess trigger creep and insured the safety still funtioned properly. Then I replaced the stock grip screw with a shorter 3/4 x 1/4 x 28.

Entire process took about 15 min and cost about $2 because I already had the tap. My trigger breaks much better with minimal creep. A little nervous at first about accidental discharge but none of the AR guys reported any issues. Maybe some of our more technical members like BELT FED can comment, but I shot 100 rounds and everything cycled fine with no issues or accidental discharge.

Why did you have to Tap it if the grip hole & thread is already 1/4x28?
By tap do you mean the 1/4x1/4x28 set screw? I'm just trying to figure this out. I'm really familiar with AR's just not the M&P 15-22.
I have been using a Tac Sol M4 with a FF SWS 12" Rail and an AR Gold Trigger with good results- after a little bolt tweaking. Need something a little more wallet friendly though for my two little boys Walker and Texas Ranger.

 

[jsimmons]

Why did you have to Tap it if the grip hole & thread is already 1/4x28?
By tap do you mean the 1/4x1/4x28 set screw? I'm just trying to figure this out. I'm really familiar with AR's just not the M&P 15-22.
I have been using a Tac Sol M4 with a FF SWS 12" Rail and an AR Gold Trigger with good results- after a little bolt tweaking. Need something a little more wallet friendly though for my two little boys Walker and Texas Ranger.

His grip screw hole may not have been tapped all the way through (my 15-22 was tapped all the way through, but my M&P15 isn't). I've done the same mod, but mine was tapped all the way through. I'm also using the JP Enterprises yellow spring kit.

 

[chuck s]

Do not cobble your rifle with this dangerous idea! Yeah, some guys have done it, but Mr. Murphy is lurking.

What it does is eliminate much of the sear engagement. There is no "pre-travel" in the AR16/M16 trigger, the sear, which is actually the front tip of the trigger, is moving as soon as you start the trigger press. All this modification does is prevent full sear engagement.

This modification also interferes with the safety as the tail of the trigger is higher than it should be where it fits under the selector.

-- Chuck

 

[Scuds03]

JP Yellows and a little bit of polishing made my trigger more than acceptable. I don't think I'd do this mod myself.

 

[Brett248Vista]

I'm with Chuck on this... Raising the tail end of the trigger reduces the sear engagement and this is a sure fire way to cause accidental discharges even with the safety engaged.

 

[CajunMouseSniper]

Why did you have to Tap it if the grip hole & thread is already 1/4x28?

The grip hole was already 1/4x 28 but used the tap to clean up the threads near the top of the hole.

Need something a little more wallet friendly though for my two little boys Walker and Texas Ranger
LOL, I like those names!.

Have run several thousand rounds through with no issues or accidental discharges, but Chuck and Brett are much more knowledgable than me so probably not a good mod for others to try. But...I'm keeping mine in.

 

[Slider_]

I've run mine like this for a little over 500 rounds now. No issues at all, granted I didn't take much creep out to begin with. When I was adjusting it though, I noticed that I could take a couple millimeters out of the pull and still bang the crap out of it with no accidental discharge. The issue that I ran into was with the disconnector. If the trigger pull was made to short, the disconnector wouldn't release making it so that the trigger and hammer wouldn't engage. The way I had to adjust it was by pressing on the hammer until it just barely contacted the disconnector with the trigger in the released position. Didn't have any problems with the safety. I'd say if the person doing this has any common sense on how to adjust it, then it's a very safe, cheap mod. If you're an idiot that wants a hair trigger, then you might want to look into paintball

 

[Lawyerman]

I went the JP yellow route myself. I wasn't looking for a match trigger as I use my rifles as stand in trainers so just switching springs was good enough. The original trigger pull was horrible-8 pounds of creepy crud. Now it's about 4.5, still creepier than I would like but manageable for shooting steel etc....

 

[BELT_FED]

Well I've heard that same song about how ars have a single stage and all your doing is reducing sear engagement for as long as there has been ars.

And on matched trigger/hammer combos I will totally agree but on un match parts this is not true.. with unmatch parts you get an over engagement problem where when you pull the trigger while your watching the hammer it will travel downward several .oo1s before it trips.. mine moved over .050 before the sear tripped so I polish it and colored the sear points and dry fired a few times while adjusting my set screw and I have 100% sear engagement but about 1/10 of the pretravel that I had before the mod and I've put over 15,000 rds threw it also with no issues..

I totally agree that people that don't know what they r doing can get theirselfs in trouble. But a lot of aftermarket triggers have this same set screw setup the only difference is they refer to it as an adjustable trigger instead of a trigger mod.