Trigger ideas?

[Rastoff]

OK, my ARs have the el cheapo triggers that come in the low dollar lower parts kits. In a word, they suck. Sure they work and are safe, but they have at least 4" of creep. I may be exaggerating that a little.

Anyway, are there any triggers out there that don't cost $250 that are better?

 

[tectrry]

I'm basically in the same boat, and have spent all day finding advice and looking at prices. I was originally thinking of staying under $100 but after all of the advice I've decided that I'll probably go to about $150. I'm now seriously looking at the CMC or if I can find a deal on the Timney for about the same price (so far I've seen one at $170). I think less than that and it wont be much of an improvement and i just cant do the $300 or more.

 

[2hawk]

Get an extra FCG (trigger, hammer and disco) for back up. And then try this: 15 Minute Practical Trigger Job for the AR-15

I can get results equal to the Timney I have. For me, good enough. I do have a Jard on a precision rig, if you need that level of adjustment I'd recommend it. Overkill for most uses, though.

ETA I've always loved the author's disclaimer at the link. "Disclaimer: If you can't follow these directions successfully, you should not be playing with
guns, especially AR-15's."

 

[rojodiablo]

Just polish your mating faces on your trigger, and you will be shocked at how much better the trigger will get.

We have had a thread or 2 on it in here; it's not difficult to do, and it works wonders. Also, still keeps the rifle safe, and reliable as ever- you won't wear off the hardfacing and have a trigger that is going to wear out.

 

[2hawk]

These have been getting good reviews if you want a solid drop in:

ALG Defense QMS & ACT Triggers - Tuned by Geissele

 

[MichiganScott]

If you like two stage triggers, the Rock River NM trigger can be bought from the manufacturer for $120. They can be had with pulls of 4.5 to 5 pound pull weight or 3.5 to 4 pound pull weight.

 

[BillyJack2012]

These have been getting good reviews if you want a solid drop in:

ALG Defense QMS & ACT Triggers - Tuned by Geissele

This trigger should be on everyone's short list if you're looking for a high quality trigger under $70. ALG takes a mil spec trigger and does an amazing job with it. I went back and forth for about a year before I finally picked one up. I bought a couple LPKs from PSA for some lower builds and one was a nice mil spec trigger (very similar to the pull on my M&P which is the best out of the box trigger I've had). The other was gritty and creepy. It was absolutely terrible. I rarely shot that AR because of it.

I knew I wanted to replace it but I wasn't going to spend CMC or Geissele money. I finally purchased the ALG ACT (Geissele's wife owns ALG) and was AMAZED at the pull. There are 2 ACT triggers to choose from (QMS and ACT). One is coated and the other is simply polished.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't compare this to CMC or Geissele triggers. Those are tuned, crispy with very light pulls and some are 2 stage. The ALG is a polished (or polished and coated) mil spec trigger and is more comparable to the Spike's battle trigger.

 

[SiGfever]

This trigger should be on everyone's short list if you're looking for a high quality trigger under $70. ALG takes a mil spec trigger and does an amazing job with it. I went back and forth for about a year before I finally picked one up. I bought a couple LPKs from PSA for some lower builds and one was a nice mil spec trigger (very similar to the pull on my M&P which is the best out of the box trigger I've had). The other was gritty and creepy. It was absolutely terrible. I rarely shot that AR because of it.

I knew I wanted to replace it but I wasn't going to spend CMC or Geissele money. I finally purchased the ALG ACT (Geissele's wife owns ALG) and was AMAZED at the pull. There are 2 ACT triggers to choose from (QMS and ACT). One is coated and the other is simply polished.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't compare this to CMC or Geissele triggers. Those are tuned, crispy with very light pulls and some are 2 stage. The ALG is a polished (or polished and coated) mil spec trigger and is more comparable to the Spike's battle trigger.

This is going to be my choice as well.

 

[thecatch8]

This trigger should be on everyone's short list if you're looking for a high quality trigger under $70. ALG takes a mil spec trigger and does an amazing job with it. I went back and forth for about a year before I finally picked one up. I bought a couple LPKs from PSA for some lower builds and one was a nice mil spec trigger (very similar to the pull on my M&P which is the best out of the box trigger I've had). The other was gritty and creepy. It was absolutely terrible. I rarely shot that AR because of it.

I knew I wanted to replace it but I wasn't going to spend CMC or Geissele money. I finally purchased the ALG ACT (Geissele's wife owns ALG) and was AMAZED at the pull. There are 2 ACT triggers to choose from (QMS and ACT). One is coated and the other is simply polished.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't compare this to CMC or Geissele triggers. Those are tuned, crispy with very light pulls and some are 2 stage. The ALG is a polished (or polished and coated) mil spec trigger and is more comparable to the Spike's battle trigger.

+1 Add JP Springs for $10 and you have a killer 3.5 lbs. trigger for $75

I am running these on two weapon systems and they are awesome!

 

[Rastoff]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to try the 15 minute practical trigger job first. Nothing like spending $0 to get an improvement if you can.

If that doesn't get me where I want to be, I'll look into the ACT trigger.

 

[Rastoff]

OK, I just finished the 15 minute procedure. I chose not to bend the trigger spring, but I did polish the sear and cut the hammer spring.

I measured the trigger before and it averaged out to 7lbs 2oz with a variation of more than 8oz. After, it averaged to 5lbs 10oz with a variation of about 3oz.

It feels smoother, but that is subjective. Still, it is a very noticeable difference. I believe most of that is due to cutting the hammer spring. Of course the consistency went up as well and that is a combination of all the work.

Really easy to do. I may get out to shoot it tomorrow. We'll see how it does. I have a little concern that it may not hit the firing pin as hard, but I'm not really worried about it.

 

[Ibmikey]

ALG ACT is the nickel boron version and well worth the money, I have two CMC and four ALG's---they change grungy to super smooth.

 

[BillyJack2012]

OK, I just finished the 15 minute procedure. I chose not to bend the trigger spring, but I did polish the sear and cut the hammer spring.

I measured the trigger before and it averaged out to 7lbs 2oz with a variation of more than 8oz. After it averaged to 5lbs 10oz with a variation of about 3oz.

It feels smoother, but that is subjective. Still, it is a very noticeable difference. I believe most of that is due to cutting the hammer spring. Of course the consistency went up as well and that is a combination of all the work.

Really easy to do. I may get out to shoot it tomorrow. We'll see how it does. I have a little concern that it may not hit the firing pin as hard, but I'm not really worried about it.

Very cool! Good luck tomorrow.

 

[sgtsandman]

I'm on the fence concerning a trigger job and a drop in. I guess it depends on what you want to so with your rifle and how much money you have to spend.

I hear polishing with toothpaste after a trigger job does wonders but this is what I have been told and I have not tried it myself. Toothpaste does have some abrasive qualities to it and would be like the final polishing of a lens or a telescope mirror. I can see the logic but no idea how long such a procedure would take.

 

[Damn Yankee]

After polishing the trigger and cutting the back of the hammer off to lighten it for faster lock time I also did this.
Junk Yard Genius.com AR-15/M-16 Pages, page 1.

No creep and goes Bang every time.

 

[JaPes]

OK, I just finished the 15 minute procedure. I chose not to bend the trigger spring, but I did polish the sear and cut the hammer spring.

It feels smoother, but that is subjective. Still, it is a very noticeable difference. I believe most of that is due to cutting the hammer spring. Of course the consistency went up as well and that is a combination of all the work.

Good to hear you successfully polished your trigger. I never cut the hammer spring. I installed a JP Enterprises AR-15 Reduced Power Spring Kit. In my rifle and home polished trigger, I never had any issues with primer light strikes even with Russian steel case ammo.

If you decide to try a different trigger, I've had success with both the Rock River Arms 2-Stage National Match and 2-Stage Varmint triggers. I paid $90 per trigger. The Varmint trigger feels just a little bit lighter than the National Match trigger. It's really hard to tell between the two.

I've polished a few stock combat AR-15 triggers, and I think I got pretty good at it. I will say that while a polished trigger is worlds better than a stock combat trigger, the RRA 2-Stage trigger is worlds better than a polished combat trigger.

 

[Rastoff]

Toothpaste does have some abrasive qualities to it...

Of course it does. Otherwise your teeth wouldn't come clean. In fact, everything is abrasive at some level. Even water. The thing is that some are more fine than others. Toothpaste is actually more abrasive than some of the fine polishing compounds.

The take away here is to be careful with what you use. I used Mother's Polish and it seems to have smoothed the trigger considerably.

 

[Rastoff]

After polishing the trigger and cutting the back of the hammer off to lighten it for faster lock time I also did this.
Junk Yard Genius.com AR-15/M-16 Pages, page 1.

No creep and goes Bang every time.

I had seen this mod before. I'm not sure I want to go there. Everything sounds good, and I'm sure hundreds have done this with no trouble, but it is a departure from the original design.

Also, this gets me wondering. How come nobody makes a trigger with this mod to it? I would think that someone would have made a trigger with a built in set screw for this adjustment. Yet, there aren't any. At least, none that I know of.

 

[15Krounds]

Yeah I tried the 15min job on my 15-22 and it wouldn't fire after I trimmed a leg on the hammer spring. Won't be doing that again. Replaced with JP springs and it works great again.

I'm on the fence for an ALG. Will probably pull the trigger on one soon!

 

[arizona98tj]

OK, my ARs have the el cheapo triggers that come in the low dollar lower parts kits. In a word, they suck. Sure they work and are safe, but they have at least 4" of creep. I may be exaggerating that a little.

Anyway, are there any triggers out there that don't cost $250 that are better?

I've been running a trigger from Bill Springfield now for a number of years....100% reliable and works great! I run a 4 # trigger and find it just right for me on my M&P15. He'll modify your trigger so the cost is quite low.