Trigger Pressure

[everReady Rob]

I have become very interested in trigger pressure. I took my 642 J frame to 'my' smith awhile back asking him to reduce the trigger pressure. 65 dollars later I found myself with no difference that I could tell. Soo, I have embarked upon a learning process to learn what I can about TRIGGER PULL PRESSURE.

Help me, PLEASE.

What pressure do you have?

What have you learned about trigger presure, do you feel any difference between 10 - 12 - 14 lbs.

I find my interest narrowing into the conceal carry and competitive shooting areas and will share any information gathered about this.

TIA

 

[7shooter]

Apex has a kit which greatly improves j-frame triggers for around $20.

 

[Kanewpadle]

Only the very experienced could tell the difference between 10, 12, or 14 pounds without a trigger pull gauge.

I have found it unneccessary to mess with a j frame trigger. People I know and trust have told me to leave the trigger alone.

The j frame is meant to be an up close and personal firearm and it fills that role nicely.

Practice, pratice, practice. The S&W j frame is thier best seller because it's easy to use and understand. But it is a gun which requires much practice.

It's probably the perfect point and shoot gun.

 

[ogilvyspecial]

For me the actual weight of the trigger pull really isn't the issue, it's more about how smooth the pull is. It's been my experience that a J-Frame will smooth out considerably once it's been fired, dry or otherwise, a fair number of times.
How many times to notice a difference, if any, probably depends on the individual firearm......

 

[David Sinko]

The best advice is to leave the J Frame springs alone and not obsess over the actual trigger pull weights. Most J Frame trigger pulls generally speaking are not excessively heavy. They tend to be rather smooth too. The key is to properly condition your hands and trigger fingers. This does require a lot of work and dedication and you must resist the urge to take shortcuts by compromising the springs.

The competition revolver is another matter. It seems that the goal of many competition revolver shooters is to acquire a double action trigger pull that feels as short and light as a highly tuned Colt 1911 semiauto for no other reason than to say it can be done. But does this really help your DA revolver shooting? I doubt it. Ed McGivern figured out everything there is to know about DA revolver shooting back in 1931 and wrote about it in "Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting." Jerry Miculek's modern speed shooting records were also accomplished with somewhat heavy rebound spring tensions. While the lightened trigger pulls are much easier for most shooters to manage, I doubt that anybody will be breaking Miculek's speed shooting records with a 5 lb. DA trigger pull.

Dave Sinko

 

[oldman45]

Sore subject with me.

Trigger pull is much like custom trigger jobs. A person will not notice the difference unless they are really serious shooters and very in tune with their gun.

I have seven guns with custom triggers and they are not much different from my guns with factory triggers. The shooter has a lot to do with the way his trigger works. Too much finger one way or too little finger another way and his aim will be off. Grip the gun too loosely and the trigger will feel heavier. Grip it too tightly and the trigger will feel lighter.

True enough, those shooting competition on a weekly basis will notice the difference in triggers but Joe Average will not. Having a custom trigger is more of a boasting right than a shooting aid for the avg shooter.

 

[everReady Rob]

Thanks for the information guys. Maybe I'm guilty of wanting an easy fix instead of practice, practice, practice.

 

[thndrchiken]

As has been stated the true goal of a trigger job is to smooth the pull, not to reduce the pull weight.

 

[chief38]

everReady Rob:

The posters above ^^^^ really gave you sound advise that I totally agree with. Your J-frame is a carry gun, not a "target model" per say, and therefore you want 100% reliability, not 98% or 99%......100 %. Smoothness is key here, and most of the J-Frames made over the last 20 years are quite smooth out of the box.

I usually will "tune-up" a revolver that I routinely use for Target work, plinking or competition, but as far as a carry gun is concerned all I do is shoot, shoot, shoot, clean and maybe clean up any rough spots on the internals (and that is kept to a bare minimum and only if necessary). I do not replace or alter the springs, or other parts. I have never even measured the trigger pull on my carry guns which is something I always do on Target & Competition guns.

The best thing you could do to this firearm is shoot it.

Chief38

 

[PURE KUSTOM]

3.5 on revolvers, 4.0 on semi auto's

 

[photoman]

A 14 pound SMOOTH pull with feel lighter than a ROUGH 10 pound pull.

I've been working with a new 442 and, after 1000 dry fires and the installation of the Apex spring kit, the gun is much smoother and easier to shoot.

The best thing you can do for the Airweights is get the action smooth and light while retaining reliability. Using lighter loads and a big grip will do wonders also.

 

[bassoneer]

I had a 642 trigger job to smooth it out, and the gunsmith changed the springs...maybe a little better, but it still had a "snag" in the pull. I took it back to the gunsmith, and he took a closer look...took the gun to the range and fired it a few times, and then found the problem...it was not in the typical places that he works on for an action job...it was where the hand comes out and pushes on the cylinder star to rotate the cylinder. The hand was snagging/scraping on the opening in the frame that it came out of. I would have never found that, but once he fixed it the trigger pull seemed smooth as silk. So if anybody's 642 feels gritty, like you pull the trigger and it snags at the last bit of travel, and then you have to jerk it so hard to make it fire that the bullet goes off path, then check the hand/frame interface clearance. Hope that made sense - as you can tell, I'm not a gunsmith, but I do appreciate a smooth trigger. Good luck, B