05-26-2011, 05:32 PM
Gents,
I have done most of the above on many AR's over the years. For an extreme, field-expedient trigger job, I clipped the standard power hammer spring (remove one of the legs), and used toothpaste and a Dremel to polish both the trigger sear and hammer sear engagement areas. That was when visiting a friend using the tools available. He still beams about how much better his triggers feel and the on-target performance that resulted. I've noticed that the clipped hammer spring seems to give a lighter pull weight than the JP reduced power yellow hammer springs.
I had been used to just dropping in the JP reduced power spring kits before that, which are hot-linked in the original post of this thread. For primer ignition reliability, I have heard of folks having failures during 3-gun matches with the reduced power hammer springs combined with lightweight or bobbed speed hammers when using harder primers.
JP sends an AR10 hammer spring with their JP Adjustable Trigger kit. Instead of being painted yellow, it is a brown sheen. I haven't tried one of them yet, but I've been wanting to see what the pull weight differences are, since it is a stronger spring.
I will say that between a Geissele and my poor-man's trigger job on a standard trigger & hammer, I didn't see any increase in performance on my group sizes, although the Geissele is a much better-feeling trigger that doesn't require as much shooter effort to make the gun print well.
I use White Jeweler's Rouge on a Dremel with cotton buffing wheel to polish standard trigger & hammer sears. The trigger sear polishing is done to improve trigger feel with regards to quality...i.e. grittiness vs. smoothness. I don't use the bench grinder, since it has Aluminum Oxide-impregnated pads for doing serious meltdowns on metal parts, like pistol slides and such.
One major constraint when doing these things is NOT to change the angle or basic geometry of the trigger sear, as this can lead to an unsafe fire control mechanism that is more prone to go bang when bumped or placed on FIRE. This can happen when taking an edge off the tip of the trigger sear, or changing the angle of the sear with aggressive polishing.
Other than that, it's quite simple to significantly improve the quality, pull weight, and overall feel with your trigger mechanism using the techniques everyone has discussed so far, although I have not used the set screw via pistol grip screw method. I have heard about safety issues with that technique, but have no first-hand experience with them to qualify that.
I would steer someone in the direction of a JP or Mega trigger if you want to set your trigger up for initial creep and over-travel, but that is no longer a $10 trigger job.
LRRPF52
I have done most of the above on many AR's over the years. For an extreme, field-expedient trigger job, I clipped the standard power hammer spring (remove one of the legs), and used toothpaste and a Dremel to polish both the trigger sear and hammer sear engagement areas. That was when visiting a friend using the tools available. He still beams about how much better his triggers feel and the on-target performance that resulted. I've noticed that the clipped hammer spring seems to give a lighter pull weight than the JP reduced power yellow hammer springs.
I had been used to just dropping in the JP reduced power spring kits before that, which are hot-linked in the original post of this thread. For primer ignition reliability, I have heard of folks having failures during 3-gun matches with the reduced power hammer springs combined with lightweight or bobbed speed hammers when using harder primers.
JP sends an AR10 hammer spring with their JP Adjustable Trigger kit. Instead of being painted yellow, it is a brown sheen. I haven't tried one of them yet, but I've been wanting to see what the pull weight differences are, since it is a stronger spring.
I will say that between a Geissele and my poor-man's trigger job on a standard trigger & hammer, I didn't see any increase in performance on my group sizes, although the Geissele is a much better-feeling trigger that doesn't require as much shooter effort to make the gun print well.
I use White Jeweler's Rouge on a Dremel with cotton buffing wheel to polish standard trigger & hammer sears. The trigger sear polishing is done to improve trigger feel with regards to quality...i.e. grittiness vs. smoothness. I don't use the bench grinder, since it has Aluminum Oxide-impregnated pads for doing serious meltdowns on metal parts, like pistol slides and such.
One major constraint when doing these things is NOT to change the angle or basic geometry of the trigger sear, as this can lead to an unsafe fire control mechanism that is more prone to go bang when bumped or placed on FIRE. This can happen when taking an edge off the tip of the trigger sear, or changing the angle of the sear with aggressive polishing.
Other than that, it's quite simple to significantly improve the quality, pull weight, and overall feel with your trigger mechanism using the techniques everyone has discussed so far, although I have not used the set screw via pistol grip screw method. I have heard about safety issues with that technique, but have no first-hand experience with them to qualify that.
I would steer someone in the direction of a JP or Mega trigger if you want to set your trigger up for initial creep and over-travel, but that is no longer a $10 trigger job.
LRRPF52