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12 February 2018, 19:42 #1
Armory Craft Sig Pistol Trigger Review
I have always loved my Sigs but there are things about them that definitely can be improved. One upgrade that I got excited about recently was an after market trigger upgrade.
Conclusion
Let me cut to the chase. For an expensive gun this is the best $79 bucks you will ever spend.
Company and Product
Armory Craft is a small company out of Florida I think. So far I have had nothing but good to say about them and their service. If you call, you will talk to a person even if it means the owner calling you back personally. He called me so I know.
They make several after market adjustable triggers for several models of Sig guns and they have a bunch of cool stuff for CZ as well. The trigger(s) I am talking about here fit the P22- series and I think a few others. I also got a trigger for a P938 but I will talk about that one later. As for this install it went on my P226.
Installation
In brief it was EASY. I was almost able to do the whole install without tools. The only tools that I did use were a small flat head screwdriver (although even this might not be needed) and a narrow metal finger nail file. If you have a set of fine files that are narrow and fine enough that will work too. I recommend watching the youtube videos if you want to install one.
Initially I thought 'FILE?! I am NOT filing on my gun!' but don't worry. It's not a big deal and files never touch your gun. There are a couple of youtube videos out there about how to install these triggers so I won't go into detail. The only part I want to include about installation is that there is a small rubber/plastic pin pressed into the top of front of the trigger. This part is inside the frame of the gun just inside the trigger hole in the frame. That pin is what gets filed so that it becomes custom to your gun.
(In the picture below the red circle is around that pin that gets filed down. If you screw it up and over file it you can send it back and they will press a new pin into it)
The factory trigger
The factory trigger to me was really spongy and the reset wasn't that good even though it already had SRT. It would get an "OK' from me but not a 'wow this is awesome'. The Armory Craft though makes me feel like I have a whole new gun. Definitely good stuff. Armory Craft makes awesome Sigs even more awesome by exploiting and overcoming a small design flaw/weakness of a small but most significant part.
(In the pic the top left is the factory trigger. Top right is Armory Craft slightly curved trigger. In the gun is the flat trigger. Overall for my purposes the flat trigger wins. The feel and function is just fantastic. The curved trigger has the exact same function just a different contour. I bought both.)
What you gain
Once the trigger is adjusted correctly in double action there is almost NO play in the trigger at all. Front to back or side to side there is almost none. There might be 1mm of take up in double action but that is from the internals of the gun. When you pull the trigger the hammer moves.
On the face of the trigger you have the over travel screw. My gun has SRT in it but this trigger enhances that quite a bit. There is again almost no over travel and the reset is very short. In single action there is your natural take up from the internals of the gun, but like I said the SRT is greatly enhanced. You can get on follow up shots substantially better and faster.
The best word for me to use to describe the action now is 'crispy'.
Final thoughts
Is the trigger worth it? Every penny. It helps me at least to learn much better trigger control. The gun talks back to you way more. If you're slapping the trigger or not following the capabilities of the gun you will know. With the factory trigger to me it was too mushy to really tell what I was doing. This trigger makes my gun much more responsive.
I don't want to go so far as to say this trigger makes me a better shooter, but it does put the right tool in my hand to be much more aware of what I am doing right or wrong. It definitely promotes way better trigger control. Because the trigger is so crispy it helps me to segment out different parts of proper shooting technique such as trigger control, recoil management, etc.
If I pull a shot I know that was all me. If I slap the trigger I know. If I get out of rhythm with the gun and the reset I will know. Just having the capability to be aware of those things allows me to focus on other things like recoil management or other fundamentals that actually will make me a better and faster shooter.
Thanks for reading. Ask any questions below.
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12 February 2018, 20:02 #2
A little analogy... have you ever been driving an under power car and you stomp on the gas but nothing happens for a few seconds? That lag time, while it can be anticipated and accounted for it's still lag time. Now sit behind the seat of a Ferrari. You push the gas and you go.
That's kind of like the difference between the factory Sig trigger and the Armory Craft ones shown above.
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18 February 2018, 15:35 #3
My thoughts on the Armory Craft Sig 938 trigger are below. Instead of starting a whole new thread I am just doing it as a comment here.
What is it and how is it different?
Armory Craft makes flat faced after market trigger upgrades for the Sig 238 and 938 series of pistols. The factory triggers are curved, made out of plastic, and they are not adjustable. The upgraded ones are made of metal and they are adjustable for certain things which I will discuss later on in this post.
Installation
Note: My regular gun smith that I have used for years recently closed up shop and moved to Montana. He seriously left a big hole in the community when he moved. I have had people from 50 miles away complain to me about him moving. With him I could have been in and out in half an hour for $25 bucks and it would have been done right.
His departure set me on a hunt for other gun smiths. I didn't realize how good I had it for all this time.
Breaking down the gun to it's bare essentials is easy. That can be done with little to no problem with basic tools. The trigger pin however is NOT designed to be taken out or removed. It was a bona fide bitch to get out of there. The trigger pin, which is by far the most difficult part, is press fit into the actual frame of the gun by Sig and those things are TIGHT. In order to get it out I took it to 4 different gun smiths. After 3 failures I was getting frustrated. Not to mention a few of them left idiot marks on the frame of my gun (which I do not appreciate at all). I finally got it on the 4th try. I guess the term 'gun smith' is a loosely defined term.
If you think you will simply get a cup punch or a pin punch with a armorer's hammer and knock that pin out, think again. NOT HAPPENING. I have seen several people online say that they just knock those pins out with a punch and a hammer. I have no idea if that's true or not but I am guessing it's dependent on the luck of the draw of your specific gun. With mine there is no way in hell it was coming out with a mere cupped punch and hammer.
On my 4th gunsmith we worked on the gun together. I explained to him what happened previously and told him flat out that if he was just going to hammer on it I was going to live with the factory trigger and go home. What we ended up doing is cutting off a small 2mm punch to a very short nub (otherwise it will bend) and put that and the gun into a giant commercial grade mill/drill press and made a redneck shop press. We carefully lined up the frame, pin, and modified punch, got everything lined up exactly then applied pressure.
It took a LOT of pressure. I don't know how much force that thing can put out but it was a huge machine that had all kinds of adjustability to it. About the time we were going to give up we gave it a little extra pressure and we heard an audible 'pop'. At that point I knew either the pin was out or the gun was broken. The gun wasn't harmed at all. The previous 3 attempts to hammer it out left slight marring but in the end our make shift press did the trick with little to no effort.
After that ordeal to get that pin out, once it was moved driving it out the rest of the way with a block, punch and hammer was easy.
The rest of the installation process was really easy.
What you gain and is it worth it?
Shooting the factory trigger against the adjustable trigger I have to say that the new one is substantially better. By nature of the design of the gun the take up is set and cannot be adjusted. The adjustability part is for over travel and by side effect the reset. Basically you can get on follow up shots a lot easier and faster. While there is a big difference but it's not as big of a jump in improvement as the P226 trigger that I put in and talked about above.
The adjustability, the less over travel, better trigger reset, and the contour of the trigger in my opinion though is still better. I would give the P226 trigger '100% improvement' marks. The 938 trigger I would give '70% improvement' over the factory trigger. I've only put maybe 100 rounds through it with the new trigger and at the end of the day I am glad I did it (not taking other factors into account).
All in all there are numerous benefits to the new trigger over the factory trigger and believe it or not comfort is one of them, especially when firing.
Recommendation?
Would I recommend this to a friend? Maybe. That's a really big maybe. It all depends on if you know before hand of someone who can install the thing. An average gun smith who tells you he has all the stuff to do it probably won't be able to help you. It will just wind up being a nightmare. I would say it's really a luck of the draw when it comes to your gun. Some people swear they can just tap that pin out, but after 3 different certified gunsmiths (in my particular case), none of them could do it without having a full blow shop press.
The trigger itself cost me $40. The installation cost me a crap load of hassles and some slight marring around the trigger pin area. I ended up paying the guy that pressed it out $30 so all in all it cost me $70 to get a new trigger. I got it done dollar wise at a discount vs what some of the other people wanted to charge me.
My advice is this: If you can locate people with the right equipment and it's financially worth it to you to make an investment in a better trigger then go for it. Based sheerly on performance, yes I would recommend it. Taking into account the whole picture of the hassle of the install, I would probably still say yes provided you find the right people to put it in before you purchase the trigger.
Keep in mind I called and specifically asked before going to said gunsmith(s) and all of them promised me that it was no problem, but when I got there that turned out to not be the case at all. I was very reluctant to drop my gun off to people for 3 or 4 days and have them charge me $60 for the job when I had no assurances they could even get it done or not.
My recommendation is definitely 'conditional' depending on the gunsmith, the cost of install, and the cost of the trigger.
Instead of cheaping out on people Sig should make these triggers part of the standard guns you can buy. It's not that complicated. That would be the best ultimate fix.
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9 September 2018, 11:25 #4New Member
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9 September 2018, 12:20 #5
I am not sure if they sell them by themselves or not. Not really my forte to keep up on that stuff.
If I was anywhere near home I would send you the one I pulled out of my P226.
That said the Armory Craft is far superior by a lot. It's not even a little bit close.
Instead of tracking down the OEM trigger just go with the Armory Craft triggers and it will be way better. If I wind up buying more Sigs I will swap the triggers before even bothering with the factory stuff.
Which Sig do you have by the way?