21 Comments

  3. Only if you don’t know how to shoot it. If you know how to take up the slack and ride the link so that you only have to get through the slack once per string, there’s a crisp, short reset trigger in there.

    I find it a lot easier to shoot a Glock quickly than a 4lbs “Glass Rod” 1911 with a weak and mushy trigger reset.

    1. Bob is also shooting a G34, which out of the box has a much better trigger than the other stock Glocks. But Bob can also shoot a musket and make it look fast!

  6. Actually, I think the G34 trigger sucks compared to the stock 5.5lbs trigger. The link is mushy and weak.

    I’ve heard that the 3.5lbs connector with the NY spring results in an even sharper trigger in the 5lbs range. But I’ve never had a problem with shooting the standard one.

  7. “Only if you don’t know how to shoot it.”

    I know how to shoot it and I like a smoother trigger. They’re not mutually exclusive.

    1. Yes, the 3.5 gamer trigger with the new York reset spring is actually quite nice. But I also don’t ride the link on my guns. With a DA wheelgun, riding the link leads to short stroking.

  8. With a DA wheelgun, riding the link leads to short stroking.

    Guns designed after 1895 don’t do that.

  9. “Riding the link” can lead to short stroking and/or trigger freeze with any gun. This isn’t rocket science. Human beings cannot control their physical movement, especially rapid repeated physical movement under stress, to the hundreth of an inch over and over again. So the closer you get to a “perfect” reset, the more your margin of error begins extending over into the “didn’t reset” side of the line.

    The line from Vogel is completely unresponsive to the debate at hand. First, in his own words, the Glock trigger merely makes trigger freeze “less of an issue,” it doesn’t eliminate it altogether. More importantly, Vogel says nothing about how he resets the trigger and certainly doesn’t say that he is riding the link.

    And while one could certainly learn to shoot a pistol with a bad trigger, that doesn’t change the fact that improving the trigger pull — and in particular, making the trigger pull smoother — diminishes the odds of a poor shot as well as diminishing the magnitude of a poor shot.

  10. Hi ToddG! Totally love your site as it is required reading every morning!

    I feel like I should clarify myself a bit: I never said that Bob V was riding the link – I was actually responding to Caleb’s “Dude, the trigger really does suck though.” comment, but comments are sometimes out of order.

    Trigger “suckage” is a pretty subjective thing… Honestly, I think far too many people are spending money and time on “perfecting the sword”, rather than practicing, dry firing and getting to a class and “perfecting the swordsman”.

    1. Lots of people do spend too much time and money on perfecting the sword – those people are the guys buying $200 aftermarket trigger kits for their Glocks. What Chance suggests in the linked article takes 20 minutes and is done without removing metal or adding new parts.

  11. What Chance suggests in the linked article takes 20 minutes and is done without removing metal or adding new parts.

    I somewhat agree with you: it takes but a few minutes for someone who has can take apart a glock with their eyes closed. For the newbie, who doesn’t know how to pull apart a glock, it’ll take longer and offer, honestly, how much improvement?

    1%? 2%? 5%?

    I guess what I’m getting at is, if you’re a newbie, probably taking apart your glock to get a “better” trigger is a waste of time for the little improvement it will yield. Time that could be better used for practice, dry fire or reviewing the mental aspects of the game.

    Interesting article anyway… Though I wonder why you have to take the entire gun apart – even a viscous lube, like slide glide, can be pushed into the connector gap with a brush…

  12. I generally agree that the time spent on doing stuff like that at the beginning of someone’s shooting would be better served with dry fire and actual practice. However, right about the time someone gets to “C” or “B” class then their skills have progressed to a point where a little smoothness in the trigger is something they can functionally appreciate.

    Johnny Weekend Range Warrior isn’t going to need to do this, but someone that’s trying to climb the action shooting ladder can and should give something like this a try. It’s the same reason why I put a 7.5 lb trigger in my 625, and 9 lb triggers in my 627 and 686 – I can shoot them just fine with the factory trigger, but I can shoot them better with an enhanced trigger.

  13. Or you could learn how to shoot.

    Only someone who doesn’t know how to shoot would think that the quality of the trigger pull doesn’t matter. :p

  14. However, right about the time someone gets to “C” or “B” class then their skills have progressed to a point where a little smoothness in the trigger is something they can functionally appreciate.

    Totally agree that they can appreciate it… Hell, every little bit helps.

    Here’s an interesting though, though:

    There are 690 USPSA shooters in Illinois (about 40% more than Indiana).
    In Production, there are only 56 B shooters, 16 A shooters, 3 M’s, and 2 GMs.
    I see far too many D & C level shooters trying to pay for skill with new toys, rigs, etc. I guess that just highlights that the majority searches for a long time with $$ and time to find something which is gained primarily through practice and introspection.

    (Find stats through USPSA.org –> Additional Content –> Classifiers by State)

  15. MCSA56 — Thanks for the kudos! I don’t think the Glock trigger sucks, but it’s substantially different from, say, a 1911 trigger which many people consider the height of bliss.

    There’s something of a false dilemma here. No one is going to have to choose between spending 20 minutes on a trigger job or 20 minutes of dry fire. One won’t exclude the other. And if that 20 minute trigger job eliminates some rough edges, crisps the reset, or smooths the break it will have a real (if small) effect.

    I’m not a big believer in spending hundreds of dollars on a trigger job. Either you’re not shooting very much in which case the benefit will be far outweighed by your lack of practice (which is essentially the same as a lack of skill, given how perishable handgun shooting ability is); or, you’re shooting often enough that normal operation of the action will smooth it out within a couple thousand rounds and you’ll have 90% the benefit of a trigger job without spending money on anything but practice ammo.

  16. I don’t think the Glock trigger sucks

    “Sucks” probably isn’t the right term so much as “proprietary” is.

    I shot mostly Glocks for the better part of a decade, and I’d bet if I picked one up cold today, my shots would break low and left.

  17. Put less finger through the trigger guard. I find that solves about half the “low left” Glock shooters’ problems.

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