How to get a 4lb trigger for 10 bucks....

[gophernuts]

I'm sick of holding onto this secret for myself. I have installed these spring kits for a number of my buddies and have never had a dissatisfied customer. All it does is replace the three springs in the standard trigger group most AR's come with. Order up about three of these because once you use it, you will want to scream about them from the mountain tops. It will get your trigger down to about 4 lbs, with little to very little creep. Thank me later. Here's the link. Enjoy.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=7582/Product/AR_15_REDUCED_POWER_SPRING_KIT

[Longshot_34]

I've used those spring kits also. I have a spare set in the shelf just in case. +1 for this product.

[ARMANIAC]

gophernuts, how ya getting the creep out with just the springs?

[warped]

I use JP's reduced power hammer spring but I can also reduce the spring weight by using a set of parallel jaw safety wire pliers.

[gophernuts]

A lot of that creep is just due to there being too much pressure on the top forward portion of the trigger (the shiny portion). The trigger springs, which take most of that "extra" pressure out, allows the trigger to pull much, MUCH more smoothly. So does all of the creep come out? No. But it is so much better than the standard. Now if you are comfortable with working on your trigger mechanism you can polish that same part I mentioned before. The top forward part of the trigger (shiny polished part), and polish it. The polish I use is actually rim polish from autozone. I don't have 22's on my "ride", I only use it for polishing gun-related stuff, and it works pretty damn well. So I use that with my dremel and polish a mirror sheen into that aforementioned part of the trigger and WALAH!! I now have a 3.2lb trigger with no creep on my setup for about 15 bucks. If you aren't comfortable doing it, just get the springs. Even that will make your day.

[rasp65]

You can remove some of the travel by removing the pistol grip and run a setscrew(1/4") up until it pushes the end of the trigger up against the saftey. You might want to put some Loctite on the setscrew.

[pinzgauer]

The JP spring kits do quickly reduce the pull weight, but not creep/smoothness. And you need to be aware that your lower may not reliably fire mil spec primers anymore due to reduced hammer spring pressure. It was OK for my Grendel since I reload, but I would not use them on any serious usage lower that may see 5.56 milspec ammo if it has to work everytime.

You can see some benefit of the JP kit just by putting one leg of the hammer spring under the (trigger?) pin rather than over. It has to be the leg not riding in the pin notch!

It does not reduce the other spring pressure, but some folks clip those springs. For me, it was just easier to get the JP spring kit rather than clip.

[LRRPF52]

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