Like many, Springfield Armory caught my interest when they announced the Prodigy 1911 DS. When I would make a list in my mind of everything an ideal home and carry gun would have, I kept coming back time and again to a Wilson EDC9 or a Staccato C2. Of course, they would put me squarely in the "mortgage down payment" territory, and that would be too hard a pill to swallow. Even the most inattentive spouse would notice the equivalent of a used Corolla's worth of cash missing from the college fund.
Then comes the Prodigy, checking all those same boxes: double stack, railed, optics ready, ~4" bull barrel, classic components that allow for unlimited tinkering.
A few weeks stalking Gunbroker, and I find a deal worth the squeeze, and come to own this highly controversial unicorn. By then, word of reliability and function issues had spread far and wide, as if Springfield fell victim to election season oppo research. So I knew there would need to be changes made to get this Toyota Camry of 2011's into fighting shape.
To that end, I ordered 3 components that I estimated would solve the lion's share of cycling issues that folks have been reporting:
- Brazos Custom Tuned Trigger Group:
- This was the heart of what I wanted to try. A pre-fit and stoned, matched set of sear and hammer with pre-bent spring. I have some faith I could stone my own sear and hammer with the right jig, but the idea of a trigger-job in a bag was enticing, especially when it would take the factors of my own failure out of the equation. There were paltry reviews on this kit, so I hope this serves as a more comprehensive rundown for prospective buyers.
- EGW Ball head long disconnector
- Some have reported that Prodigy slide hanging on the factory disconnector has caused issues, and it made sense to swap out the OEM for something else. Buying a $175 trigger kit to just leave a MIM factory disco in the gun would have felt like buying three new tires and leaving a donut. Luckily, Brazos had some EGW's in stock. I could argue a $200 package could include a new disco, but I'm a notoriously unsuccessful businessman, so take that with a grain of salt.
- Fusion flat K-hole 2011 trigger
- I like flat triggers. This was the cheapest one in stock at the time. Needed more fitting than I thought, though! (more on this below).
- Additionally, I added an EGW Block slide stop in 9mm size. The Prodigy's slide stop is recessed into the frame, which is neat in theory, but a massive pain to engage with my gnome thumbs. The EGW needed fitting, as the post was a few microns too think to let the barrel move freely. Some elbow grease and escalating grit sandpaper (600-5000) fixed that in 25 minutes or so.
The Prodigy's stock, out-of-the-box, trigger was an okay, consistent 5#, slightly creepy, but decently crisp. For a factory pull, it was fine, but the short travel on a 1911 trigger meant that heavier pulls tend to throw me off target a tad. I compete with a Shadow, which forgives all sins. John Moses Browning was less gracious.
FITTING THE PARTS:
The Prodigy came apart fairly easily. In fairness, this was my first >$1000 1911, so maybe that's to be expected. I've had RIA's and Tisas in the past that weren't necessarily tightly fit, just clumsily put together and stuck in place, which I think is the difference. The fit and finish on my Prodigy was excellent, and I didn't feel the usual buyer's remorse once I finally got it in my hands. I'm personally very sensitive to cut-corners, and I didn't find too many with the Prodigy, except ONE:
The grip screws on my model and made of some Chinese pot metal dug from a weakness bog in a county of losers. One unscrewed easily, but the right hand side hex screw stripped almost instantly, then immediately bound in the threads. Now, it's possible I'm an idiot, but I do know how to unscrew stuff, even if it's expensive. So I tried the rubber band trick, then the oversized bit trick, then I cut a screw driver slot into it, then I made that cut a phillips head, then I resorted to a screw extractor (which snapped), then I tried the ol' JB Weld trick with added WD40 from the other side to unbind the threads. Absolutely none of that budged the screw. Like Arthur's sword, it was in that thing for eons.
The only thing that FINALLY worked was getting the exact right star bit, hammering it deep into the soft metal slot, and unscrewing with all the strength that's left in my rotator cuff. The screw is destroyed, the grip is marred, it has no resale value, so this gun is mine until the sun burns out. Springfield customer service over the phone was actually nice enough to send a replacement set, so at least it won't look like street trash from a distance. I just tell myself guns are a tool, and I wouldn't cry about a scratch on my impact driver, but there's no getting around this ugly gouge in the polymer.
THE IGNITION COMPONENTS:
The Brazos bits all fit immediately. Zero fitting necessary, and they were pre-polished as advertised. The EQW disco fell right in as well, though I did polish it, removing some of the blue, but getting it properly slick. Everything was heated and treated with Frog Lube, which I have had outstanding success with in the past. I will remain on my "Frog Lube works if you read the ****ing directions" soap box until I die.
Honestly, I can't say very much about fitting the Brazos kit, because it was entirely uneventful. They literally dropped in, interfaced with the factory pins just fine, and moved freely when lubed. Being boring here is good.
The only fitting I needed to do was file the factory thumb safety to clear the new sear, but that's super common, and I've had to do that with all my 1911's. It took 5 minutes with a file, and when fit back in, the safety was still tight and clicked with authority. I have no reservations about using it under stress.
The Fusion trigger needed some cutting, as the overtravel screw didn't allow the bow to move far enough back to hit the disco. Even when backed all the way out, I still needed a millimeter or two of clearance space. I read in some buried forum thread that others have experienced this, and that the fusion bow is a tad short. No problem a Dremel cutter shaving off the last two threads of the screw didn't instantly fix, though.
Once the safety was filed and trigger screw cut, everything fit back together easily, and I began function testing, seeing where the sharp edges I might have missed would show up.
To my surprise: nowhere. The Brazos kit worked flawlessly once everything else was adjusted. Once the trigger could clear, and the safety could disengage, the Prodigy ran like a Swiss clock.
The trigger pull obviously dropped massively, but stayed crisp, and the minimal creep was entirely gone. I cannot move my finger a short enough distance to actually feel how much the sear engages the hammer. There might technically be "creep," but I cannot physically perceive it.
As you can see, the pull weight dropped to 1.75#. This is what I call psychic range, where I just have to think, and the hammer drops.
Overall, I couldn't be happier with the Brazos kit. It's possible I could have achieved a similar result by installing a Lite Speed or Warp Speed kit from Extreme Engineering, but there's no guarantee, and I simply don't have the tools and experience to fit parts like Brazos clearly can. There's also the Nighthawk drop-in trigger, but I don't think I'd be comfortable modifying it to get to where I want to be, not to mention the high cost to play.
The Brazos Tuned Trigger Group kit get a resounding recommendation from me.
WARNING:
One note about the Springfield Prodigy when mounting an optic:
Be careful of the length of your screw and how much loctite you use. In mounting my Holosun 407k, I ended up leaking blue loctite through into the extractor channel, and bleeding it on to the barrel.
