I recently put together an M4gery JT kit / RRA lower. The trigger pull is terrible; much worse than my Colt. It is long, heavy, and has tons of creep. Is there any cheap / easy fix to somewhat improve the pull? I don't have funds at the time to buy a jewel trigger.
Is there any easy way to improve an AR trigger?
- Thread starter PAC 762
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Chris Rhines
Member
Jewell triggers? Jeez, I wouldn't buy one of those if they were free.
A JP single-stage kit is about $150, and requires some fitting, but it will provide about the best trigger pull out there.
If you don't have the funds for that, you're really better off letting a competent gunsmith look at it. AR trigger parts are case hardened, and if you go through the case in an attempt to polish the trigger surfaces, you'll end up with a rifle that goes full-auto when you least expect it.
Still reading? Okay. Keep in mind, you can ruin your trigger parts by doing this. Don't say I didn't warn you...
Pull apart your trigger group. Throw away the factory springs and order a Tactical Spring Kit from JP Enterprises. Get some of their Boron Nitride trigger/sear prep compound, while you're at it. This should cost maybe twenty bucks.
The JP spring kit also includes instructions on how to polish your stock trigger parts. I'll link to them here. http://www.jprifles.com/instructions/ReducedWeightSpringSet.html
Polish the sear face and hammer notch to a mirror finish - I use a felt wheel for the sear, and a Q-Tip chucked in my Dremel for the hammer notch. I coat the wheel or Q-Tip with jewelers rouge, and use very light pressure at high speeds. You want to polish, not cut.
Polish the hammer and trigger pins lightly.
Clean the trigger parts well, apply a dab of trigger prep compound to the sear face, and reassemble.
Before you go out to try your new trigger job, test the safety. The hammer should not move at all if the trigger is depressed with the safety on.
Go to the range. Load ONE round in your magazine, chamber it, and fire. Everything copacetic? Good. Single-load a few more rounds. If everything is okay, put two rounds in the magazine, and test-fire. If the gun doubles, STOP! Take the gun to a gunsmith. Otherwise, shoot another 100 rounds or so. If everything works, congratulations on your excellent trigger job. If anything malfunctions, get thee to a gunsmithery!
If you have any problems with those instructions, again, the best bet is to find a good gunsmith.
Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
- Chris
A JP single-stage kit is about $150, and requires some fitting, but it will provide about the best trigger pull out there.
If you don't have the funds for that, you're really better off letting a competent gunsmith look at it. AR trigger parts are case hardened, and if you go through the case in an attempt to polish the trigger surfaces, you'll end up with a rifle that goes full-auto when you least expect it.
Still reading? Okay. Keep in mind, you can ruin your trigger parts by doing this. Don't say I didn't warn you...
Pull apart your trigger group. Throw away the factory springs and order a Tactical Spring Kit from JP Enterprises. Get some of their Boron Nitride trigger/sear prep compound, while you're at it. This should cost maybe twenty bucks.
The JP spring kit also includes instructions on how to polish your stock trigger parts. I'll link to them here. http://www.jprifles.com/instructions/ReducedWeightSpringSet.html
Polish the sear face and hammer notch to a mirror finish - I use a felt wheel for the sear, and a Q-Tip chucked in my Dremel for the hammer notch. I coat the wheel or Q-Tip with jewelers rouge, and use very light pressure at high speeds. You want to polish, not cut.
Polish the hammer and trigger pins lightly.
Clean the trigger parts well, apply a dab of trigger prep compound to the sear face, and reassemble.
Before you go out to try your new trigger job, test the safety. The hammer should not move at all if the trigger is depressed with the safety on.
Go to the range. Load ONE round in your magazine, chamber it, and fire. Everything copacetic? Good. Single-load a few more rounds. If everything is okay, put two rounds in the magazine, and test-fire. If the gun doubles, STOP! Take the gun to a gunsmith. Otherwise, shoot another 100 rounds or so. If everything works, congratulations on your excellent trigger job. If anything malfunctions, get thee to a gunsmithery!
If you have any problems with those instructions, again, the best bet is to find a good gunsmith.
Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
- Chris
kaferhaus
Member
Save your money and buy the Jewel.... you'll only have to buy one that way.
Some other triggers cost a little less, but none of them will work as well as the Jewel. Been there, done that.
Some other triggers cost a little less, but none of them will work as well as the Jewel. Been there, done that.
Justin
Moderator Emeritus
I've had good results with the Rock River two stage competition triggers. It's not quite as nice a finely tuned custom one, but for a factory trigger that costs less than $100 you can't go wrong.
I have heard that some people have problems with the Jewell triggers developing an inconsistent pull, but have no firsthand experience with them.
I have heard that some people have problems with the Jewell triggers developing an inconsistent pull, but have no firsthand experience with them.
Pretty easy to modify the stock single stage triggers of the AR. Probably the simples is to drop the non-pin locking leg of the mousetrap hammer spring below the pin instead of above. This unwinds the spring a little lightening the pull weight about a pound or two. No way to remove the creep other than filing/grinding/stoning the sear notch of the hammer.
When I closely examined the stock trigger/hammer of my DPMS Lo-Pro Classic, I noticed (when the gun was apart) that when the trigger was pulled back (with quite a bit of creep) the hammer was pulled back further then when it was just cocked without any pressure on the trigger. This meant that the sear notch was not cut square (in line) with the trigger hinge pin hole. It was slightly undercut. As the sear moved out of engagement, the angle of the undercut cause the hammer to be cocked further. This produced an unnecessary increase in trigger pull. What I did was square up the bearing surfaces to fix this (and also grind down the sear notch a little to minimize creep) which gained me a few more pounds. I went from ~7# t0 ~3.25#.
The trigger assembly is relatively simple. Like the Ruger 10/22, once you disassemble it a couple times it'll seem like nothing to it. The fire control system of the stock regular AR is pretty cheap. If you goof up, easy to replace. If you do try to modify yourself, go slowly. If you grind the sear notch past square and/or grind too much off the notch, you could cause the gun to be unsafe by allowing the sear to come out of enagement without actuating the trigger (i.e. unintentional discharge/go full-auto/burst).
When I closely examined the stock trigger/hammer of my DPMS Lo-Pro Classic, I noticed (when the gun was apart) that when the trigger was pulled back (with quite a bit of creep) the hammer was pulled back further then when it was just cocked without any pressure on the trigger. This meant that the sear notch was not cut square (in line) with the trigger hinge pin hole. It was slightly undercut. As the sear moved out of engagement, the angle of the undercut cause the hammer to be cocked further. This produced an unnecessary increase in trigger pull. What I did was square up the bearing surfaces to fix this (and also grind down the sear notch a little to minimize creep) which gained me a few more pounds. I went from ~7# t0 ~3.25#.
The trigger assembly is relatively simple. Like the Ruger 10/22, once you disassemble it a couple times it'll seem like nothing to it. The fire control system of the stock regular AR is pretty cheap. If you goof up, easy to replace. If you do try to modify yourself, go slowly. If you grind the sear notch past square and/or grind too much off the notch, you could cause the gun to be unsafe by allowing the sear to come out of enagement without actuating the trigger (i.e. unintentional discharge/go full-auto/burst).
No4Mk1
Member
This is a somewhat controversial topic, but there is what is known as the "15 minute trigger job" that can be found here:
http://www.sargenthome.com/15_Minute_AR_Trigger_Job.htm
If you want to know what the controversy is about, read this thread on AR15.com:
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=118&t=210225
Personally, I had a very poor stock trigger on one of my AR's and tried it with unqualified success. I was quite pleased. Your mileage may vary, and please proceed with appropriate caution.
http://www.sargenthome.com/15_Minute_AR_Trigger_Job.htm
If you want to know what the controversy is about, read this thread on AR15.com:
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=3&f=118&t=210225
Personally, I had a very poor stock trigger on one of my AR's and tried it with unqualified success. I was quite pleased. Your mileage may vary, and please proceed with appropriate caution.
Ivy Mike
Member
you Americans are so funny!!!
In Soviet Russia; trigger polishes you!!!!!
In Soviet Russia; trigger polishes you!!!!!
Thanks for the help. I think I'm going to try to do it my self since it doesn't seem too complicated. If I screw up, I'll just bite the bullet and buy an aftermarket trigger.
I breifly paged through the Brownells catolog and found the following options:
-JP Adjustable - $112 (C&R discount) - 3 lbs
-Jard Adjustable - $105 - 2 lbs
-Jard Non-adjustable - $104 - 3 lbs
-Rock River NM - $70 - 4.5 lbs.
Should I avoid any of these, or are they all pretty good?
I breifly paged through the Brownells catolog and found the following options:
-JP Adjustable - $112 (C&R discount) - 3 lbs
-Jard Adjustable - $105 - 2 lbs
-Jard Non-adjustable - $104 - 3 lbs
-Rock River NM - $70 - 4.5 lbs.
Should I avoid any of these, or are they all pretty good?
Chris Rhines
Member
The JP is excellent out of the box, the RRA is very good but can usually stand a little bit of polishing up. Keep in mind, of course, that the JP is a single-stage trigger while the RRA is a two-stage trigger.
Don't know anything about the Jard.
- Chris
Don't know anything about the Jard.
- Chris
Swampy
Member
DITTO that.....
Many guys in our local Highpower club went to Jewell's when their crappy Bushmaster 2 stage triggers went South (ALL of them !!!), usually in the middle of a match..... then some of those switched over to a John Holliger tuned RRA two stage when the Jewells turned out to be finicky.
Virtually every competitive AR shooter in our Club now has the RRA, me included.... tuned by John Holliger. VERY sweet trigger... and available for about $120 direct from JH.
Just my opinion and experiences....
Best to all,
Swampy
Garands forever
rock jock
Member
Swampy
Member
If you are talking about the Bushy 2 Stage comp trigger you got more than your money's worth out of it.
All the guys around here who owned them had the Bushy 2 Stage go tits up between 700 and 1k rounds.
Best regards,
Swampy
Garands forever
Harry Tuttle
Member
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- Nov 14, 2003
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- 3,093
The drop in, "Chip McCormick" trigger looks interesting but the c clipped long pins look a tad goofy
http://www.rbprecision.com/id62.htm
http://www.rbprecision.com/id62.htm
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