I am looking for Sig owners who have shot the DAK trigger. I am considering purchasing a Sig P model pistol- most likely a P228 or P229. If I buy the P229, I would maybe be interested in getting the DAK trigger. I was curious if everyone is happy with their standard DA/SA trigger in the Sig or if they like the DAO Dak Trigger. Your comments and opinions on which YOU like best are appreciated. I have only shot the DA/SA type trigger and while the first pull took forever, I still think it's one of the best triggers out there.
Sig Dak Trigger opinions
- Thread starter djardine
- Start date
- Status
Lonestar49
Member
...
Having 4 Sigs, one of my LNIB P229/40 n/r DA pull was pure crap, gritty/heavy and a big negative on an, otherwise, new gun with less than 300 rounds on it.
I called Wolff Springs and ordered the main spring kit he sells for any Sig, and IIRC, it started with a 21 or 20lb, 19, 18, 17lb, 16lb set of main springs to lighten the DA pull without fear of having light strikes. Thus the choices.
I went with the 17lb main spring (replacing the factory 24lb main spring) and it's like night and day.. Quick, easy, smooth, DA pulls, adding a touch of Eezox down on the hammer and sear and it has gotten even lighter/smoother thru 4000 rounds without any light strikes.. (test should be 500 rounds with no light strikes) for pass or fail grade.
I know there are many that like the consistent, easy DAK pull, much like revolvers, so the question is, how do you cure the DA pulls you don't like vs just going with a DAK trigger in the next gun..?
IIRC, about 18 bucks and he gets them to ya within 3 days. You should also look for a Sig Armorer DVD, think about 24 bucks, as it will show you how to change your main spring out, not hard, after the first or second time..
That is an option for ya for any of your current Sig DA/SA guns that you're not happy with their current DA pull/ weight-heavy pull (and gritty makes it seem, it is, worse) makes it appear, feel, longer than it is going with a smooth, lighter, faster-action DA pull..
Putting a little Eezox on the roll pins and hammer and sear helps a lot with dispelling grit action, mind you, not quareenteed, as it depends on how bad the roll pins are and the hammer sear action as well. But it will improve what you have now, especially using a lighter main spring.
OMMV,
Ls
Ps.. you'll have to tell him if your gun, each one you decide, if you do, to change main spring, is a long main spring, aprox 2-1/2" top to bottom (of frame) or small main spring aprox 1-1/2" top to larger plastic base plate bottom at bottom of frame.
Having 4 Sigs, one of my LNIB P229/40 n/r DA pull was pure crap, gritty/heavy and a big negative on an, otherwise, new gun with less than 300 rounds on it.
I called Wolff Springs and ordered the main spring kit he sells for any Sig, and IIRC, it started with a 21 or 20lb, 19, 18, 17lb, 16lb set of main springs to lighten the DA pull without fear of having light strikes. Thus the choices.
I went with the 17lb main spring (replacing the factory 24lb main spring) and it's like night and day.. Quick, easy, smooth, DA pulls, adding a touch of Eezox down on the hammer and sear and it has gotten even lighter/smoother thru 4000 rounds without any light strikes.. (test should be 500 rounds with no light strikes) for pass or fail grade.
I know there are many that like the consistent, easy DAK pull, much like revolvers, so the question is, how do you cure the DA pulls you don't like vs just going with a DAK trigger in the next gun..?
IIRC, about 18 bucks and he gets them to ya within 3 days. You should also look for a Sig Armorer DVD, think about 24 bucks, as it will show you how to change your main spring out, not hard, after the first or second time..
That is an option for ya for any of your current Sig DA/SA guns that you're not happy with their current DA pull/ weight-heavy pull (and gritty makes it seem, it is, worse) makes it appear, feel, longer than it is going with a smooth, lighter, faster-action DA pull..
Putting a little Eezox on the roll pins and hammer and sear helps a lot with dispelling grit action, mind you, not quareenteed, as it depends on how bad the roll pins are and the hammer sear action as well. But it will improve what you have now, especially using a lighter main spring.
OMMV,
Ls
Ps.. you'll have to tell him if your gun, each one you decide, if you do, to change main spring, is a long main spring, aprox 2-1/2" top to bottom (of frame) or small main spring aprox 1-1/2" top to larger plastic base plate bottom at bottom of frame.
Last edited:
earlthegoat2
Member
As to your question the DAK trigger is nothing special and is purely the same as the HK LEM trigger. In simple terms it is a DAO trigger that has some sort of assist in trigger pull when the trigger is "cocked" so to speak but still has a heavier double strike capability.
I am less then impressed with all the politically correct DAO systems being released recently. The only reason they are developing them is to try and win LE contracts which have gone almost exclusively to DAO thanks to our litigious culture.
Nonetheless it will go bang when you pull the trigger.
I am less then impressed with all the politically correct DAO systems being released recently. The only reason they are developing them is to try and win LE contracts which have gone almost exclusively to DAO thanks to our litigious culture.
Nonetheless it will go bang when you pull the trigger.
Baphomet
Member
I had a DAK conversion done on my 229 and I loved everything about it.
I also want to chime in on using a Wolff 17# main spring as mentioned previously. Making that one spring change will make a world of difference in the trigger pull. Really. It's something you just have to experience to fully appreciate but I can't recommend it too highly.
I also want to chime in on using a Wolff 17# main spring as mentioned previously. Making that one spring change will make a world of difference in the trigger pull. Really. It's something you just have to experience to fully appreciate but I can't recommend it too highly.
Stephen A. Camp
Moderator In Memoriam
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2002
- Messages
- 2,430
Hello. I like the DAK trigger and currentlyhave a P220 with it. It is very noticeably lighter that the standard double-action first shot on my older DA/SA P220 and it is smooth. Whether DAK is good, bad or necessary I leave to others. I do like them and find them very easy to use. If you have the opportunity, try the action on both and make your decision. (I understand that can be easier said than done quite a bit of the time.)
I like single-action autos very well and carried one for decades while in law enforcement, but I also see a place for the DAK and just have not "lacking" or whatever its accused of, but that might be from my early years shooting the DA revolver primarily in double-action, something I still regularly do.
If it might be of use, here is a report on using a SIG-Sauer P220 w/DAK:
http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/range report on P220 DAK.htm
I still own the P220 w/DAK. I also owned a P229 with it that I sold, not due to its having DAK but because though a popular model with many, it just didn't feel right for me. It did shoot nicely and was easy to use.
Though I no longer on the P229, it grouped and handled nicely. I just didn't care for that model, but other folks seem to really like P229 models and variations.
It handled nicely in both slow, precise shooting as well as the quicker drills such as "Failure to Stop" repetitions.
Best to you and yours.
I like single-action autos very well and carried one for decades while in law enforcement, but I also see a place for the DAK and just have not "lacking" or whatever its accused of, but that might be from my early years shooting the DA revolver primarily in double-action, something I still regularly do.
If it might be of use, here is a report on using a SIG-Sauer P220 w/DAK:
http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/range report on P220 DAK.htm
I still own the P220 w/DAK. I also owned a P229 with it that I sold, not due to its having DAK but because though a popular model with many, it just didn't feel right for me. It did shoot nicely and was easy to use.
Though I no longer on the P229, it grouped and handled nicely. I just didn't care for that model, but other folks seem to really like P229 models and variations.
It handled nicely in both slow, precise shooting as well as the quicker drills such as "Failure to Stop" repetitions.
Best to you and yours.
Last edited:
the DAK is an excellent pistol action for folks used to the DA of their revolvers. it also does wonders for folks who have a tendency to flinch the shorter pull of their SA triggers.
i mostly shoot a DA/SA trigger because that is what most of my students shoot and it makes teaching easier. it is easier to teach a new shooter to shoot well with a DAK than a SAO or the SA portion of a DA/SA trigger...it feels like a well tuned revolver
i mostly shoot a DA/SA trigger because that is what most of my students shoot and it makes teaching easier. it is easier to teach a new shooter to shoot well with a DAK than a SAO or the SA portion of a DA/SA trigger...it feels like a well tuned revolver
I bought a DAK P229R in 2004, and loved it enough that I acquired a couple of more DAKs, specifically P229 "first generation" SAS models. (The Second Generation SAS has the DA/SA trigger system.) For myself, DAK is a personal choice, and has nothing to do with fear of litigation, nor a training crutch. Being an old sixgunner, the DAK offered me a pistols that pointed like my sixguns, and offered me a trigger pull like my DA sixguns. It is true that I work for a PD that specifies certain .40 DA autos to be used as primary duty pistols, but I was a bit of a rebel, as one firearms range sergeant would not let us qual with DAKs, so I had to make sure he was not on duty when I qual'ed.
It was funny; the Glock G22 was an approved duty pistol, as was the P229, but that sergeant interpreted "P229" to exclude any P229 that other than the original DA/SA configuration. Never mind that a G22 has no decocker, this sergeant would not allow anyone to qual with a SIG that did not have a decocker. Well, anyway, the latest revision of the weapon policy specifically allows both DA/SA and DAK. (We are a big agency that has to study things to death.)
Anyway, the DAK is a very good copycat of an S&W K-frame revolver trigger pull, and I mean a sweet K-frame trigger pull. Gunsmiths have made much money over the years making S&W revolvers have trigger pulls as good as my DAK SIGs have with their unmodified triggers.
The DAK is not a simple DAO, and does offer an intermediate reset position. The gun will fire if the trigger is pulled from that intermediate reset position, but due to less mechanical advantage, the trigger stroke is heavier. To get that light, sweet 6.5 to 7.5-pound trigger stroke, let the trigger reset all the way forward, just as with a sixgun.
There is much debate on internet forums as to whether SIG intended the intermediate reset position to be actually used in the normal course of events, or whether is was a fail-safe to bail out the shooter if he, perhaps used to another weapon system, failed to let the trigger reset to the farthest forward reset position, and needed to fire another shot, in a gunfight. (There are plenty of stories of panicked LEOs failing to let revolver triggers reset properly, back in the day.) So, if there is a "crutch" involved in the DAK system, perhaps the shorter reset is that crutch, BUT, some shooters actually LIKE the shorter reset option, and train to use it on a normal basis. The good thing is, it works just fine that way.
I guess the lack of DA-to-SA transition can be seen as a crutch, but if so, that principle would have to be applied to such "expert's" pistols as the 1911, which also have the same trigger pull for every shot.
FWIW, I don't dislike DA/SA pistols, and being a real fan of the P229, have two of them in that configuration, too. Sometimes folks do a double-take, when they see me writing or eating lefty, and carrying my duty pistol on my right hip. I am somewhat unusual, in that I do some things better lefty, and some rightie. Long DA trigger strokes tend to be something I do better with my right hand, and single-action tends to be a lefty thing. I had to start my police career with DA sixguns, and I have stayed with the right hip as the location of my primary weapon, on or off the clock, uniform or soft clothes. (I have trained to be functionally ambidextrous with any weapon I have carried for serious purposes.) If an injury or infirmity compelled me to carry my primary weapon lefty, I might well use of one of my two DA/SA P229s. I have indeed thought about this, as infirmities in my right wrist and shoulder, and upper back, may require repair/intervention in the not-so-distant future.
Wow; that was a long-winded, rambling way to say I like DAK, but also DA/SA!
It was funny; the Glock G22 was an approved duty pistol, as was the P229, but that sergeant interpreted "P229" to exclude any P229 that other than the original DA/SA configuration. Never mind that a G22 has no decocker, this sergeant would not allow anyone to qual with a SIG that did not have a decocker. Well, anyway, the latest revision of the weapon policy specifically allows both DA/SA and DAK. (We are a big agency that has to study things to death.)
Anyway, the DAK is a very good copycat of an S&W K-frame revolver trigger pull, and I mean a sweet K-frame trigger pull. Gunsmiths have made much money over the years making S&W revolvers have trigger pulls as good as my DAK SIGs have with their unmodified triggers.
The DAK is not a simple DAO, and does offer an intermediate reset position. The gun will fire if the trigger is pulled from that intermediate reset position, but due to less mechanical advantage, the trigger stroke is heavier. To get that light, sweet 6.5 to 7.5-pound trigger stroke, let the trigger reset all the way forward, just as with a sixgun.
There is much debate on internet forums as to whether SIG intended the intermediate reset position to be actually used in the normal course of events, or whether is was a fail-safe to bail out the shooter if he, perhaps used to another weapon system, failed to let the trigger reset to the farthest forward reset position, and needed to fire another shot, in a gunfight. (There are plenty of stories of panicked LEOs failing to let revolver triggers reset properly, back in the day.) So, if there is a "crutch" involved in the DAK system, perhaps the shorter reset is that crutch, BUT, some shooters actually LIKE the shorter reset option, and train to use it on a normal basis. The good thing is, it works just fine that way.
I guess the lack of DA-to-SA transition can be seen as a crutch, but if so, that principle would have to be applied to such "expert's" pistols as the 1911, which also have the same trigger pull for every shot.
FWIW, I don't dislike DA/SA pistols, and being a real fan of the P229, have two of them in that configuration, too. Sometimes folks do a double-take, when they see me writing or eating lefty, and carrying my duty pistol on my right hip. I am somewhat unusual, in that I do some things better lefty, and some rightie. Long DA trigger strokes tend to be something I do better with my right hand, and single-action tends to be a lefty thing. I had to start my police career with DA sixguns, and I have stayed with the right hip as the location of my primary weapon, on or off the clock, uniform or soft clothes. (I have trained to be functionally ambidextrous with any weapon I have carried for serious purposes.) If an injury or infirmity compelled me to carry my primary weapon lefty, I might well use of one of my two DA/SA P229s. I have indeed thought about this, as infirmities in my right wrist and shoulder, and upper back, may require repair/intervention in the not-so-distant future.
Wow; that was a long-winded, rambling way to say I like DAK, but also DA/SA!
I'm new around here, so don't take my word as gospel, but I'm fairly adept at internet research and I saw a couple things that, in my understanding, warranted clarification.
the DAK should not be equivocated to an LEM trigger, the LEM is really a single action trigger that returns to the full forward DA position instead of a rearward SA position. the LEM mainspring is compressed fully under normal circumstances, the DAK is a true DA trigger and uses mechanical leverage to achieve it's lighter/smoother DA trigger, with the mainspring relaxed during carry.
the intermediate reset seems to have been an accident of development of the DAK, and has ultimately been abandoned, with the new DAO system for the P250 having been DAK derived but re-jiggered to behave fully as a DA revolver trigger with only a full long reset.
as to the details of their shooting qualities and technical details of their implementation, I can't give you anything firsthand, just repeat what I've read which is that the DAK is a smooth consistent pull all the way through and can be fired in a similar fashion to a DA revolver with trigger job.
the DAK should not be equivocated to an LEM trigger, the LEM is really a single action trigger that returns to the full forward DA position instead of a rearward SA position. the LEM mainspring is compressed fully under normal circumstances, the DAK is a true DA trigger and uses mechanical leverage to achieve it's lighter/smoother DA trigger, with the mainspring relaxed during carry.
the intermediate reset seems to have been an accident of development of the DAK, and has ultimately been abandoned, with the new DAO system for the P250 having been DAK derived but re-jiggered to behave fully as a DA revolver trigger with only a full long reset.
as to the details of their shooting qualities and technical details of their implementation, I can't give you anything firsthand, just repeat what I've read which is that the DAK is a smooth consistent pull all the way through and can be fired in a similar fashion to a DA revolver with trigger job.
- Status
Similar threads
