Trigger pull of a Sigma fix

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navyairmech

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I own a Sigma SW40ve Looking to fix the 8.5 lb pull to something a little more reasonable. It has a "pull for days" that is annoying. Please don't respond with the following:

1. Need a new gun or Need a better gun (ie. Glock, Sig, HK, SA, or any other expensive acronym) - I'm saving to buy one or two of the above.

2. Deal with it! - I am! That's why I'm posting here!

3. What do you expect for $300? - Exactly what I paid for! Now I just want to "improve" on it. Besides, stock is boring. "There is nothing stock about a stock car" - Days of Thunder

4. Should have saved up for a better gun! - Please see #1

I have been searching everywhere for parts or info to change the trigger pull but no luck so far. I know Glocks and other guns have parts that you can buy that does the opposite of what I want. I rented a "NYPD Glock" at my local gun range and it shot just like my Sigma. It was still (to me anyway) better than my Sigma. I have shot a regular Glock and it was great! Also had the same experiance with a HK. I'll own both as soon as I can. (Note to self: Christmas is nearly here)

Any help with the above would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
 
I did a google search for this last week when S&W announced the rebate on Sigmas. Best I could find was this:
http://smith-wessonforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/520103904/m/744101096/p/1

Some of the pics are gone but it was still informative. That thread discusses reducing pull through messing with the trigger/FCG springs, not the striker, but can reduce reliability. Reduced power striker springs increase the chance of a light strike. The chance of reduced reliability is a big turn off for me.
 
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Wolf has a 3.5# striker spring for the Sigma series pistols. It's labeled as 'competition use only'... and reports say that it sometimes reduces reliability.

I've pulled the trigger on one with and without the replacement spring, it helps. It helps _a lot_. Wolf Stock No. 30085 They're cheap, and easy to install... give it a try.
 
:evil:

1. You need a new gun or you need a better gun.

2. Deal with it!

3. What do you expect for $300?

4. Should have saved up for a better gun!

JK:D
Good luck in your search, I'm following this one as I like the new sigmas. (esp for the money)

I've planned on buying at least one and just dealing with the trigger. I shot a rental once and it really wasn't that bad compared to a all steel, DAO J-frame. Like I said, it was a rental, so I imagine the trigger smoothed out over the unknown number of rounds / pulls of the trigger.
 
eh....leave the trigger as it is. i have the 9VE, shot with it for a year solid, and it made me a better shooter. i think people who complain about the triggers aren't used to shooting revolvers.
 
This is a very common complaint. I had a guy buy one because of the price point. And 2 days later buy an XD because he did not like the trigger pull on his SW40ve.:cuss:
 
Thank you all who responded to this (esp Strat & Cmid) with all the info. I read the S&W forum which had a very insteresting fix to the pull issue. It's nice to know that there is parts available to also fix the problem. I knew that there had to be something that I could do. One person suggested putting lapping compound on the stricker assembly and the sear housing block assembly then letting it get it slowly get better after a few uses. A gunsmith told me that wouldn't work on Sigmas because they can turn into full autos that way. Someone else said to use gun grease instead of lapping compound. They said that it helped them. I'll try this method from the forum...
"First let me say,Im no gunsmith.I just like to figure out how stuff works and in doing this figured out how to,In my own words Fix the triger.

There is two areas of this gun that need to be worked on in order to get the lightest trigger pull possible(I do not nor will I attempt to lighten the fireing pin spring).

The first thing to do is make sure the gun is not loaded.Then remove the slide.
now remove the rear main pin,and pull out the fireing control pod,if you will.
Now dissasemble the pod,one pin at the bottom.
You will have this when done. The spring that was around the pin at the bottom of the pod,is useless leave it off.
Now that it is apart,you will see if you hold up the metal peice that it has a spring inside of it. Well it has two springs leave the inner one and remove the outer. Reasemble with the only spring in the pod being the inner one that you did not remove.
Reasemble and your good to go."

...and let you know how it goes after I go shooting this Saturday.

~An armed society is a polite society~
 
Sigma trigger help

Most of the things suggested won't help the trigger pull, they may reduce the binding and gritty feel. Replacing the stricker spring with the 3.5 pound wolff spring would be a huge mistake, making it unreliable for a carry gun. The real fix is in the sear housing block assembly, there are two springs that need to be modified, the coil spring needs to be shortened slightly and the other needs to be heated to lessen the tension. OR the best results is to look on gunbroker.com auction sight and bid on parts for a "F" model. the sear housing will drop in and reduce the trigger by about half. I've bought several kits of different models and you can really tell the difference.
 
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Ok I installed the Wolf spring and put some shooters choice grease on the striker and sear housing faces. After about 15 minutes and $22 spent for both with shipping, I went to the gun range. BIG difference! Still has a crisp break but without a lot of the trigger pull that it originally had. This will not be my carry weapon so I'm not too concerned about the reliablity issues that some of you had stated before. If you have a Sigma and hate the pull, then for less than $25 you have an almost new gun feel. Plus, if you don't like it, you can always switch back without the worry of permanently altering your gun.
 
i came across this year old post and wanted to share my story. i have modified the trigger on my sigma and im lovin it!

copied from another board:

after i raved about how good my sigma shot after my trigger mods i was asked by a few folks exactly what it was that i did. so i decided to share this with all my FSN'ers out there

first the disclaimers:
*i am not a gunsmith
*this modification is not recommended by S&W
*the modification may compromise reliability, specially the ability for the sear to reset after a shot
*this modification may void your warranty

ok, so i have a sigma 40VE that i love, which has a trigger that i hate. after 800 rds i decided i had to do somthing about the trigger because shooting this gun was not as fun as it should be, not to mention rapid fire accuracy sucked (im still dead on at 15 yds shooting slow shooting, though :). the pull was too long and too gritty, even though the weight of pull had lightened up over time. so from all the searching and reading i have done i came up with several possible remedies:
1. change striker spring to 3.5 wolff spring
2. polish sear
3. modify sear spring(s)

but there are problems to those remedies:
1. may cause light strikes
2. makes pull smoother but doesn not change weight or travel of pull
3. might make warantee void and/or cause failure of sear to reset

so with all that in mind i ended up here, http://smith-wessonforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/580103904/m/1031000282 (a trigger mod with PICS)

if u go through that link u will see that the author permanantly changed his sear springs, somthing i did not want to do, but if u read down u will find a comment from somebody else who says they swapped out a sear spring for a spring from a BALLPOINT PEN.

now that may sound crazy to some, while some might say, 'been there done that', but bare with me (and please refer to the link above for pics as i am not going to post any ).

many have altered or removed the outer sear spring AND the lower 'pigtail' spring. i did neither.

what i did is simple. i went to home depot and bought some 600 grit ultrafine sandpaper. i then took apart the sear housing and proceeded to polish the curved part of the sear where the polymer part contacts it, and both sides of the sear where it fits into the larger metal peice. i didnt over-do it, this isnt about taking off material, just smoothing it out. basically the same thing the author of the post in the link did

once the polishing was done and it was time to re-assemble, i substituted the outer, larger sear spring for one from a ball point pen. i had to open up several pens before i found the right one... the guy on the s&w forum who gave me the idea said he cut a pen spring down to the same lenght as the original outer sear spring but i had a better idea.

i found a pen spring that was almost 1/4" longer than the original outer spring but the same diameter. i figured that was perfect. the idea being that replaceing the outer spring was better than removing it completely because, aside from adding the slightest bit of tension, the outer spring would brace the inner spring and keep it from buckling or bending outwards. basically, the pen spring worked just to reinforce the inner spring, and the replacement spring, being weaker but longer, would provide more reinforcement than a shorter, even weaker spring. the original outer spring i put in a baggie and put away, should the need arise it is there and intact, ready to go back in

so doing all that and putting it back together, i immediatly noticed the pull was much smoother and the shot broke quicker. it felt great, but being a cautious man, when i hit the range to try it out i took a few rounds from all the ammo i had laying around. ..

weakening the sear springs affect the sear resetting after a shot, specially with hotter SD ammo, so during the 125 rd test run i shot some 155gr winchester rangers, 155 & 180gr hornady tap-fpd, wwb 165gr, ga 180gr jhp, umc 165gr, wolf 180gr & blazer brass 180gr... with no malfunctions whatsoever. i was no longer pulling down and to the right when rapid firing and i found the pull to be more brisk- a bit shorter and a bit lighter, and a whole hell of a lot smoother. nowhere near a SA, hair trigger but 100x better than the stock pull

the issue with the sear resetting, i believe, is more of an issue with the 9mm sigma - with all the +p and +p+ ammo available. fortunatly the 40 s&w doesnt have that many hot loads available. if i were to do this with a 9VE i would be more cautious. also since i kept the 'pigtail' spring and replaced, not removed, the outer spring, the sear has alot more tension that one on a gun with both of those springs solely removed.

i love how my sigma shoots now and i cant wait till i can go back to the range and put a few more rounds through it. i truely wont trust it again untill i have at least 300+ trouble free rds through it post-mod. please keep the reliability of your gun in mind if u attempt to do this and remember the warantee problems or legal ramifications u might face...

i hope this has been helpfull and please feel free to hit me up if u have any questions. remember, im not any kind of gunsmith or expert, just a guy who is mechanically inclined and hated the stock trigger [smilie=cheers1.gif]


Update

hit the range yesterday and rapid fired 10 rds of Hornady TAP FPF 180 gr, 10 rds of Winchester Ranger 155 gr & 10 rds of Georgia Arms 180 gr JHP, plus slow fired a box of blazer brass 180 gr

again, no problems at all with the mods. trigger reset is as it should be even with defense loads in rapid fire

thats now a total of 300+ rds through it, post-mod, problem free
 
navyairmech has it right

navyairmech has it exactly right.

My SW40VE had a horrible trigger pull that was both gritty and excessively heavy. I performed the same modifications on my weapon, and without spending a dime, I made an entirely new weapon.

The Sear Housing Torsion spring (Small Pigtail spring at the bottom of the sear) can be removed entirely. The larger, outer spring can be removed from the Sear. (This is a double spring)

Polish the Sear and the obvious moving parts without removing metal.

I do not recommend changing the striker spring as this can cause light strikes that do not set off the primer.

lightly oil the trigger assembly and rebuild the weapon and you will have a gun that has a trigger pull only slightly heavier than a Glock... It will still have a long DAO pull, but the break will be much more predictable.

This image is borrowed from another post on the S&W forum.
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why would anyone buy a Sigma for a fun gun? Not to carry? What good is it?

Save your money and get a real gun!
 
I have a Sigma 9VE and the trigger pull doesn't bother me but it's got a "grainy" feeling. If I push the trigger bar down so the sear housing doesn't move it's silky smooth so it's the sear housing rubbing something. I called S&W and they said send it to tham and they will fix it. Free overnight UPS both ways! I've been told when you return a gun to S&W they return it perfect in every way. Something tells me throwing springs away isn't a good idea and for a carry weapon, the added safety the 12# trigger pull gives me peace of mind.
 
I agree with Z06. I own a 9VE and I don't mind the "heavy" trigger. I am still a novice, so my experience is very limited. I may change my mind, the more handguns I shoot, but for now, I like it alot. I have been to the range once, and after 80 rounds, the gritty part is working itself out. It's already more smooth than the 30 rounds fired.
 
Firstly, the trigger on a Sigma is not as "horendous" as many people try to make it appear. It is a long hard pull, but that is the way it was designed. With no manual safety the trigger was made stiffer than many other semi-autos to help minimize accidental discharges due to retention straps, etc., getting inside the trigger guard.

However, anyone who has any revolver experience is accustomed to long hard trigger pulls (my department switched from the SW model 66) so the trigger was so similar I really didn't notice it until I spent an entire day at the range and, after about 400 rounds, my hand was a bit sore.

To solve that problem I pulled out the sear and polished the machined surfaces and removed the pig-tail spring that fit around the pivot pin. My trigger pull dropped from about 10 lbs. to about 5.5-6 pounds and is now much smoother.

Others have simply kept shooting it until, sometime around 500-1000 rounds later, the surfaces smooth themselves and the springs get weaker through use.

Either way works, but my way is much faster. :)
 
I also did a mod.
I removed the pigtail spring on the lower sear pin.
I romoved the outer spring on the sear also.
Brought pull to 4.3 lbs.
This completely changed this gun.
Difference in night and day.
 
Call a gunsmith and ask for a price quote on a trigger job. Simple. Don't do it yourself, if you ever have an issue with the gun and want S&W to do any type of work on it don't do anything yourself.

I learned this the hard way with a Beretta I once owned, thought I could do a simple modification/repair on my own, it worked just fine. Then I had a seperate issue, sent the gun in to Beretta, they found my home modification/repair, called me up and said the warranty was void due to improper service work. They also said I would have to pay for the necessary repair or they could send the gun back to me at my expense and have a local smith do the work.

Bottom line, don't do any repair/modification yourself, ever.
 
I hear if you just keep shooting it it loosens up. I personally owned one for a couple weeks, but could not get past the huge trigger pull. I traded it for a Springfield GI and thus the story of my SA pistols began.
 
Call a gunsmith and ask for a price quote on a trigger job. Simple. Don't do it yourself, if you ever have an issue with the gun and want S&W to do any type of work on it don't do anything yourself.

I learned this the hard way with a Beretta I once owned, thought I could do a simple modification/repair on my own, it worked just fine. Then I had a seperate issue, sent the gun in to Beretta, they found my home modification/repair, called me up and said the warranty was void due to improper service work. They also said I would have to pay for the necessary repair or they could send the gun back to me at my expense and have a local smith do the work.

Bottom line, don't do any repair/modification yourself, ever.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but I think this is horrible advice and I completely disagree.

How did they know that you did it and not a gunsmith? How do you know the modification you made, if made by a gunsmith, would still not have violated the warranty? I think the key word here is modification. There is a difference between polishing things up and swapping springs (reversible) and actually making permanent modifications to the gun.

I'm curious to know what exactly you did to the Beretta.

As for working on your own guns, make sure you know what you are doing and go ahead when it comes to simple things like smoothing and polishing and spring swaps and other reversible changes. Making any permanent modification to a gun, even if done by a gunsmith, is likely to effect warranty service.

Haven't the people complaining about the Sigma trigger pull ever fired a double action revolver? That's what the Sigma trigger is designed to replicate the feel of, since most police were just moving from revolvers to semi-autos.

I have a 1960's High Standard Sentinel that makes the trigger pull of the Sigma feel like it goes off by breathing on it.

If the Sigma trigger is too heavy then you need to build up that girly trigger finger.
 
I own a Sigma SW40ve Looking to fix the 8.5 lb pull to something a little more reasonable.
Click to expand...

A stock Sigma will have a trigger pull far in excess of 8.5 pounds. My well-tuned 3rd Generation Smith DAO's are all more than 10 pounds, and are a joy to shoot.

Shoot the piece more - it will lighten up on it's own. It's a great shooter and one helluva bargain...
 
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