APEX sear issue in M&P

[part-time shooter]

After quite a bit of use I've got a M&P 40 with an APEX sear installed that is just too slick. I installed it ages ago and have used it fairly heavily over the past year or so. Now I'm starting to think it's too light for safe use. Case in point I double tapped a target during my last range session with this pistol, without meaning to :eek:....the ND surprised the hell out of me as I'd never done this before with any other firearm, ever. The reset and pull are now such that resetting the trigger during recovery appears to be dangerous. I'd not paid much attention to this but the pull that was ~5-6 lbs when newly installed now feels closer to 3 lbs, maybe less, the rear of the sear is polished from use and very smooth, which you'd expect from the trigger pull.

My question(s) is this, can the trigger pull be increased with stock parts? I haven't replaced anything in the pistol since I installed the sear, it's all stock with the exception of the sear.

Can the pull be increased without replacing the sear? I like the feel of the trigger with the APEX sear installed but I've shot stock M&P's extensively as well and don't need one installed.

Were there any issues with the early M&P's that might be causing the trigger pull to decrease over time. The S/N on the pistol is MPA3XXX so its certainly not a new gun. I haven't seen anyone post about such an issue on the few forums I read but that doesn't mean I didn't miss something from a few years ago.

Thanks.

[JV_]

My question(s) is this, can the trigger pull be increased with stock parts? I haven't replaced anything in the pistol since I installed the sear, it's all stock with the exception of the sear.

You can increase the pull with a MA trigger spring, IIRC - it's red. You may or may not have to (slightly) modify the trigger bar for it to fit correctly, I didn't have to on my gun. Another alternative is the Apex Duty/Carry trigger spring, it's not quite as strong as the S&W MA spring, but should fit without a modification.

[rsa-otc]

Also you may want to consider the number of rounds you've put through the gun since you first installed the APEX kit. Like any spring the APEX springs may have lost some tension due to the heavy usage. Before I would do to much I would replace the springs with new DCAEK springs.

[Magsz]

Even a VERY heavily used sear is not going to polish to the point where you're going to be dropping pounds from your trigger weight.

Variations in trigger pull weight from use will come from the springs.

Replace your trigger spring and your sear spring.

JV recommended the MA spring which is about a half pound heavier than the DCAEK spring if recall correctly. The heavier trigger return spring will spread the weight out quite a bit over the trigger press motion so this might work well for you but keep in mind that if you're shooting to reset you're only going to see a marginal increase in pull weight as the spring is already compressed (or in the case of the M&P) stretched towards its maximum tension right before the break point.

Regardless, adding a pound or so to the entire pull weight or getting yourself back up to the 5.5lb range will do wonders for helping you with your issue.

Last but not least, you are in control of the gun, if you double tapped its not the gun, its your finger. :) We've all been there.

[Savage Hands]

Do you have the small or large sear block? I have 2 Apex installed and polished DCAEK's and forum member 45R used a trigger gauge which recorded a ~5.1 pound average break on my FS9 with the small sear plunger and a ~5.6 pound average break on my 9c with the large sear plunger. I'm tempted on trying the MA spring trigger spring return since it 'feels' lighter than the indicated pull.

[DocGKR]

part-time shooter:

Have you actually measured the trigger pull weight at mid-trigger to get objective, quantifiable data or is this all subjective "feel"?

Have you contacted Apex?

Does your M&P have the manual safety?

[Randy Lee]

After quite a bit of use I've got a M&P 40 with an APEX sear installed that is just too slick. I installed it ages ago and have used it fairly heavily over the past year or so. Now I'm starting to think it's too light for safe use. Case in point I double tapped a target during my last range session with this pistol, without meaning to :eek:....the ND surprised the hell out of me as I'd never done this before with any other firearm, ever. The reset and pull are now such that resetting the trigger during recovery appears to be dangerous. I'd not paid much attention to this but the pull that was ~5-6 lbs when newly installed now feels closer to 3 lbs, maybe less, the rear of the sear is polished from use and very smooth, which you'd expect from the trigger pull.

My question(s) is this, can the trigger pull be increased with stock parts? I haven't replaced anything in the pistol since I installed the sear, it's all stock with the exception of the sear.

Can the pull be increased without replacing the sear? I like the feel of the trigger with the APEX sear installed but I've shot stock M&P's extensively as well and don't need one installed.

Were there any issues with the early M&P's that might be causing the trigger pull to decrease over time. The S/N on the pistol is MPA3XXX so its certainly not a new gun. I haven't seen anyone post about such an issue on the few forums I read but that doesn't mean I didn't miss something from a few years ago.

Thanks.

Hi and thanks for using our sear!

There are a lot of ways to increase the pull weight with our sear. The original design was intended to yield about a 4 lb pull. What weight would you like to increase to?

A MA trigger return spring will increase the pre load weight by about a pound. While it does increase weight, it tends to make the trigger break point less defined for me.

If you have an older gun, it is likely that you have the smaller sear spring and plunger. The sear housing can be milled to accept the current production .125" sear spring and plunger. We offer the modification to your existing sear housing if you cannot find a replacement from Midway or Brownells. The larger spring will also reduce the chances of experiencing a dead trigger due to sear bounce.

Our Duty/Carry springs will up the pull weight to 5 lbs and are balanced to complement the feel of our sear.

-Randy

[part-time shooter]

Thanks for all the reply's guys.

Doc when I installed the sear I measured it but no longer have access to the device to do that with. It was ~5.5 lbs when "new". I'm comparing it to a stock sear equipped gun at the moment with a 6 lb trigger. That's as close as I can come to measuring the trigger weight at the moment. It's entirely subjective. There is no manual safety on this particular M&P but it does have a mag disconnect safety, it was the first one I purchased after shooting 1911's for years. I bought it to evaluate the M&P so it's never been a carry gun but it's been shot fairly heavily.

Hi Randy
Given the reply's I've gotten so far I think I may be suffering form two separate issues, one with the trigger spring and maybe with the sear spring as well. I wasn't aware that the housing had been changed to solve the dead trigger issue, I've never had an issue with that. Are the replacement blocks "drop in" parts? I'm looking to bring the trigger weight up the the 6 lb range but keep it smooth while doing so. This M&P has very little tactile feel to the reset, it never has had a well defined reset, so improving that would be a huge improvement as well.