How Important is Pre Travel Weight to a “Good” Trigger
I have been thinking about what makes certain guns triggers more forgiving from a pure shooting perspective. This has nothing to do with “safety”, etc.
I noticed, I tend to shoot 6-8lb DA pulls about the best for pure, slow accuracy. I also noticed that these pulls have no discernible wall at the end of pre travel, you just keep increasing the pressure, the trigger moves and it goes off without warning.
I have no experience with tuned practical shooting competition or bullseye guns, so won’t comment, but I think they have pretty light triggers.
I measure a bunch of guns to find out how heavy the wall is after pre travel is taken up:
Tuned CZ 75SA: 0.5 lbs
G19X: 1.5 lbs
Cent Tac with TJIB: 1.5 lbs
P30L: 1.5 lbs
G45: 1.5 lbs
VP9: 1.5 lbs
Stock LTT: 2.0 lbs
G48: 2.0 lbs
G4G19: 2.0 lbs
G3G26: 2.0 lbs
G43: 2.0 lbs
P2000 V2 LEM: 3.0lbs
Two stand outs: the CZ 75 and the LEM. I haven’t shot that CZ more than once, but I got 500 aggregate personal record that stood for two years the time I shot it. I have always shot the LEM worse than other triggers.
Makes you think. It also makes me think that increasing pre travel weight to the LEM is the way to go to make it better shooting, not decreasing that weight. Increasing pre travel weight will increase overall force, but decrease the or minimize that 3 lb wall as a percentage of that force.
I think this measurement also explains why the G5 Glock triggers are universally liked
better than prior generations. It may also explain a bit of why the VP9 is such a forgiving gun.
Interested in thoughts?
How Important is Pre Travel Weight to a “Good” Trigger
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Alpha Sierra
Not sure I understand.
What do you call "pre-travel"? Is that trigger movement that has no effect on sear engagement? If so, then it doesn't matter to me.
My CZs have some, both in DA and in SA. It's so light that I don't notice it.
My S&W revolvers have no "pre-travel" at all. Any movement of the trigger immediately starts affecting something to do with dropping the hammer. Their single actions have no travel at all, or at least none that my finger can detect. Very crisp.
I guess pre travel is an imprecise term. First stage take up is perhaps better? The weight of the trigger before it hits “the wall” prior to break.
Good DAO revolvers have essentially no wall, just heavy travel all the way through.
I am open to suggestions to change the title.
Also, I pressed send prematurely on my post so I added the trigger weights above.
How Important is Pre Travel Weight to a “Good” Trigger
Quote:
Originally Posted by
JHC
IDK.
I've got two questions that have me puzzled.
How did you find the "wall" on the G45? Its (and the 19X) rolling trigger doesn't present me with the stark "wall" that my older Glocks do. On the 43 however, it's noticeable.
How do you measure just the wall?
Now to you your central question - what makes a trigger forgiving (which is a very good question); lately I'm of the mind that how clean it finally breaks/fires is a pretty big deal. More so than take up. "Clean" being without a feeling of a dragging/sliding final break.
I just put the trigger gauge on, noted where the pre travel was taken up and noted again where it broke. It isn’t terribly precise, but within 1/4 lb.
The G45 has a wall, it’s just kind of mushy and I think that is part of why I like the trigger so much compared to the crisper prior generations.