Every trigger of every firearm requires a certain amount of force to press/pull/activate it. Generally speaking, the lighter the pull, the easier the trigger is to manipulate and therefore you can operate the machine more effectively.

Buddy of mine lent me a trigger pull gauge over the weekend. I just measured a bunch of my guns and the results were surprising.

I measured a stock XD-9 vs. an XD-9 with a Springer Precision trigger parts kit vs. a XD-9 with a Springer Precision installed trigger job. As expected, the trigger pull weights went down respectively. The parts kit didn’t reduce the trigger pull weight as much as advertised but I’ll also say that I wasn’t able to measure this particular gun before and after the kit, only measuring a totally different but fully stock gun. Nevertheless, the kit is a huge improvement over the factory trigger (reduced take-up, reduced over-travel, reduced pull weight). The installed trigger job I was also surprised at because I asked for a particular weight but today measured a weight about a pound above what I had asked for. I’m not sure if I didn’t get the weight I wanted or if there’s discrepancy between how they measured vs. how I measured, or maybe something with the gauge. I’m going to chalk it up to user-error in the measuring process or something about the scale itself, and trust Springer Precision did everything right (they’re a stand-up company with a good reputation and I have no reason to doubt them).

The thing is, Savage advertises that their AccuTrigger can be adjusted down to 1.5# weight. I have one such trigger and it’s adjusted all the way down, but it measured 2.75#. So… there’s an extra pound in the measurement. Is it how I’m measuring? Is it something with this scale?  If we chalk it up to one of those factors, then all the issues with the Springer triggers goes away and the numbers come out about right. Or of course, it could be the trigger is actually that weight. Don’t have enough ways to externally validate the numbers I’m seeing.

It was also interesting to see how other factors of the trigger contributed to the trigger feel. For instance, my snub’s trigger weight and the weight on a particular AR single-stage trigger were about the same, but the AR trigger feels much better and to my brain always felt lighter because it doesn’t travel as far as the snub’s trigger.

Overall, I don’t care that much about the specific numbers, more that it was interesting to see what the guns came in at and how they compared to each other and then how this all entered into the feel. Just a little fun with a pull weight gauge. 🙂

Updated: I did a little more playing with this. Consider a trigger is a lever and if you pull closer to the fulcrum (where the trigger pivots) it’s going to require more force than if you pull towards the tip of the trigger. If I try almost at the tip of the trigger of the XD with the trigger kit, I lost about a half-pound of pull from my previous measurements, so that brings the pull weight reduction more in line with their advertised reductions. Trying with the Springer-installed job and while I can get a hair lower than before it’s still not down where I asked for it to be.