We did some trigger work earlier in the build. However it has become painfully obvious that we needed to revisit this. The trigger is still terrible, and I personally cannot live with it like this. Yes, I am spoiled, I shoot rifles and pistols with good triggers. So I may need to tame my expectations some. I can live with a crappy trigger, just not a terrible one.
People use terms to describe triggers like a “Glass Rod Breaking” or “Squishy”. It’s hard to describe this trigger. It is a two stage trigger, the first stage take up it fine. Then you hit the second stage and you continue to push pressure on the trigger thinking “Anytime now” all the while trying to maintain a sight picture. The trigger doesn’t feel like it moves, it feels like it hits a stop. However if you keep putting pressure on it, it will eventually go off. While some people describe a good trigger break as surprising, I truly believe that this is not the surprise they mean.
There are a few things we are going to try and do to improve this trigger.
- We’re going to polish all of the contact surfaces.
- We’re going to clip the second leaf on the trigger spring.
- Replaced the Striker
- Replace the Sear, Disconnector and Sear
I suspect the majority of people want to know what other options are out there before they put in the work required for options #1 or #2 so let’s take a look.
CNC Warrior
In our previous trigger work we purchased the 1 piece sear, and a new trigger, from CNC Warrior. We did a bit of work to it to clean off the burrs but that was about it. At the time the trigger did feel improved but during sight in, it became painfully obvious there was a long way to go.
I get the feeling with these parts, they are more about replacement parts and ensuring compliance with 922(r) then they are about actually improving the feel and function of the trigger. There is one part that is not listed in the photo and that is the striker, on inspecting my striker there is some wear that might be causing the issue, so I’m going to give CNC Warrior the benefit of the doubt.
As far as I can tell CNC Warrior does not sell replacement strikers, so we will need to look elsewhere for that.
Apex Gun Parts
Apex Gun parts is a great website for gun parts. They typically have a mix of new components and used components. They have a good selection of VZ-58 components including used strikers. So we may purchase a replacement striker from them, however if it has the same wear pattern and this striker has, then it might not be worth it.
Similar to CNC Warrior, they aren’t advertising new and improved triggers, just US Made components to help get the rifle to 922(r) compliance. Without trying them I couldn’t say if there is a improvement or not, but it is nice to know if I screw up the sear or striker I can easily get replacement parts.
Bone Steel Arms
This is likely going where we purchase a replacement trigger group from. That is if we cannot improve what we have with home remedies. This is the only seller that I have seen that makes a point of saying that it improves the overall feel of the trigger. While the reviews are mixed, we’ll take a risk.
They also offer a replacement striker but they do not indicate if it is a new manufacture or used stock. At $15 it is hard to believe it is new US Manufacture as it is priced identically to the Apex parts.
Clipping the Flat Spring
The flat spring offers spring tension for both both the sear and the auto sear. I have resisted the urge to clip it just because I wanted to keep the gun a whole as possible. It’s probably a silly reason. Given that the 1 piece sear offered by CNC Warrior is long enough to utilize both springs, we are probably shooting ourselves in the proverbial foot by not clipping it.
New manufacture springs do not have the auto sear leaf, if we had not gone with the 1 piece sear and used the original sear assembly in the built kit this likely wouldn’t be an issue. Since a new sear is one of our 922(r) compliant parts, we are stuck with it how it is.
In new manufactured rifles this spring is riveted in the receiver and is not removable. We opted to use a screw and nut to hold it in place because we knew we’d need to tear down the rifle several times and make adjustments.
So did it make a difference? Well that is a resounding yes. Night and day difference. I can now describe the trigger as squishy. Which takes it from a terrible no good trigger, to a crappy but livable one. From what I have read online, there is likely not much I can do to clean up the trigger anymore. However, we will try to do a bit of polishing.
Worn Striker and Sear Polishing
I did stone the flat area on the striker to try and remove any burrs or tool marks. Then I used a 400 grit rouge and felt wheel on a dremel to polish the surface. I did this work in combination with polishing the contact surface on the sear.
Most of what we accomplished was removing the tooling marks, and hopefully making the surface a little slicker. Eventually after firing the parts are going to wear together. This may improve or degrade the feel of the trigger, my hope would be that over time the trigger gets better.
After reinstalling the sear and striker, I really did not feel much of a difference. If there was one it was not as noticeable as clipping the spring. So it is possible that it was a wasted effort.
What Did We Learn?
The biggest take away is that if you go with the one piece sear from CNC Warrior, and your trigger is unreliably heavy, then clip the spring. Alternatively you can order a new spring that was manufactured without the auto sear leaf. Polishing the sear, and striker contact surfaces had no noticeable effect on overall trigger feel.
Since we have resolved the main issue with the trigger, without doing irreparable harm to the components (except maybe for the spring) we’ll forgo trying some of the other options on the market.