Category: trigger

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2011 Bul Armory handguns SAS II Ultralight trigger

I Was Able to Upgrade My SAS II Ultralight’s Trigger Shoe!

I’d mentioned before that I bought a silver and flat-faced trigger shoe from the Bul Armory online store.

The SAS II Ultralight has a modular trigger shoe. At their store, you can chose between 15 different shoes (5 types of shoes, with each being offered in 3 colors).

The gun comes with the short curved black trigger shoe. I bought the short flat silver trigger shoe.

It took me a while to determine how to remove the trigger shoe (sounds simple to do, but not if you don’t have the correct sized allen key).

When I finally got the short curved shoe off, I found that the short flat shoe wouldn’t fit. It required fitting.

Now, I understand what fitting is and why there’s the need to fit 1911 parts, but this is a damned trigger shoe…marketed as modular. It should be immediately swappable, just as most mag releases or slide catches should be immediately swappable.

I was going to let it sit until I went on vacation but this was bugging me, so, today, I fitted that shoe. It was just a hair off. It took maybe 15 minutes to remove just a bit of material from the shoe. The most difficult part was trying to determine where to remove the material (the part that needed to be fit was curved. I ended up taking a bit of material from each end of the curved part, taking my time, removing a bit, then attempting to fit (wash, rinse, repeat).

Once I got the part on, I added a bit of blue thread locker to the overtravel screw (needed to be removed to remove the trigger shoe).

The new trigger shoe looks GOOD!!

SAS II UL with new trigger shoe
SAS II UL with old trigger shoe
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mags RDS trigger

First RDS on the Way, Plus Additional Mags

This weekend, I decided that I wanted more than just two mag for the SAS II, so I ordered two more 16-round mags.

Since I was already ordering something from the Bul Armory USA site, I also ordered a flat trigger shoe in silver.

I have a lot more JHP ammo, as well. I went to Cabelas and bought several boxes of JHP and FMJ 9mm ammo, plus, I’d forgotten that I’d done the same thing maybe two months ago, so I’ve probably 300 rounds of a mix of FMJ and SD ammo.

Today, I ended up buying my first red dot sight (RDS). I bought the Holosun HS507K-X2 ACSS Vulcan, in red, from OpticsPlanet. I had a difficult time chosing between that an the Holosun EPS Carry, but the EPS Carry was expensive (like $400 for the MRS variant). I wanted the ACSS because I’m new to red dots and the ACSS will help with sight positioning. I can buy the EPS Carry next year. As well, the HS507K-X2 ACSS will also fit on my Canik TP9 Elite SC if I decide to go back to carrying that gun.

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bar Canik Canik Fanatik excessive wear RMA spring TP9SA trigger

TP9SA Trigger, Trigger Bar, Firing Pin Block, and Springs Replaced!

I recently published the following post – Issue with one of my TP9SAs (or maybe both).

I sent the tan TP9SA back the week of April 15 in the hopes that Century Arms (the importer of Caniks) would replace some worn parts on the firearm.

I received the gun back today (28 April).

Per the work ticket that they provided when returning the firearm, the gunsmith noticed the trigger parts were “worn/poor” and replaced the trigger, trigger bar, firing pin block, and upgraded the springs.

They also checked headspace, mag catch fitment, ejector functionality, and test-fired 18 rounds (presumably to check the trigger work they performed).

Just dry-firing it, there’s a night/day difference with the trigger. The new trigger spring is still different from what’s in the black one, but at least they fixed the tan handgun’s worn parts. The trigger bar where the trigger spring attaches is flat, vs the original part having nooks at the top portion. It no longer feels that the trigger bar is dragging on another part when pulling the trigger.

I was on the fence on sending the gun back to them, after reading of complaints here and on the FB groups. They were very engaged with the process of me reaching out to them, them sending me info on how to file a claim, them receiving the firearm and working on it in a timely fashion, and them sending me back the firearm (in a real gun box that was discreetly packaged). The gun is also clean (they stated they cleaned it after the test firing). I’ve no complaints at all…I received outstanding service.

I guess I’ll need to visit the range with this firearm soon.

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bar Canik Canik Fanatik excessive wear RMA spring TP9SA trigger

Issue with one of my TP9SAs (or maybe both)

I’ve two Canik TP9SAs.  I bought a black one in Jan of 2014.  Back then I was planning to move to CA.  I’d decided to buy another TP9SA since no Caniks are on the CA DOJ Approved List of guns, so I bought the tan TP9SA.

I’d always wondered why there was a drastic difference between the two triggers.  For reference, the below are the trigger pull stats for both handguns:

Black handgun:

2 lb 14.3 oz

2 lb 15.8

2 lb 7.3

3 lb 1.4

2 lb 8.0

Average – 2 lb 12.6 oz

Tan handgun:

3 lb 12.3 oz

3 lb 3.3

3 lb 2.1

3 lb 2.9

3 lb 4.8

Average: 3 lb 5.1 oz

Initially, I’d noticed that the trigger bar on the tan one appeared to be rubbing against the frame, so I thought that was why.  Maybe two weeks ago, I decided to remove the slides of both and put them side by side so that I could compare components, knowing that the black TP9SA had the good trigger.  Well, I noticed that the trigger springs appear to greatly differ between the two guns!  The black handgun appears to have the lighter spring with more coils.  The tan gun’s trigger spring is heavier with less coils.

When I posted pictures to Canik Fanatik’s forums, I was told that the tan gun had the standard spring and that the black one may be out of spec.

Keep in mind, both guns were bought new.  The black handgun was bought locally, at a gun store.  The tan gun was bought from Prepper Gunshop.

I dry fire both a lot, although I don’t shoot them much.  I’ve a lot of handguns, so I tend to rotate my favorites a lot…the Caniks are good but are not my favorites, so the round counts for both are low.  I’ve shot 150 rounds from the tan handgun and 100 rounds from the black gun.  Still, that’s way too much wear from just dry firing.  As well, I dry fire them roughly the same amount, but only the one handgun has excessive wear.

I mention the dry fire because the tan TP9SA has a lot of wear on the bar/lever that the spring is attached to.  On the top of that lever is supposed to be a 90 degree edge.  That edge is completely gone and almost worn level.  On the black handgun, the edge is present.  As well, on the striker surface that the trigger bar actuates, the surface is worn and material appears to be missing (it’s supposed to be a flat surface, but the area is beveled from excessive wear.

I’m currently OK with the way the black handgun’s trigger is.  It’s light but not too light (it’s about as light as I’m willing to allow).  There’s no wear.  At least one person at Canik Fanatik’s forums thinks there’s something wrong with the black handgun, but I don’t think anything is wrong with it….as long as there’s no excessive wear, I’m OK with it.

So, I reached out to Canik and told them the issues.  They replied back asking for a slew of information so that they could process the RMA.  Once I get the RMA number from them, I’ll send it to them to check out, tune, or replace.

I’ll update the blog as I’m updated by Canik.

UPDATE – 4/22/2021:  Century Arms currently has the Canik.  Due to Coronavirus, it may be awhile before it’s repaired and sent back to me, but I’m patiently awaiting.

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1911 Lyman trigger trigger gauge trigger pull

Trigger Measurements – Part II

Yesterday I posted some trigger pull measurements of some of my handguns.  After seeing those results, I was curious as to how the rest of my handguns compared.

For each handguns, I measured trigger pull by averaging out 5 pull results.  I also posted low measurements for the majority of them.

Here are the results:

Bersa Thunder 380 Plus –DA – 7lb even, with a low of 6lb 4oz
SA – 3lb 10oz, with a low of 3lb 9oz

Beretta PX4 Storm Compact –DA – 9lb 4oz, with a low of 8lb 15oz
SA – 3lb 12oz, with a low of 3lb 3oz

Springfield Armory XD9 Mod.2 Subcompact – 4lb 9oz average, with a low of 4lb 6oz

Ruger SR9C –5lb 7oz, with a low of 5lb 1oz

Glock 19 –5lb 5oz average with a low of 5lb even

SIG Sauer P320 Compact –5lb 7oz average with a low of 5lb 3oz

Metro Arms American Classic Commander (1911) – 2lb 15oz average with a low of 2lb 8oz (!!)

I had no idea that 1911 would measure that low.  It’s one of three 1911s that I own, but it’s also one of the best that I own.  I knew it was good but didn’t know the trigger would generate such a low measurement.  I’ll update this page later tonight with the results of the triggers of the other two 1911s, just to compare all three of them.

UPDATE:

I measured my 1911s:

Rock Island Armory MS 1911 (22tcm) – 2lb 12oz average with a low of 2lb 10oz

Rock Island Armory MS 1911 (9mm) – 3lb 13oz average with a low of 3lb 8 oz

UPDATE 2:

I measured my Glock 22 Gen 3 police trade-in (has a 5 lb trigger):

Glock 22 Gen 3 (40 S&W) – 4lb 10.8oz average of 5 with a low of 4lb 4.9oz

Springfield Armory XD45 Mod.2 Subcompact – 5lb 0.1oz average with a low of 4lb 10oz

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Canik TP9SA Lyman trigger trigger gauge

Trigger Measurements – Part I

About a week ago, I was cleaning my two TP9SA handguns.  They’re both identical but when actuating their triggers, both seemed to have different weights, to a significant degree, which kind of bugs me.

I decided to buy a Lyman trigger gauge.  I picked it up this morning and decided to check the triggers before I went to work.

Here’s what I found:

Canik TP9SA (black) – 3lb 11oz, average of 5; got as low as 3lb 9oz

TP9SA (tan) – 4lb 11oz, average of 5; got as low as 4lb 5oz

That’s a pretty drastic difference (1 lb).  Tan gun’s trigger is noticeably stiffer, which is why I decided to buy a trigger gauge in the first place.  I looked at the trigger bar and it appears it may be rubbing against the frame.  I’m not going to mess with it, though.

I then decided to check some of my other handguns:

Tristar T-100 – DA is 11lb 10oz, average of 5; got as low as 11lb 9oz (was difficult to measure the trigger evenly, since the pull is so strong and the trigger is curved upward).  SA is 4lb 12oz, with the lowest of 5 at 4lb 4oz.

Grand Power P-11 – DA is at 8lb 3oz, average of 5; got as low as 8lb even!  SA – 3lb 10oz, with a lowest of 5 at 3lb 1oz!  DA is super smooth and was easy to get a reading.  In half-cock, the DA got an average of 7lb 13oz.

Sig Sauer P220 Equinox – DA is average of 10lb 2oz; SA is average of 5lb 7 oz.

Sig Sauer SP2022 – DA is average of 7lb 12oz with lowest of 5 at 6lb 6oz (pulled fast and smooth).  SA is average of 4lb 4oz with low of 3lb 9oz.

Note that most of these guns have low round counts, especially the P220 and Caniks.  The Grand Power has over 1200 rounds through it, which is probably one reason why it’s so smooth (but it was a stand-out even when brand new).

Stay tuned for Part II, where I measure the triggers of my other handguns.

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1911 45ACP 9mm Metro Arms Mod.2 recoil RIA trigger XD

1911 & XD Range Visit

I went to the range yesterday to start the break-in process of the 1911s and the XD Mod.2 I recently acquired. This is just a general sharing of information and experience.

I was supposed to take the P320 and the Glock. I decided to take the 1911s instead, since I’ve no experience with them. The XD was taken because I’d never fired a subcompact.

I started off with the Metro Arms 45ACP 1911 Commander. I shot from 21 feet using Remington UMC and Perfecta FMJ. I was all over the place at first — excited and not knowing finger placement on it’s trigger — but was able to walk my bullets into the bulls-eye within 7 rounds (last round didn’t feed due to an FTE). This gun is super-tight when compared to what I’ve previously shot and compared to my current collection of guns. It doesn’t wiggle or rattle. It has a great trigger. A lot of the recoil didn’t make it to my firing hand…it manages recoil a lot better than my P220. I shot maybe 70 rounds and didn’t want to put this gun down, but I had to shoot all three within the hour’s session.

The RIA Tactical 9mm Commander wasn’t as fun to shoot as the Metro Arms, mainly because the trigger has some irritating slop, which affected my trigger pull. It wags from side to side a good bit, which I do NOT like. I’m going to have to get that fixed. It was extremely noticeable after experiencing the 45’s tight trigger.  Although the trigger was a pain point, part of it was probably because of a shift from one gun to another.  Eventually, I was able to nail the bulls-eye.  Recoil wasn’t an issue, but the gun weighs 40oz and is chambered in 9mm, so I wasn’t expecting recoil to be an issue. I’ve the original mag and bought 3 WC mags (all four are 10-rounders). I noticed that the gun would fail to extract near the end of the mags maybe half the time. I fired 50 rounds before moving to the subcompact.

The XD Mod.2 9mm I have is the first subcompact I’ve ever fired. It’s also the smallest of the two subs that I have. There wasn’t as much recoil as I thought there would be, which is a great reflection on the design of this gun. It comes with two mags, one having a mag sleeve, which felt better since it’s maybe an inch longer and enabled me to get a better grip. The trigger is sloppy, IMO. There’s lots of take-up and I’ve to let out the trigger a large amount before it resets. This wouldn’t be a problem if I hadn’t grown used to my Canik TP9SA’s trigger. There were no malfunctions with this gun. It shot decently (no bulls-eye but all the hits certainly could be considered center mass). It feels like an average gun, but maybe that how any non-1911 gun would seem after shooting 1911s first…I don’t know. I also only shot 30 rounds before I ran out of range time. That’s not a lot of time to get a feel for a gun. I never got comfortable with this gun…that’s not a bad thing…it just means I didn’t have enough time to get properly acquainted with it.

I’m positively in love with the Metro Arms. I love the big bang with the negated recoil. I’m shocked at how well it feels when firing and cycling…very smooth. It feels “rich” when it isn’t. It’s going with me on my next range visit, for sure. It is now the favorite of my guns.

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9mm magazines polymer SP2022 trigger

My Sig SP2022 9mm Arrived Today!

I thought I’d only get one magazine (the ad said only one was included), but I ended up with two!  That’s a huge deal, as they are expensive.  And I just got two new mags for this gun, too!  Now, if I’d paid attention to the ad pictures, I’d have seen that there were two mags in the pictures (one in the gun and one in a clear plastic bag).   What else?  It has the round-in-chamber indicator on top of the gun, which is pretty damned cool (I’ll keep visually checking the chamber, though).  I also swapped out the installed backstrap for the bigger one…it feels much better.  The grips are difficult to remove (needs a big screwdriver and some leverage).  I wonder if I should lube the mount area…

I cleaned it (surprisingly, it was filthy…like it had been shot a few times and not cleaned…it’s supposed to be new…WTF) and found that this example has a metal recoil spring guide.  There are many videos stating that this was plastic and people were replacing them with aftermarket metal guides.  I’ve no idea how this affects the limited warranty that covers new Sig products.  Based on the fact that the gun had obviously been fired and because it has a metal recoil spring guide, the gun is more than likely not new.  It’s not a huge deal, but it was misrepresented nonetheless.

I bought 100 rounds of American Eagle FMJ 9mm rounds ($17 a box at the gun shop).  I also bought a box of 20 Federal HST JHP 9mm ($28??!).  9mm is cheaper than .45ACP, that’s for sure!  ðŸ™‚

I loaded up two magazines to begin the break-in period…they’re stiff as hell.  The other two mags are empty.  I’ll rotate the rounds from one to the other…I don’t want all my ammo in the mags.  They hold 15 rounds apiece, so that would be a significant amount of my ammo.

This gun is sweet!  It’s different than my Equinox.  The Equinox looks and feels (and IS) expensive.  The SP feels more…practical.  It actually fits my hands better…the grip is fantastic, even if it’s plastic (yes, this is a polymer gun).  The trigger even feels a bit better, although I haven’t compared reset between the two.  My wife prefers the feel of the Equinox (the feel of money…LOL) over the SP.  I like both of them in different ways.

I plan to visit the range tomorrow and maybe even Sunday and Monday, just to get some practice in.