Stopping over-travel: cheating?

[dyl]

Here's what I've done: I went to Ace hardware and bought some adhesive vinyl tabs/appliance feet and cut a pad down to stop the over-travel on the trigger of my pistol. It felt like there was a lot, and now there is none after a single action pull unless I really pull hard enough to compress the vinyl material.

I've actually cut two pad heights. The taller trigger stop pad makes contact towards the end of the single action pull with little increase in resistance. At this height there is no over-travel. At a lower pad height, the trigger breaks and there's a tiny gap and then the pad at least stops metal from striking metal. It's still an improvement to me.

I understand that anything that could potentially obstruct the travel of the trigger is not the greatest idea in an SD situation.

My question is that after hearing how people have learned to improve trigger control (and how important trigger control is) on guns with horrible triggers do you think I'd be cheating myself out of some training with this modification?

 

[.357SIG]

I can't see this helping you in anything but bullseye shooting.

I don't want to say this for sure, because I personally know someone who did the opposite, but most of us will do worse shooting during an actual defensive shooting than we do at the range. Adding a trigger stop will probably not help a thing, as you aren't going to care about trigger control as much as anything else going on. That should be down at the way bottom of the list of priorities, with "not getting shot" at the top.

Anyway, I don't see a felt or vinyl pad being enough to stop up a trigger, but there's always the one-in-a-million chance...

 

[Walt Sherrill]

Some folks do this by using a pencil eraser, and gluing it to the back of the trigger guard, cutting it with a razor blade to the proper size, and then coloring it with a magic marker. .

Others have a gunsmith drill and tap the back of the trigger, and add a screw that is long enough to stop the over-travel.

Note: it helps with rapid shots when shooting in things like IDPA or IPSC, too.

 

[.357SIG]

That would be a good idea too. Get a small stainless steel set screw from Lowes/HD, along with a single threaded tap to match, and a matching size drill bit. You could remove the trigger and easily drill, tap, and install the small screw. It can be adjusted with an allen wrench to the correct depth. this would eliminate the problem with losing the piece and making the gun look cheap.

You can get a tap/drill bit combo from sears for around $5, and the tap handle for another $5. A set screw (like the one below) is only a few dollars for a small bag at Lowes/HD. Total cost: about $15...and you could do all of your guns professionally.

The critical issue is drilling the initial hole. It must be straight. If you have the mechanical ability to drill a straight hole in something, you can do this.

 

[Sarge]

I shoot significantly better, particularly offhand, with a trigger stop installed. This mainly applies to revolvers and 1911's; never tried one on a poly-popper.

 

[JohnKSa]

Be sure you test it thoroughly in both DA and SA if it's a DA/SA. I have one gun with a fitted trigger and while it works perfectly in SA it won't fire reliably in DA--the trigger can't move far enough to drop the hammer. That's fine because it's a range toy but I certainly wouldn't want that sort of "feature" on an SD gun.

Should you make the modification?

Well, improving the trigger on a gun will help you shoot that gun better. Learning to deal with a trigger that is less than ideal will help you shoot any gun better.

If it's a practice gun then I'd leave it alone. It's good practice.

If it's a competition gun or an SD gun then improving the trigger can show a benefit. Just don't mess with anything that can affect the reliability.

 

[Bill DeShivs]

If you use a setscrew you must be very careful not to break the tap off in the gun, and you must use LocTite to keep the screw from moving.
I use eraser trigger stops on all my carry Keltecs. It seems only fitting, plus Keltecs seem to have a lot of overtravel.

 

[Nasty]

There's nothing wrong in this application and is in common use in competition handguns. The simple fact that it's common in competition is testimony to both usefulness and reliability...it works.

The potential for the LocTite to fail could make a simple rubber preferable...if it fails it should simply fall away.

 

[Esteban32696]

I use a pencil eraser, too. Gives me better control & accuracy, especially when firing double/triple taps.

 

[dyl]

Thanks for the input

It's interesting, the DA trigger pull breaks considerably earlier than the SA trigger pull.

The mod has really improved the trigger a lot just testing by dry-firing because there isn't a sudden transition from resistance on the trigger to no resistance at all. Especially in DA.

If dealing with a poor trigger truly does improve someone's shooting (through learning to deal with it at least) then I might go with the more conservative pad height to leave a tiny gap in there. Wouldn't want to mask any deficit in my training. I just read an article in American Handgunner how trigger control was an ultimate necessity - more important than sight picture supposedly.

I don't use this pistol for self defense/home defense, that's what the big 'ol revolver is for for now anyways.

The set screw is a great idea guys, thanks for telling me how to do it! I'll test it out with the pad and if it's not satisfactory that's the next thing on the list. Using a pad was 2 steps up from nothing since the trigger's own built-in stop has worn the finish off of a spot behind the trigger with metal-on-metal contact. My 1 step up was black duct tape both on the area behind the trigger and on the back of the trigger itself. It looked fine (better than this vinyl pad) but I just could build it up high enough with enough uniformity.

Basically, thanks for your thoughts and experience.