Rugerfan
NES Member
In my attempt to make a silk purse out or a sow's ear, I have become obsessed with improving the feel and weight of a stock Glock G19 trigger (see G19 Competition triggers thread). I have in my possession one G19 Gen 3 lower assembly, and two slide assemblies. The slide assemblies induced varying degrees of gritty/notchy/stacking/crappy trigger operation when used on the same lower assembly.
Here is what I discovered.
Slide # 1 had the lower weight trigger pull of the two overall, so I started with this one. Did the $.25 trigger job to the lower, polished the snot out of the places that needed it, polished the trigger safety plunger where the trigger bar strikes it, etc. I noticed that the safety plunger had a conical profile where it contacts the trigger bar, a truncated cone profile if you want to be specific. I reassembled it and it now felt better, slightly lighter, but still had some gritty/notchy/stacking feel.
Slide # 2 started out with a slightly heavier pull, but less gritty/notchy/stacking feel. I polished the trigger safety plunger, reassembled, and voila, lighter pull and better feel than slide # 1. I did notice that the plunger in this slide had a rounded, mushroom like shoulder profile.
Not satisfied yet, I started swapping parts around to find the best combination. When I pulled the striker out of slide #1, I found that the flat, square shaped section behind the actual "firing pin" had developed a burr on all 4 sides where it strikes the inside of the slide at the end of it's forward travel. I gently removed the burrs with 3000 grit wet paper. This striker is apparently made from a softer material, hence the peening. When reassembled, most of the gritty/notchy business was gone, stacking still remained. I gently re-profiled the safety plunger to approximate the mushroom shape found on the plunger in slide # 2, reassembled it, and now it felt almost as good as the other slide.
As slide # 1 is cut for a red dot and will be the one I intend to use in competition, I swapped all of the guts from # 2 into it and got the best feel of the bunch. The soft striker that had the peening issue will be replaced as soon as I can find a better one.
In conclusion, the profile of the safety plunger had the most overall affect on how the trigger felt. The rounded mushroom shape plunger resulted in a smoother and lighter trigger overall.
YMMV
Here is what I discovered.
Slide # 1 had the lower weight trigger pull of the two overall, so I started with this one. Did the $.25 trigger job to the lower, polished the snot out of the places that needed it, polished the trigger safety plunger where the trigger bar strikes it, etc. I noticed that the safety plunger had a conical profile where it contacts the trigger bar, a truncated cone profile if you want to be specific. I reassembled it and it now felt better, slightly lighter, but still had some gritty/notchy/stacking feel.
Slide # 2 started out with a slightly heavier pull, but less gritty/notchy/stacking feel. I polished the trigger safety plunger, reassembled, and voila, lighter pull and better feel than slide # 1. I did notice that the plunger in this slide had a rounded, mushroom like shoulder profile.
Not satisfied yet, I started swapping parts around to find the best combination. When I pulled the striker out of slide #1, I found that the flat, square shaped section behind the actual "firing pin" had developed a burr on all 4 sides where it strikes the inside of the slide at the end of it's forward travel. I gently removed the burrs with 3000 grit wet paper. This striker is apparently made from a softer material, hence the peening. When reassembled, most of the gritty/notchy business was gone, stacking still remained. I gently re-profiled the safety plunger to approximate the mushroom shape found on the plunger in slide # 2, reassembled it, and now it felt almost as good as the other slide.
As slide # 1 is cut for a red dot and will be the one I intend to use in competition, I swapped all of the guts from # 2 into it and got the best feel of the bunch. The soft striker that had the peening issue will be replaced as soon as I can find a better one.
In conclusion, the profile of the safety plunger had the most overall affect on how the trigger felt. The rounded mushroom shape plunger resulted in a smoother and lighter trigger overall.
YMMV
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