P226 upgrades - Grayguns trigger, SRT, and Wolff hammer spring

[Marlow]

Hi All,

I thought I would share my recent upgrades to my Sig P226. I bought it new about a year ago as a stock MA model. A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to shoot a friend's P229 with the Grayguns P-Str8 adjustable trigger and the Sig SRT (Short Reset Trigger) sear. It felt like the Grayguns trigger made a huge difference in terms of pre-travel and smoothness of the DA pull. The Grayguns trigger is also adjustable for over-travel. That, combined with the short reset, means that the trigger barely moves at all to reset in SA.

I had noticed a lot of stacking in the stock DA trigger and the pull was extremely heavy. I don't have a trigger scale but it felt like 12+ lbs. So I decided to also install a reduced power mainspring from Wolff Gunsprings.

Installation of these parts is pretty straight forward, but it requires disassembly of most of the components in the frame. This is my first attempt doing any type of disassembly of a handgun outside of basic field stripping and cleaning. I won't go through the disassembly and install step by step as there are plenty of good youtube videos on disassembly and re-assembly of the Sig classic P-series guns.

Obligatory safety message: Ensure any firearm is unloaded and the chamber empty before field stripping or attempting any disassembly.

The three components purchased for this install:

Sig SRT trigger kit: https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1...rt-reset-trigger-kit-sig-sauer-p226-p227-p229
Consists of new sear and safety lever.

Wolff Gunsprings Hammer Spring Pak: https://www.gunsprings.com/Semi-Auto Pistols/SIG-SAUER (SIGARMS)/P-226/cID1/mID4/dID254
Came with 3 reduced power springs: 19#, 18#, and 17#. Accidentally ordered the pack for older metal spring base Sigs, had to cancel and reorder the correct springs for the plastic spring base.

Grayguns P-Str8 Precision Adjustable Straight Trigger: https://grayguns.com/product/p-series-precision-adjustable-straight-trigger/
Adjustable for pre-travel and over-travel.

New parts:


Stock gun:


Disassembled:


Reassembled with new trigger:


It took me about an hour and a half to disassemble, clean, re-lube and reinstall everything with the new parts not including time spent screwing around with the new trigger adjustments and dry firing to get a feel for the new trigger.

For anyone thinking of doing this or a similar install, here are some tips that might be useful:
- I spent a lot of time getting the damn E2 grips off. I had taken the grips off several times before but I'm starting to hate them. I used the tool provided by Sig with the gun, but I find myself sticking wooden sticks broken off of cotton swabs to hold the grips away from the frame so I can slide them off. My next upgrade might be trying out some of the Hogue G-10 grips.
- DO NOT force anything! The parts in the frame should basically fall out of the gun once a few pins and springs are removed and they reinstall just as easy. If you have to force a part out or back in then something is out of place or not lined up correctly.
- Keep a thumb or your hand over any spring, but especially the hammer spring, as you remove it/reinstall it. At least in my basement, anything that flies across the room is probably not going to be found.
- When removing the trigger, the trigger bar will NOT want to clear the inside of the frame. As stated above, do not push, pull, force, or bend it. Just keep wiggling it and eventually you will find a position where it will slip free.
- The trigger pivot pin is not a screw. It does have a slot for a flathead screwdriver because it has to be oriented perfectly to reinstall the locking block. I was aware of this before I started, but I struggled getting the position just right so that the locking block will drop in. If it doesn't drop into place the pin is not position correctly.
- The SRT sear and safety lever reinstall is simple but tricky: It is easy to hold everything together with a punch through the sear pin holes. That is until you have to reinstall the sear spring. I found the best method was to use the punch on one side, and the wooden end of a cotton swab on the other. I could then push-pull with the punch and the swab to hold the parts in place while I installed the sear spring inside the sear.
- Cleaned and relubricated all parts with LucasOil Extreme Duty grease. Grease works great as "glue" to hold a part in place while reinstalling a pin, etc. For example, a dab of grease on the side of the locking block will hold the takedown spring in place so it's not in the way when you go to reinstall the locking block.

After install, the DA pull was significantly lighter. I have to get a trigger scale on it, but I would say its much closer to 10lbs. I'm not sure if it is from the re-lube, or the reduced power hammer spring (probably both), but there is now almost no detectable "stacking" in the DA pull. It still long and heavy, but now smooth all the through. I still have to work on the pre-travel adjustment, there's a couple mm of travel in the trigger before the hammer spring starts to compress, but I can adjust that out. Overall, it's now so much easier to hold the front sight on the target with no movement as you pull through the DA trigger. The SA pull stayed roughly the same, but now the reset occurs with almost no movement at all due to the new sear and trigger overtravel adjustment.

I haven't had a chance to shoot it yet but I'm going to try to get out to the range one night this week. Does anyone else have any experience with the Grayguns straight trigger? Pros? Cons? Let me know what you think.

 

[sigfanboy13]

Nice bunch of upgrades, I have the Gray Guns spring kit, GG adjustable trigger,the solid steel guide rod,and the SRT in my 229. They really do make a great upgrade. As for the flat trigger, I don't have it but someone I know love it just due to the way it fits his finger.

 

[92G]

the main thing that fixed your trigger was the wolff hammer spring. the other doo dads are just matter of personal preference. the SRT is great unless shooting with a glove then I much prefer the stock reset system (that has the reset further out from the break). iv'e never used the gray trigger so can't speak on that, but it looks freaking weird.

 

[MC56]

I have the 17# mainspring in mine from Wolf and the srt kit. Don't have a trigger gauge but it's definitely under 8lbs and I've never had a light strike in several thousand rounds of various range ammo, HPs, and reloads. Great gun.

 

[rogues]

Doesn't the Legion series us the Gray trigger?

 

[chris_1001]

Doesn't the Legion series us the Gray trigger?

Yup. Gray Guns does the Legion triggers

I tried a few (Stock, MK25 and a Legion) back to back, bought the Legion (due to the trigger). I did also buy a wollff 16# spring. But have yet to install it. I liked the trigger on the Legion so much I bought a SAO version also.

Cool that you were able to do it yourself.

 

[franktc]

I have the SRT and G10 grips on my P226 and for my mitts it is a nice improvement. I have the Gray Guns trigger on order and should have it next week to try out. From the rest of the posts, it looks like I should track down a lighter hammer spring as well to lighten up the DA pull.

 

[92G]

the wolff hammer springs provide far less stacking. the actual spring weight itself is less relevant. initially i used something light like the 17# then I tried going up to the wolff 24# (which is OEM weight) and it was still much better than the factory spring in terms of stacking. so i wouldn't necessarily go reaching for the lightest wolff hammer spring.

aside from potential light strike issues (which I also did not observe w the lighter wolff hammer springs), the hammer spring does play a role in slowing down rearward slide travel. dropping the hammer spring weight will allow the slide to cycle rearward faster which isn't necessarily good. the gun will extract/eject harder. i do notice a difference in how the gun shoots with a heavier hammer spring, which is why I'm running either the 20 or 22# (i can't recall exactly).

believe it or not, if one puts a enough rounds through the gun the factory hammer spring smooths out quie nicely. it takes a few k rounds though.

 

[franktc]

Thanks, good info on the hammer spring weight.

 

[Marlow]

Nice bunch of upgrades, I have the Gray Guns spring kit, GG adjustable trigger,the solid steel guide rod,and the SRT in my 229. They really do make a great upgrade. As for the flat trigger, I don't have it but someone I know love it just due to the way it fits his finger.

If I did it over again, I would have just gone with the GG spring kit instead of the just the Wolff hammer spring and replace all the springs while I had it apart. Still might.

 

[Marlow]

the wolff hammer springs provide far less stacking. the actual spring weight itself is less relevant. initially i used something light like the 17# then I tried going up to the wolff 24# (which is OEM weight) and it was still much better than the factory spring in terms of stacking. so i wouldn't necessarily go reaching for the lightest wolff hammer spring.

aside from potential light strike issues (which I also did not observe w the lighter wolff hammer springs), the hammer spring does play a role in slowing down rearward slide travel. dropping the hammer spring weight will allow the slide to cycle rearward faster which isn't necessarily good. the gun will extract/eject harder. i do notice a difference in how the gun shoots with a heavier hammer spring, which is why I'm running either the 20 or 22# (i can't recall exactly).

believe it or not, if one puts a enough rounds through the gun the factory hammer spring smooths out quie nicely. it takes a few k rounds though.

I went with the 19# because it was the heaviest in the Wolff spring pack (for Sigs with the plastic spring base) and I was concerned about light strikes. I didn't even consider the role the spring plays in rearward slide speed. I thought about trying out the lighter springs which is why I bought the pack of three, but I'm happy with the results so far with the 19# spring so I think I'll stick with it.

I'm going to try to shoot it Saturday morning. I have some nice NATO spec ammo made by Metallwerk Elisenhuette GmbH in Germany. I believe it has the harder primers, so I'll shoot a couple hundred rounds of that and see if I run into any issues.

 

[cjrubes]

Thanks for the info OP. I've been thinking about doing some of these same upgrades to my P226 for a while now. How do you like the flat trigger compared to the stock trigger? I'm not sure I'd go that route personally....though I suppose it's all about personal taste.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[Masswhole]

I'm curious about your thoughts on the flat trigger too.
I've got a DA/SA 226 Legion with 2k+ through it that has a nice trigger.
Also, have a 229 carry which has the short reach trigger that is too short of a reach for me.
Torn between the flat trigger or another psait so the reach on both guns is the same.

 

[Marlow]

Thanks for the info OP. I've been thinking about doing some of these same upgrades to my P226 for a while now. How do you like the flat trigger compared to the stock trigger? I'm not sure I'd go that route personally....though I suppose it's all about personal taste.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

I went with the flat trigger because I had a chance to shoot a friend's 229 with basically the same setup. I feel like my trigger finger falls more naturally and consistently with the middle of the first pad on the flat trigger. To me it's also easier to feel the position of my finger on the trigger and repeat it consistently.

 

[WickedSharp]

My P226 came with SRT. I just added the GG adjustable straight trigger the other night. New Wolff springs just arrived in the mail today!

 

[cathouse01]

here is an old post to the SigTalk forum I made back in 2017 about upgrading my P220.

I just installed a GGI P-SPAK Gen2 Competition Kit with a P-SAIT trigger on a P220 Match Elite 10MM. Taking an average of 20 readings for each pull using a Lyman trigger pull gauge I got the following results.

DA pull reduction 3 lbs 1.9 oz.
SA pull reduction 1 lbs 13.2 oz.

These are using the 17# spring that the kit comes with (It also comes with a 19#). I use this P220 as a range/hunting gun, so using the 17# mainspring is not a big concern for me. Also, I’m only showing the change in pull weight since I’ve found different folks will get different absolute results when using the Lyman gauge, but that the same person can usually get pretty accurate comparative results.

The gun comes standard with the SRT kit, so it already has a pretty short reset, but the over travel adjustment on the P-SAIT made it almost immeasurable.

As far as actually shooting the gun at the range, the DA feels noticeably smoother and lighter and the SA pull is as good as any of my 1911s. The reset is now much better than any of my other mass market guns (Colt, H&K, Ruger, Sig, S&W, Walther).

So, the question is; is it worth the close to $300 total (kit + P-SAIT + shipping)? As far as I’m concerned, yes. It delivered what was promised (though a lot of the pull reduction can probably be attributed to the 17# mainspring). I did not have to send the gun off some place for several weeks. It was relatively easy to install (did it while watching Sunday night football, so it took about 3 hours max). I like to work on my own guns even though I’m no gunsmith. And, most importantly, it really improved my ability to shoot the gun.

An aside as to the pricing. I personally think it is reasonable. The machine tools required for the manufacture of the sear and hammer are expensive to buy and maintain, and they need to be amortized across a relatively small volume of product. As I understand it, each part is inspected and manually touched up, which adds to the labor costs. Also, anyone in the firearms industry needs to have some pretty expensive liability insurance. My experience is that you always pay a premium for low volume, high quality product.