Trigger Time

No, I’m not talking about shooting in general, I’m talking about triggers.

I’ve never been a particularly discerning judge about how good a particular firearm’s trigger is. I’m a wingshooter, and pulling a shotgun trigger is more an exercise of “See the bird, BANG!” than in exercising a smooth, consistent trigger pull, or appreciating how well the gun facilitates that.

I mean, I know when a trigger is bad, but as far as appreciating a crisp break or noticing creep or stacking, it’s not really my fortè. With all the guns I regularly shoot, I am effective with them because I know in my bones where that particular trigger is going to break. It may not be a good trigger, but it’s my trigger, and familiarity breeds a proficiency all its own.

Still, I never really appreciated the value of a nice custom trigger, until this year at Blogorado, when I got the chance to shoot Tamara’s Langdon Tactical Elite 92 LTT. Tam offered me the opportunity to run a few mags through this pistol, and with a knowing smirk, followed me to the line busily snapping photos along the way. I inserted a mag, ran the slide, and prepared to fire, and only then noticed Tam urgently directing, “Decocker… decocker… DECOCKER… dude, decock it. You gotta feel the DA pull on this thing.”

A trigger smooth as a buttered baby’s ass. Not that you’d have any reason to butter a baby’s ass, or that it would be appropriate to butter a baby’s ass. At least, not your baby. I… I forgot where I was going with this.

And all I gotta say is… dayum.

That is hands-down the best DA trigger I’ve ever felt on a handgun. It’s what a Smith&Wesson Performance Center revolver with a Jerry Miculek 3,000 round trigger job wants to be when it grows up. If you’ve got the hankering to go all Martin Riggs and get yourself a spaghetti pistol, just hoard your shekels for a few more months and get yourself one of these. It’s the berries.

Me going all John Wick on the plate rack with Tam’s HK P30L.. Many Russian plates paid dearly for stomping my puppy.

And if that wasn’t likely to spoil me, then she hands me her HK P30L with the Grayguns Reduced Reset Carry Perfection Package. Now, such a trigger job for me is casting pearls before swine, but it also was a very nice trigger. The reset is indeed noticeably short, and the DA pull is light and smooth.

I learned two things: I wanna be Tamara Keel when I grow up, and I need a custom trigger on a few of my handguns.