Replaced P89 trigger with P95 trigger--big improvement.

I know this has been done before, I just wanted to pass along my experience.

I am surprised at how much difference this simple modification made.

The pull weight went up from 5lbs 4oz to 6lbs 4oz. That's right, it increased by a pound. HOWEVER, had I not put a gauge on it, I would have sworn that it decreased dramatically. I attribute that to 3 things.

1. The P95 trigger geometry makes a lower trigger finger position on the trigger comfortable. That means more leverage and a lighter-feeling pull. The trigger gauge (which is very unlike a finger in many respects) may ride a little lower on the P89 trigger than on the P95 trigger resulting in a higher measurement for the P95 trigger--I don't know. What I know is that the trigger definitely feels lighter with the P95 trigger installed.

2. Improved comfort. I spent some time, several years ago, smoothing the contours of my P89 trigger and taking off rough edges to decrease wear and tear on my trigger finger when doing extensive dryfire practice in double-action. The P95 trigger, with no modifications is tremendously more comfortable to operate.

3. Decreased overtravel. With the P89 trigger, it was not possible for me to hold the gun steady with one hand and dryfire double-action. With the P95 trigger, I can manage it although it's not easy. With the P89 trigger, keeping the gun steady while dryfiring single-action one-handed was difficult. With the P95 trigger, it is easy.

The best news? The trigger was a drop-in replacement. I was expecting to have to file on it to make it fit and operate properly, but I decided to give it a shot without making any changes.

While the two triggers do look different, the differences did not cause any functioning issues.

As a quick & dirty test, I installed the trigger and then installed the barrel in the frame via the barrel link (without the slide or recoil spring) and the slide stop pin and moved the parts around to see how they interacted. The barrel easily clears the addtional material in the P95 trigger. Since there was no interference between the parts, I reassembled the gun completely and it operates normally with the unmodified P95 trigger.

Here's a picture.

Where did you get the P95 trigger from?
Looks great.

Thanks!

Ordered it from Midway. It was on backorder for a few months and finally came today.

It's already backordered again--the price is $17.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/816686/ruger-trigger-ruger-p95dc-all-models

Ruger has them in stock.

http://shopruger.com/KV03906-Trigger-P95/productinfo/62057/

$18 bucks.

Now you need to change the decock levers to a newer 95 model and your 89 will be real nice.

The flat style decocker levers? I actually prefer the older style, believe it or not.

You can't really see it in the picture, but I polished the flats on the ends of the decock levers which made for an interesting effect.

Awhile back, I removed the magazine catches and filed the mold-marks off, polished them and recut the serrations so that they're square and sharp. That's actually fairly noticeable when you look at the gun in person. Not so much in a photo.

Sorry for the blurry pics--that's about as good as I can do on small stuff.

The gun also has a small loaded-chamber viewport and some other minor mods. Everytime I think of something I'd like to try, I pull this gun out and go to town.

NICE. I love the p guns. Loaded chamber hole, do tell more please. Pic??

I've seen the Loaded Chamber viewing ports much larger than this, but even with this fairly minimal port, it's easy to see a chambered round--there's a dummy in the chamber for the picture.

Here's a picture of the other side of the gun. For all the little stuff I've done to it, it still looks pretty much like a standard P89. And it's certainly not worth anything more...

How did you make that loaded chamber indicator? Just a rasp and hand work or??

I think I want to try it on my custom 89.

I measured to make sure it was going to be centered properly. From then on it was just patience and a couple of different needle files.

I like this kind of thing and hate screwing up so I go slowly and check the progress frequently. When I could easily see the dummy round through the viewing port, I polished it using fine sandpaper. The polishing looks good and the shiny surface makes it sort of channel the light better so you can more easily see the chambered round.

Go slowly and make sure that the tip of the file doesn't damage the feedramp.




Here's another simple mod that I did because it makes the muzzle easier to clean and because I like the way it looks.

Nice.
What do you think of simply drilling a hole thru the top of the barrel so you would have a hole to look at the case of the bullet? Basically just ahead of where you filed. Would that be OK or cause a weak spot or something else?

Opinion?

If you take the barrel out of the gun and chamber a dummy cartridge or a fired case, you can see that the barrel hood (the part being partially removed in this mod) doesn't provide any support for the cartridge, nor is any support needed for the part of the cartridge that isn't fully in the chamber.

So removing the material to make the viewing port isn't affecting case support.

If you drill too far forward, you'll drill into the chamber, and you can take away metal that is actually supporting the cartridge case during the firing cycle. That wouldn't be a good thing.

As it is, the only functional change to the gun with this mod is that it reduces the amount of engagement area between the barrel hood and the slide. That might, over time, lead to increased wear since there's a smaller surface area taking the beating instead of having it spread over the original, larger area. My guess is that it's insignificant, but I still tried to keep the viewing port size as small as I could.

There is also a slight safety issue. If the gun were to have a case head failure, gases and damaged case material could vent upward through the viewing port. That would be a bad thing if one were shooting from a retention position. However, since I see this type of viewing port on various commercial pistols, I'm assuming that's not enough of a concern to get the lawyers worked up so I'm not going to get worked up about it either.

Good info. You confirmed what I thought. I'm no pro or anything so I figured it was better to ask.

Thanks,

I have a question,before I take mine apart.
The trigger I got is entirely solid.The original,the pin-arm rotates some.
Is this what you had,or is it a problem?

HUH? Both triggers are the same really. Post a picture of what you have. The 95 trigger just drops in the frame of the 89.

"I measured to make sure it was going to be centered properly. From then on it was just patience and a couple of different needle files."

John... I did this very thing on a P95 I used to own (sold it to a very happy customer on Calguns). Other mods done on that P95 include a beveled slide stop, mag-well cut-outs and some other mods. The lci mod was done ala the S&W M&P.