Flat faced triggers

[Kevin]

Another question that’s been keeping me up late at night are flat faced triggers.

They seem to be in style right now. But I seem to remember reading somewhere that you should only use a flat faced trigger if the grip of the gun is near vertical. So they are both (trigger and grip) parallel.

But I see them on lots of different pistols.

Do they help any? Or is it just a design style?

 

[RoninPA]

Kevin, Atthe Gathering I'll have a gun with a flat faced trigger and you can try it to see what you think. Flat face triggers for some take a bit to get use to. But if a person shoots a lot, competes, etc., I believe they can adapt to any shape trigger a lot faster than the average monthly "lets go to the range" shooter. Flat faced triggers have their place as do other shapes/styles of triggers.

 

[kmoore]

I am guessing mainly a design style. On match rifles when 3.5 lb pull was required I used a full width trigger and on some still added a shoe to make it bigger. On a freestyle smallbore rifle , it had a flat narrow trigger. It could be titled and moved forward or back in the trigger guard along with adjusting the stages and trigger wt. At the master class level, I adjusted that trigger down to about 4oz with a short 1st stage. So I wanted a trigger as small as possible, touch it in the center area apply pressure and it fired with min. amount of disturbance to the rifle. In that a flat trigger was best.

 

[Kevin]

But if a person shoots a lot, competes, etc., I believe they can adapt to any shape trigger a lot faster than the average monthly "lets go to the range" shooter.

Ron:
I suppose you're right. It's all about muscle memory and repeating the same movement over and over. So if you did practice with a flat trigger, you would get used to it.

kmoore: thanks for the insight. I hadn't considered the more advanced rifles in competition. There I would bet a person would want a small trigger so they wouldn't accidentally fire before being completely ready. Larger trigger would allow for more surface contact etc.

It's just that I've started to see these triggers lately on just regular production pistols. The Sig pistols come to mind. As I was looking at their website, they have some nice looking pistols, and lots of them now have flat triggers from the factory. That's what got me to thinking about them.

Thanks!

 

[GunnyGene]

I have a flat face on my P365 that I prefer. None on any other firearms.

 

[Dave Schwaab]

I would only use a flat faced trigger on a gun for long range precision shooting.

Most triggers swing through an arc, and the curved face of a regular trigger helps position your finger at the same radius on that arc for a consistent feel for most people. Unless you are well practiced with a flat faced trigger you may not position your finger at the same point, and that could change the length, or the effort, of the trigger pull enough to throw your shot off.

Just my thoughts. But then I grew up shooting single action revolvers. I used to be pretty good at hip shooting, but I'm a little out of practice today. (My range frowns upon such things!)

 

[blume357]

This actually happened at one of these Ruger Gatherings a few years back. I was shooting my new Sig P320 compact with a Romeo (red dot) sight and some of the time hitting off to the left a bit... this has always been a problem I have. What I realized because of the red dot was that as I squeezed the trigger the sight alignment was moving just a tad to the left. I could not see this with the iron sights. It had to do with how my finger was placed on the trigger. I think in a lot of situations, depending on the grip and one's hand size, a flat trigger allows you to more easily have a centered position on the trigger. I put a flat trigger on that P320 and it helped with how my finger sits on the trigger.