Ghost Rocket Into SR9 - My Experience

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alienbogey

Bearcat
Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
71
Background: I've been very unhappy with my SR9's trigger, to the point where it has been languishing in the safe, and I've been hanging on for the Ghost trigger upgrades to materialize from vaporware status.

So, I went for the Ghost Rocket (the one with the overtravel stop) and yesterday started the install.

I decided to do jhearne's polish per the sticky at the same time. It took me about 2.5 hours to tear the pistol apart per Ghost's instructions, do all the polishing, and get it back together to find, as expected, that the trigger did not function due to the necessity of grinding down the tab increment by increment until it allowed trigger function with minimum overtravel.

Out of curiosity I timed my teardown/grind/reassemble times: The first took 9 minutes. By my last few adjustments I was averaging 6 minutes and 15 seconds from a fully assembled pistol to down to the shop to grind away another .01" to back up to my desk and a reassembled pistol. Learning curves are good things.

The most difficult part of the process I found was the reassembly of the Fire Control Housing with the trigger bar, trigger bar reset, lift spring, safety detent and spring and safety all having to be held simultaneously and manipulated with all three hands at the same time.

In particular, Ghost could well use another picture or two at different angles from the right side of all of the above reassembled - I had a devil of a time figuring just exactly how they all went back together.

Results

The good: It all did go back together. My son and I fired 200 rounds through it today with no malfunctions. The trigger is much smoother and somewhat lighter.

The smoothness I attribute mostly or all to the polishing of internals per the sticky. The gritty crunchiness that I hated is gone. Again, my guess is that this is mostly due to the polishing.

The trigger is lighter.

The disappointing:

It is not as light as I expected and in my non-objective judgement not a 3.5# trigger.

It definitely reduced the pull. Before the change I hooked up a baby scale to a makeshift wire to the trigger and the pull was 14-15# as measured. After the Ghost it was 8-9#. Note: The # amount is not important because of the jury rig and ancient scale, but the change in the #'s does give a fair indication of the proportional amount of reduction.

Bottom line: Although I'm a bit disappointed due to high expectations, The polish and Ghost Rocket has changed my trigger from gritty, crunchy and unacceptably heavy to smooth and medium - a big improvement.
 

scmartin23

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
27
Am I mistaken. I didn't think installing a 3 1/2 # connector gave you a 3 1/2# trigger. I thought there were other factors such as the trigger spring weight, firing pin spring,plunger spring,etc. and the way the parts contact each other.

Ghost makes great products but they are not the cure all for a perfect trigger. A competent armorer can take good gun and fine tune it into something you expect it to be. Just my 2 cents.
 

jhearne

Buckeye
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Messages
1,365
Yes, the springs elsewhere internally are factors in the pull on the trigger. Ghost sells for Glocks other springs for the Trigger and even the Striker IIRC. Time will tell if anyone produces springs for the SR9, currently you proceed at your own risk trying to find springs that work...I haven't invest much time at all so I can't tell you what would help either :\.

Josh
 

scmartin23

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
27
Even though my SR9 came back from Ruger at 7450 rounds with a horrible trigger (they replaced the striker and trigger bar) I installed a Ghost Rocket. The trigger was much better but still gritty. I found that the rounded end of the trigger bar had a couple of "inperfections." As the trigger bar came back against the connector this was where the problem was. I had to carefully take care of this without reshaping the part. What a difference this made. Now at least the trigger was smooth again. With the Rocket installed the reset was short and the striker didn't have the heavy "let off" that made the gun jerk a little to the right.

I still had been directed to a Glock armorer in Ohio from someone on this forum. I took my SR9 to him and he still made a couple of alterations to further smooth out the trigger pull and got the pull weight down to 4-4 1/2 pounds for me. We settled at this since this is my carry gun.

I should be able to pick it up in a day or so because he is about a hundred miles away from me. I will report back but was happy with Ghost Rocket install.
 

alienbogey

Bearcat
Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
71
scmartin23":223fiog0 said:
Am I mistaken. I didn't think installing a 3 1/2 # connector gave you a 3 1/2# trigger. I thought there were other factors such as the trigger spring weight, firing pin spring,plunger spring,etc. and the way the parts contact each other.

Ghost makes great products but they are not the cure all for a perfect trigger. A competent armorer can take good gun and fine tune it into something you expect it to be. Just my 2 cents.


I'm not trying to be a smart___, but when Ghost's web site repeatedly states that it is a Rocket 3.5 lb connector then I actually do expect a 3.5 lb pull. Quoted directly from their description of the Rocket for the SR9:

"The GHOST ROCKET 3.5 lb for RUGER SR is our best trigger with the TCT. It is the best for those who demand to be the best. This is the finest trigger control connector for all shooting activities, including law enforcement & self defense. The GHOST ROCKET 3.5 lb is one of the Ghost family of trigger connectors that make your RUGER SR more accurate and more reliable by eliminating trigger over-travel and incorporating the self cleaning holes." [ underlines added ]

I guess upon further close review I see that they don't explicitly state that the Rocket will result in a 3.5 lb. trigger pull, but based upon reading it that is what I expected.

I understand that other factors will influence the final, actual pull weight of the trigger, but I would have expected them to take those factors into account and supply the Rocket such that the final result would be, in fact, a 3.5 pound pull.

Or, they should change the writeup on their website or explain that the final pull will not be 3.5# or explain that final pull will vary or ........ something.
 

scmartin23

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
27
No offense taken here. We all have a different perspective and the exchange of ideas is what makes this forum exciting.

You are right about the write up giving you the expectation of a lighter trigger closer to the 3 1/2 pound range. But I don't think a factory Glock
for example, with the addition of a 3 1/2 pound connector gives a 3 1/2 pound trigger.

Hey, someone please enlighten me here on this subject. I'm not looking to be right, I would just like a better, more correct understanding of how this works.
 

pamato18

Bearcat
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
23
Hey,

I think both parties are right here... after talking to Arthur and looking at his website it definitely implies that the ghost rocket or ultimate will reduce the trigger pull to 3.5#s. Yet he stated this believing that the gun started with a 7.5#-8# trigger pull (some rugers start with a much heavier pull).

Yet in reality almost no trigger bars alone reduce the trigger pull to the stated weight. In reality I believe all aftermarket trigger bars require the addition of a lighter spring to get the trigger pull down to the advertised weight of the bar. In fact many companies advertise the trigger bar and lightened spring as a package. If you look on youtube there is a glock user who explains this as he first puts in a ghost trigger bar, and then adds in a lighter wolf spring.

So yes Ghost was definitely misleading, but it seems like all trigger bars are. Now we just need to wait for someone to produce a lighter spring.... I don't fully understand why no company has started making more aftermarket parts, seems like there is a demand for them.
 

scmartin23

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
27
I should have my SR9 back from the armorer I left it with after I installed the Rocket connector. The action was smooth but the pull weight was higher than I wanted. He was able to get the pull weight down to 4 pounds.
Will have to wait until I can drive the 100 miles to pick up the gun.
 
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