Glock Trigger Mapping: Stock, Apex, OP, Agency

Earl An

Amateur
After seeing reviews of Glock triggers and parts that all pretty much sound the same: "Here's the weight, it feels good, the break is crisp, clean reset, etc" I figured it was time to get some empirical data. I built a rig that pulls the trigger in .0125mm increments and takes pressure readings with a loadcell.

I mapped a stock trigger first, then swapped in an Apex striker block, a 6# competition trigger spring, and Wolff 5# & 4.5# striker springs. Then I swapped in an Apex, Overwatch Precision Falx, and Agency Arms trigger all with a standard connector and posted the results to Youtube. Unfortunately I didn't have a "minus" connector to test.

Obviously I'm not an "influencer", just a guy who likes to nerd out on data, so I'm not as entertaining as some other personalities. But my hope is that someone can look at the readings and better narrow down what trigger is best for them. For example, if the factory trigger reach is too long, the Apex would probably be a poor choice. I plan to add more triggers and start doing connectors as well.

The spreadsheet to my trigger data is here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MeqK-89UxeEVOVsLy0pYuygG3gbFfP0R

Skip to 14:30 if you just want to skip my rambling and just see the analysis/graphs.

 

Clay1

Regular Member
Cool beans. Thanks for all of the work on the project. Actually surprised that the weights didn't change drastically, but the location of the weights changed more. I enjoyed the comments on why one trigger might work for someone with longer fingers or bigger hands or those who like different finger positions on the trigger itself.

Hopefully some other shooters will allow you to test their equipment on your machine to increase your sample size.

Again, nicely done.
 
This is some really high quality work. Do you think it would be possible to normalize the results by tracking the vertical position of the "finger" on the trigger and converting from force to moment about the trigger pivot pin? Its probably a less intuitive set of units as far as what the shooter will feel, but it might make comparing the standard and flat triggers easier and may highlight the differences in the slope of the wall too. Sub'd as another person that geeks out over data and well thought out testing.
 

Earl An

Amateur
This is some really high quality work. Do you think it would be possible to normalize the results by tracking the vertical position of the "finger" on the trigger and converting from force to moment about the trigger pivot pin? Its probably a less intuitive set of units as far as what the shooter will feel, but it might make comparing the standard and flat triggers easier and may highlight the differences in the slope of the wall too. Sub'd as another person that geeks out over data and well thought out testing.

Thought about that. The math isn't too hard with a flat trigger, but getting the dimensions on a curved trigger is problematic, worse on compound radius triggers like SSVI. Plus, hand size/shape means everyone pulls the trigger at slightly different positions/angles. Even if I could get everything mapped out (3D Scanner?) there's still some variation in the mount and flex in the loadcell and finger which would also vary based on the trigger curve angle.

In a future vid, I'm just gonna use stock components and swap out connectors since they have a much larger effect on the break/reset. Also going to switch to a spare Gen3 frame with the rail slot enlarged to picatinny size. The P80 frame is adding about 1.5 lbs to the trigger compared to my Glock frames and I don't feel like chasing down why. I have an OEM 4.5 "dot" and a 3.5 Ghost arriving today to test along with my 3.5 Evo and 3.5 Edge connectors. I think I have a 4.5 CAT lying around somewhere too.
 
Top