Your firearm purchase that had the worst trigger possible

[herrwalther]

The all-time heaviest trigger pull I have is on my AMT .380 back up. Instead of pounds of pressure to trip, it be measured in metric tons.

My AMT was the single action trigger. Much easier to work with. Not 1911 level by any means in terms of smoothness and weight. Same crescent shape and that was about it. I think it was right around 6 or 7 pounds.

 

[czhen]

Russian Makarov.

 

[Nuclear]

A friend has a Keltec P11 has the worst trigger I've ever encountered. It is so long, heavy and gritty that it doesn't matter if you slowly squeeze it or just jerk it. It's so bad you really can't hit what you are aiming at. I don't know why he still has it.

Of the guns I've actually owned, it is a tie between a CZ-52 pistol and the DA on a W. German P226. The CZ was heavy and gritty, the Sig was clean but so heavy it maxed out the trigger gauge (single action was good though).

 

[Oldschool shooter]

SD40VE, possibly the worst trigger in S&W history. Bought a spring kit and Boudica trigger from Galloway precision. This gun will never have a competition trigger, but it was a very noticable improvement.

 

[EIB0879]

H&R 999 revolver.

The DA pull is almost impossible. The SA pull is extremely heavy and gritty.

Yeah I have one of those and it has a heavy DA pull. The worst of mine is an old Rem 742 30-06 though.

 

[evan price]

Sig Mosquito.
Rubbery, and the trigger itself flexed when pulled. One of many problems I had with it.
Glad to be rid of that thing.

 

[Dframe]

Mauser HS/c

 

[HOWARD J]

Taurus G2C
Trigger safety spring too strong--when you pull trigger the trigger safety does not release all the way & a strong "SNAP" is heard & felt---sometimes locking the trigger.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Maybe not the worst... maybe so.

I honestly can't remember but I DO know that it is worthy of *honorable mention*.

Todd.

 

[Fine Figure of a Man]

Ruger LC9. Sold it. No excuse for a trigger that heinous. Pretty sure that's why Ruger went to the LC9S.

Mil spec AR triggers are pretty awful if you ask me.

The above and my BHP was also very bad until I removed the magazine disconnect.

 

[MrShooter]

I'd have to say my Taurus spectrum 380, the pull is soooo long, and the reset is all the way back. The first shot is always the worst, then I remember.

 

[hemiram]

I had several that were really bad, but there are a couple of "How can it be this bad?" guns.

Worst by a mile, AMT Back-Up .45. So stiff a trigger, my finger would be dead and it would have a huge dent in it after firing one mag through it. The local gunsmith guessed 35 to 40 pounds! He got it down to about 18 or so after cleaning up the guts. I guess if you were in danger, 18 pounds would be fine.
Weirdest: HK VP70Z Well, it did shoot OK.
Crunchiest: FEG P9R. It was super stiff on DA, but on SA it had a definite "Crunch" noise. I decided to open it up and see what I could do, so I borrowed a friend's identical, but smoother triggered gun as a reference to put it back together and cleaned up an amazing amount of burrs and roughness, along with taking the sharp edge off the trigger which cut my finger. It came out pretty good, and after shooting it, a neighbor bought it and he really liked it as a "truck gun".

 

[Viper1357]

Got a good deal on a used HK VP70 back in the 90's, and several range trips trying to master/like/marginally enjoy shooting it, someone else got a better deal on it. Heaviest, grittiest trigger pull I ever encountered, and I have had several AMT Back Ups, Kel-Tecs, etc.

 

[Browning]

I have you all beat ... unless one of you also owned an Intratec CAT 45 .45 acp pistol.





The trigger was literally harder to pull than those hand exercisers that I used to use as a teenager. 15-20 lbs maybe. I seriously don’t know. My girlfriend at the time had to use two fingers on her left and one on her right to pull the trigger. I had to use two after a couple mags. I didn’t have to do that with my S&W 19. Lasted all afternoon.

I used it off as a partial trade for a CZ-75B in 1996.

 

[Kennyboy762]

I got a 1944 Tula m44 has to be the worst out of my guns.

 

[Ignition Override]

Polish P-64, only Chambered in 9x18 Mak, much worse than any True Makarov (Makarov handguns are only Russian, Bulgy, E. German and Chinese).

A friend's newish M&P Bodyguard revolver. I would gladly take a P-64 or Hungarian PA-63 over that revolver.

 

[Catman42]

they finally got a bretta bocat or tomcat in at the local gun shop. been wanting one of those for years as i like the design and what it is about. the clerk let me try the trigger. glad he did as it was the hardest worst trigger i ever pulled. that ended the idea of owning one. bought a ruger lcr 22 mag instead and my wife loves it and shoots it well. the bretta would have been a disaster. too bad.

 

[Pelo801]

I've had a few. Most of them have been mentioned already. I can attest to the Intratec trigger. I had the Cat 9 and it was terrible. Also honorable mentions go to
P64
CZ 70
AMT backup
Keltec P11 and its earlier cousin
Grendel P12

 

[natman]

Springfield M6 22/410 combo. The "trigger" on one of these is a lever you have to squeeze. Which is a good thing because it required so much force to fire that it would have been nearly impossible to do with one finger.

Whatever you do, do NOT take one of these apart in an attempt to improve the trigger. The receiver is riveted together and the internals must be assembled in one half and the other half riveted on, because it was the most difficult reassembly I've come across in over 30 years of fiddling with guns. Custom slave pins and an amazingly complicated procedure was required. You have been warned.

 

[Mosin Bubba]

A friend had a Nagant revolver. I tried dry-firing it in double action, and no matter how hard I pulled, I couldn't move the trigger back further than half way.

The worst trigger I could actually pull was probably a Sig Mosquito. Weight-wise it wasn't bad, but that thing was gritty and longer than the line at the DMV. You'd start pulling and it would stack, and stack, and stack... and then you'd get a little 22LR *pop* after squeezing the trigger back about a foot. And then the pistol would jam. For $300, that gun was a joke.

 

[Dragon breath]

RG 14 22lr revolver. Got it as boot on a trade, and owned it for over a year thinking it was a single action only. Double action required two fingers. I ended up giving it to my old high school coach who used it as a starter pistol

 

[Rick McC.]

My .22 LR Ruger LCR has the heaviest trigger pull of anything I’ve ever owned. I knew that before I bought it, but I bought it for a training gun.

I’ve found that shooting snubbies DAO is great training, as when you get dialed in on them, shooting anything else is very easy. It’s a great way to get over being a “trigger pull snob,” too.

 

[Catman42]

its interesting about the ruger lcr. i have one and my wife has one and they dont seem heavy in trigger pull to us. but we only have 3 double action revolvers to go by. the third being a older model 17 smith 22 target. its trigger is no better than the lcr/s. you may be 100 percent right as that is the only double action experience we have but they seem comfortable to us. is their a difference in lcr/s? that maybe so also. interesting.

 

[jhb]

run into a lot of bad ones over the years. ones that stick in my mind......

a 9mm hi point a relative owns is still top of the pile of bad. severe trigger slap that hurt badly. so bad I dread heading to his farm and fear he'll want shoot it and I might get stuck having to out of politeness.

next a p11 so bad I gave it away.

next a sd40v friend had. so hard to pull I could barely hit anything at 15 yards with it. really awful.

in current collection a hi power Israeli mkIII turn in. harsh trigger slap. not as bad as the hi point, but not fun. havent figured out its defect yet. weird as I have a dozen hi powers and this is the only one that trigger slaps.

 

[Catman42]

i bought a uberti colt saa 12 shot 22 cal cattleman about a years ago or so. they have a new hammer safety on it that is worthless. lots of miss fires and harsh trigger slap that hurts the fingers. the problem was solved easily by installing the old type trigger and hammer. now it is reliable, accurate and shoots like it should, a real dream come true gun. im glad trigger slap was brought up as it hurts.also the original trigger pull besides the slap was way way too light and dangerous. im glad the old type triggers and hammers are available so the normally good uberti colts saa/a can be made to shoot like thy should.