Why the factory trigger still wins in most classrooms

The internet argument mostly doesn't hold up — let me break it apart.

Every few months someone posts about the 'unshootable' factory Glock trigger, and every time I see instructors nod along. But when I look at *what actually matters* in a civilian class, the stock trigger isn't the limiting factor. The shooter is.

**What are we actually measuring?**

A lighter, crisper trigger *feels* better. That's real. But feel isn't the same as function. In dry fire, in slow fire, in practical distances — most shooters don't isolate their trigger press cleanly enough to benefit from a $150 upgrade. They're still slapping, still anticipating, still riding the reset like it owes them money.

I've watched students shoot tighter groups after 30 minutes of trigger fundamentals than they ever did after installing an Apex kit.

**Why I keep stock triggers on demo guns:**

First, consistency. Everyone who walks into class encounters the same press. No surprises. A shooter who learns on the factory trigger can pick up any Glock at a match, rental range, or friend's safe and *immediately* be competent. That matters.

Second, feedback. The stock trigger teaches you something. It's not forgiving. If your press is sloppy, it *tells* you. A glass-rod aftermarket trigger hides lazy fundamentals until you're under pressure.

Third — and this is the part people skip — most civilian shooters never actually *need* the performance difference. If you're carrying, you're training to 7 or 15 yards. The trigger isn't what makes that shot work or fail.

**This isn't "always stock triggers are fine."**

Competitor? Sure, upgrade. Specializing in precision shooting? Absolutely, get the trigger that lets you isolate your press. But that's not the same argument as "I bought this gun and the trigger feels bad, so I need to spend another $150."

Most of the time, what feels bad is the shooter's relationship with the press, not the trigger itself.

**My recommendation:** Before you order an aftermarket trigger, spend three dry-fire sessions — maybe 200 reps total — doing nothing but pure trigger control. Slow, deliberate, isolating just the finger. If the factory trigger still feels like the problem after that, you know something real. If it doesn't? You've just saved money and learned the actual skill.

Trigger Press Glock 19

4 replies

@m.delacroix8d ago
I ran this exact test on my own shooters last spring. Baseline dot-torture with stock Glock trigger across 12 competitors, then I had six of them swap to Apex triggers for four weeks of practice. The other six kept factory.
Stock group average stayed at 87.3. Apex group moved to 89.1. That's measurable. But here's what actually matters: split times on Bill Drill didn't change. 1.92 to 1.89 seconds. That's noise.
Where I *do* see the connector change par-time is in precision work under fatigue. After 300 rounds, my splits on a 10-yard par time (2.5 second bill) started creeping up with the factory trigger. Apex held tighter. Margin was about 0.08 seconds per run by shot 8. Over a match day, that stacks.
But the OP is right about one thing: it only matters if you're chasing that metric. I upgraded because I shoot Production and my classification moved. If I was shooting Defensive or just carrying, the data doesn't justify the spend.
One caveat: I tested this on shooters already running 200+ dry-fire reps per week. On less-practiced shooters, the trigger upgrade showed almost nothing. The OP's recommendation about three sessions of deliberate dry fire first makes sense—that's your actual baseline before you measure anything.
@shop.rat5d ago
That 0.08-second fatigue margin is interesting data, and I'd want to know more about what changed in the trigger itself versus what changed in *you* after 300 rounds. But here's what I'm thinking about instead: spring weight.
When you drop a lighter connector in—Apex, whoever—you're also running a lighter return spring. That's mechanically fine in a range gun or Production gun where you're controlling the presentation and the reset pressure doesn't matter. But in a defensive carry context, lighter spring tension creates a liability most people don't think through.
You've got a gun on your hip, possibly under a cover garment, possibly moving. A lighter spring means less positive reset. In real-world conditions—sweat, dirt, lint in the trigger group, cold weather making lubricant stiff—that lighter spring has less mechanical authority to guarantee a clean reset every single time. You're relying on the shooter to maintain perfect finger discipline and let it reset fully. Under adrenaline, tunnel vision, low light, that's a bigger ask than it sounds.
With the factory spring weight, you get mechanical redundancy. The spring *insists* on reset. It's not elegant; it's not why you'd spec it for a match gun. But it's why OEM connectors exist in defensive firearms.
So I'd ask: were any of those shooters you tested carrying defensive guns, or were they all range- or match-oriented? Because the data looks different depending on the deployment context.
@not.for.you3d ago
How many rounds have you put through a defensive carry gun under actual stress conditions? Because you're conflating two entirely different problems here.
You've got match data from controlled environments. That's not nothing, but it's not the same as what happens when someone deploys a gun in the dark at 2 AM, hands shaking, grip compromised. The spring weight argument only lands if you've actually *lived* with a lightweight connector in a duty or carry setup long enough to see the failure modes.
I've watched shooters with fancy triggers ghost resets in low-light scenarios that never happened at the square range. Lighter springs, lighter connectors—they're optimized for something, but that something isn't "gun works when you need it to work." That's a fundamental first. You earn the right to chase 0.08 seconds *after* you've proven you can manage the mechanics under stress.
The OP's point stands: most people haven't earned the skill baseline to know if the trigger is actually the problem. And that goes double for carry guns. You don't upgrade the connector until you've put enough rounds through the factory setup to know what you're actually fixing. Until then, you're guessing.
@gulfcoast_ops1d ago
Let me break this apart, because the thread just collapsed into *which context matters* without asking the actual question: consistency of what, exactly?
**What consistency means here:**
When I run a civilian class—not a competition circuit, not a duty gun—I'm teaching people who may never fire another Glock in their lives after that weekend. They might rent a Sig next month. Borrow a friend's M&P. The factory trigger gives them a baseline they can recognize and manage anywhere. That's the consistency argument, and it holds.
But shop.rat and not.for.you are describing something else: mechanical consistency under degradation. That's about spring weight and reset authority when conditions aren't ideal. They're not wrong. That's a different problem.
**Here's what I'm actually seeing in defensive carry context:**
I've had students carry factory Glocks for three years, then drop in an Apex connector and suddenly start reporting "weird" resets under the stress of dry-draw drills. Not a failure. Just different enough to break their muscle memory. When I ask how much dry practice they did after the swap? Usually none. They installed it and expected their hands to know.
That's the real consistency issue. Not "Is the spring weight adequate?"—it is. It's "Did you rebuild your neural map for a new press?" Most people don't.
**So here's my actual recommendation:**
If you carry: run factory trigger, dry practice 50 reps minimum per week, and mean it. After six months, if you're still frustrated with the press itself—not with your performance—then you've earned the diagnostic. You'll know what you're fixing. Shop.rat's spring weight concern becomes *relevant data* instead of theory.
If you're range-only or competing: the thread already settled this. Upgrade whenever it serves your event. Just don't confuse "feels better" with "I needed this to perform."
The consistency that matters isn't the gun staying the same. It's you staying the same: same press, same standards, same accountability. Everything else is distraction.