Best Triggers for Air Pistol

[Olympic Dreamer]

I'm a competitive AP shooter and I'm very anal and sensitive about triggers. Unfortunately, shooting is a very niche sport in my country so there's no way for me to test different models. The gun shop here does not stock any guns. The guns that my club has are only LP10 and LP2. Also, I've only ever shot these 2 pistols (I don't own any guns) therefore I've 0 experience in making pistol purchases decisions. I might not even know if I'm asking the right thing here. So the only way I can get "practical feedback" is your advise.

I've read some of your comments and I understand that there's no such thing as best trigger it's all about personal preference i.e. which gun suit you best. So I'll tell you what's the ideal trigger that I dream of.
1. Minimal or no movement when the trigger breaks. (As crisp as possible, the trigger mechanism should not jerk the gun when it breaks)
2. Over-travel as smooth as possible.
3. Ability to adjust over-travel distance
4. Ability to adjust 1st, 2nd stage trigger weight
5. Ability to adjust over travel weight
6. Trigger movement from stage 1 all the way till the end of over-travel as smooth as possible (0 grittiness).

[Rover]

Here ya go...

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=53803

[v76]

Doesn't really makes sense that you're over sensitive to trigger feel if you've only ever shot two air pistols. That said, the search function is your friend here... lots of opinions on different pistols and I remember a thread that ranked triggers on a numeric scale (whatever that means!)

I'd go with what I know, personally. And the LP10 is a very good choice. The 'e' variant, especially. Tough to go wrong with any match pistol from the usual suspects, be it ssp, co2 or pcp.

[SamEEE]

162EI is pretty good.

[JFuller]

[quote="Olympic Dreamer"]I'm a competitive AP shooter and I'm very anal and sensitive about triggers. Unfortunately, shooting is a very niche sport in my country so there's no way for me to test different models. The gun shop here does not stock any guns. The guns that my club has are only LP10 and LP2. So the only way I can get feedback is your advise.[/quote]
Curious to know which country you are in.

[scerir]

In my opinion, among the *mechanical* and *dry* triggers, the "Pardini K12" is one of the best, possibly the very best. (Many people do not like *dry* triggers, in that case the old "Pardini K2s" would be a good choice, or a FWB, or Walther, in my opinion.)

[Olympic Dreamer]

I'm a competitive AP shooter and I'm very anal and sensitive about triggers. Unfortunately, shooting is a very niche sport in my country so there's no way for me to test different models. The gun shop here does not stock any guns. The guns that my club has are only LP10 and LP2. So the only way I can get feedback is your advise.

Curious to know which country you are in.

I'm from Singapore. Guess what there're only about 15 active smallbore shooters (all pistol and rifle live Olympic events competitive and recreational combined) in my entire country.

[Olympic Dreamer]

In my opinion, among the *mechanical* and *dry* triggers, the "Pardini K12" is one of the best, possibly the very best. (Many people do not like *dry* triggers, in that case the old "Pardini K2s" would be a good choice, or a FWB, or Walther, in my opinion.)

What is the difference between *mechanical* and *dry* triggers?

Yes and I can see why K12 is that good. Thanks for your advise :)
K12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez1s1MQaPX4
K10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqESxRDvAwE
Walther: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-Nevf625wA

[Olympic Dreamer]

Doesn't really makes sense that you're over sensitive to trigger feel if you've only ever shot two air pistols. That said, the search function is your friend here... lots of opinions on different pistols and I remember a thread that ranked triggers on a numeric scale (whatever that means!)

I'd go with what I know, personally. And the LP10 is a very good choice. The 'e' variant, especially. Tough to go wrong with any match pistol from the usual suspects, be it ssp, co2 or pcp.

Yes I know that. I tried using the search function many times before posting here because I know that this is a very common topic. But whenever I tried searching "best trigger for air pistol" and many other search terms, it failed. It always shows this error: "The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words: best trigger for air pistol.
You must specify at least one word to search for. Each word must consist of at least 3 characters and must not contain more than 14 characters excluding wildcards."

I just don't know how to use the search function and I don't understand the instructions on how to use the search function meant: "Search for keywords:
Place + in front of a word which must be found and - in front of a word which must not be found. Put a list of words separated by | into brackets if only one of the words must be found. Use * as a wildcard for partial matches."

[Olympic Dreamer]

Doesn't really makes sense that you're over sensitive to trigger feel if you've only ever shot two air pistols. That said, the search function is your friend here... lots of opinions on different pistols and I remember a thread that ranked triggers on a numeric scale (whatever that means!)

I'd go with what I know, personally. And the LP10 is a very good choice. The 'e' variant, especially. Tough to go wrong with any match pistol from the usual suspects, be it ssp, co2 or pcp.

Well I'm stucked with 2 types of pistol there's nothing I can do. In terms of how sensitive my fingers are I can tell the difference between a LP10 that I train with and another one (both same trigger settings).

Yes can't go wrong with LP10 but tbh I feel that the trigger can be improved. I've yet to purchase a pistol so I'm searching for one right now. How the trigger feels is a huge thing for me. Not only how it breaks (As crisp as possible) but also how it feels after it breaks (follow through)

K12: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez1s1MQaPX4
K10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqESxRDvAwE
LP400: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-Nevf625wA

Watch all 3 videos you can see that K10 and K12 have no movement when it breaks but the LP400 has a substantial movement. K12 looks very promising to me.

[TenMetrePeter]

The LP400 trigger sear is resting on a cone point grub screw bottom right. Turning that screw in will reduce the sear overlap and reduce the movement needed to break it. It would leave a hair trigger though. It also has a backstop screw bottom left to stop further trigger movement where the Pardini triggers have movement past the trigger break. Of the three I prefer the Walther for those reasons. However when I chose my pistol in 1999 I went for the Feinwerkbau P34 which had a better glass rod breaking trigger feel than the equivalent Walther.
I also prefer a trigger where stage 1 moves the sears apart and stage 2 finishes the job which makes a safer trigger. I don't know which pistol triggers do that but the Air Arms 3-sear rifle trigger is like that.

I would go either FWB or Steyr. You will not ever get zero realease movement though.

[Gwhite]

First, there is no "best" trigger. It is a matter of personal preference. A trigger that is superb for one shooter may drive another to distraction. If you can't explicitly state what you like about one trigger vs another (i.e. the first stage is too short, the 1st stage weight is too low, etc.), your question is meaningless. "I prefer Brand X" doesn't help, because it's 98% a matter of how the adjustments are set.

It's almost impossible to get two pistols adjusted with "the same trigger settings". I know, because I've tried on several occasions on different pistol types. I've set up a couple of spare triggers for my own pistols, and also tried to duplicate the feel of a trigger for a shooter who preferred the feel of one of my triggers to theirs. Over the years, I've worked on Benellis, Tau-7's, IZH's, Steyrs, Morinis, Pardinis, Feinwerkbaus, Walthers & Hammerlis, and that is just the air pistols...

If you are shooting club guns, they are probably set up only roughly the same (at best), and they may also have "settled in" and drifted a bit from their original settings. It is possible to adjust two triggers to the point that, while the differences may be noticeable if you keep switching back & forth, they are inconsequential if you shoot just one.

Unless you study the internal mechanics, have good measurement tools (both calipers & an electronic scale), and have a light touch on the hex keys, tiny differences are hard to quantify ("it feels different" doesn't count) and adjust out. Just this past weekend, I had to back-off a sear adjustment screw by 1/16th of a turn on a Hammerli that was occasionally firing when you closed the action. It's rock solid now. So the settings won't wander, the screws are often "sticky" (with threadlocking compound or other locking systems) which can make precise adjustments difficult.

One of the major points of buying a high end pistol is the adjustability of the trigger. It is quite likely that the either of the club Steyrs could be adjusted to suit your preferences. Overtravel is both adjustable on many pistols, and a matter of personal preference, so watching videos is meaningless. Some people set it as close to zero as possible, and some people prefer to allow the trigger to move freely as far as possible. If you want it to stop as soon as it breaks, that is a setting you should be able to achieve pretty well on any high end pistol. There are minor differences in just how short the overtravel can be set between models, and if that is your biggest concern, you can ask for more feedback on that issue. I used to like minimal overtravel, and now I pretty much don't care, so I haven't kept track of just how finely you can set it on different pistols.

There are other real differences that you can look for. For example, it is difficult to find air pistols that are easily set up with a "rolling" trigger release. They are almost universally designed for a 2 stage "breaking" trigger release. If you really HAVE to have a rolling trigger (which your Club Steyrs do not have), then you will find the options are very limited. You clearly haven't been shooting with one, so I wouldn't worry about it.

[scerir]

In my opinion, among the *mechanical* and *dry* triggers, the "Pardini K12" is one of the best, possibly the very best. (Many people do not like *dry* triggers, in that case the old "Pardini K2s" would be a good choice, or a FWB, or Walther, in my opinion.)

What is the difference between *mechanical* and *dry* triggers?
Yes and I can see why K12 is that good. Thanks for your advise :)

Mechanical triggers are "dry" ("crisp", "clean", etc.) or "smooth" ("material", "long", etc.).

[Chia]

I'm a competitive AP shooter and I'm very anal and sensitive about triggers. Unfortunately, shooting is a very niche sport in my country so there's no way for me to test different models. The gun shop here does not stock any guns. The guns that my club has are only LP10 and LP2. So the only way I can get feedback is your advise.

I was in a similar situation. At least you have a club. I don't even have that. There is no easy solution. You will have to go with your gut instinct. Pretty much any modern "olympic" level gun is competitive, whether it's Pardini, Morini, Steyr etc.

If no one stocks your gun, does anyone repair airguns in your area? That's another factor to consider, especially if you're talking an electronic gun. Unless you are 100% certain that you can get support in your country, I'd spend some time looking at the blowups of the air pistols and seeing which one you would feel comfortable maintaining if you had to.

I'm not gonna give any recommendations, because you need to find the gun you believe is best for you.

[therider]

interesting topic, which has been covered many times. However I understand asking again, as I find the search options of targettalk not so good (or I am very bad) and I rarely manage to find what i am looking for.

I've been trying every possible air pistol of the top end and my requirements have changed a lot in the these three years I have been shooting. Although my main problems are related to grip, trigger is very important for me too.

If you like super crisp, then only one choice: Matchguns electronic;
If you like to feel a bit of movement in the trigger and increadibly good too: Morini 162EI
If you like something in betwee: Steyr LP10 E Evo
If you like mechanical and crisp, the best: Pardini K12
If you like mechanical, very good trigger: FineWerkbau P8X
if you like a crap: Xxxxxxx XXxxx

[william]

"First, there is no "best" trigger. It is a matter of personal preference. A trigger that is superb for one shooter may drive another to distraction. If you can't explicitly state what you like about one trigger vs another (i.e. the first stage is too short, the 1st stage weight is too low, etc.), your question is meaningless. "I prefer Brand X" doesn't help, because it's 98% a matter of how the adjustments are set."

Adjustments, schmadjustments. Everybody knows that Brand X is absolutely, positively the best there is.

[Olympic Dreamer]

First, there is no "best" trigger. It is a matter of personal preference. A trigger that is superb for one shooter may drive another to distraction. If you can't explicitly state what you like about one trigger vs another (i.e. the first stage is too short, the 1st stage weight is too low, etc.), your question is meaningless. "I prefer Brand X" doesn't help, because it's 98% a matter of how the adjustments are set.

It's almost impossible to get two pistols adjusted with "the same trigger settings". I know, because I've tried on several occasions on different pistol types. I've set up a couple of spare triggers for my own pistols, and also tried to duplicate the feel of a trigger for a shooter who preferred the feel of one of my triggers to theirs. Over the years, I've worked on Benellis, Tau-7's, IZH's, Steyrs, Morinis, Pardinis, Feinwerkbaus, Walthers & Hammerlis, and that is just the air pistols...

If you are shooting club guns, they are probably set up only roughly the same (at best), and they may also have "settled in" and drifted a bit from their original settings. It is possible to adjust two triggers to the point that, while the differences may be noticeable if you keep switching back & forth, they are inconsequential if you shoot just one.

Unless you study the internal mechanics, have good measurement tools (both calipers & an electronic scale), and have a light touch on the hex keys, tiny differences are hard to quantify ("it feels different" doesn't count) and adjust out. Just this past weekend, I had to back-off a sear adjustment screw by 1/16th of a turn on a Hammerli that was occasionally firing when you closed the action. It's rock solid now. So the settings won't wander, the screws are often "sticky" (with threadlocking compound or other locking systems) which can make precise adjustments difficult.

One of the major points of buying a high end pistol is the adjustability of the trigger. It is quite likely that the either of the club Steyrs could be adjusted to suit your preferences. Over-travel is both adjustable on many pistols, and a matter of personal preference, so watching videos is meaningless. Some people set it as close to zero as possible, and some people prefer to allow the trigger to move freely as far as possible. If you want it to stop as soon as it breaks, that is a setting you should be able to achieve pretty well on any high end pistol. There are minor differences in just how short the overtravel can be set between models, and if that is your biggest concern, you can ask for more feedback on that issue. I used to like minimal overtravel, and now I pretty much don't care, so I haven't kept track of just how finely you can set it on different pistols.

There are other real differences that you can look for. For example, it is difficult to find air pistols that are easily set up with a "rolling" trigger release. They are almost universally designed for a 2 stage "breaking" trigger release. If you really HAVE to have a rolling trigger (which your Club Steyrs do not have), then you will find the options are very limited. You clearly haven't been shooting with one, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Thank you for your detailed advise. Yes over-travel on a LP10 is adjustable but how crisp or how much movement trigger has when it breaks. I believe you can't adjust that. I agree with you that watching videos is not very useful but other than seeking your advise that's pretty much I can do considering that there's no other avenues for me to practically try out other guns in my country. I really have to buy based on all your advise. Feel free to speak your mind on what is your personal preference. I'll consider every1's personal preference here and I'll make a decision.

[Olympic Dreamer]

interesting topic, which has been covered many times. However I understand asking again, as I find the search options of targettalk not so good (or I am very bad) and I rarely manage to find what i am looking for.

I've been trying every possible air pistol of the top end and my requirements have changed a lot in the these three years I have been shooting. Although my main problems are related to grip, trigger is very important for me too.

If you like super crisp, then only one choice: Matchguns electronic;
If you like to feel a bit of movement in the trigger and increadibly good too: Morini 162EI
If you like something in betwee: Steyr LP10 E Evo
If you like mechanical and crisp, the best: Pardini K12
If you like mechanical, very good trigger: FineWerkbau P8X
if you like a crap: Xxxxxxx XXxxx

Thanks for your advise! Yea I'm also looking at MG's pistol. I've searched extensively here and I can tell you're a big fan of them and you have it as well. Have you tried MG mechanical too? What's your say about them? Is it better than K12?

[Olympic Dreamer]

I'm a competitive AP shooter and I'm very anal and sensitive about triggers. Unfortunately, shooting is a very niche sport in my country so there's no way for me to test different models. The gun shop here does not stock any guns. The guns that my club has are only LP10 and LP2. So the only way I can get feedback is your advise.

I was in a similar situation. At least you have a club. I don't even have that. There is no easy solution. You will have to go with your gut instinct. Pretty much any modern "olympic" level gun is competitive, whether it's Pardini, Morini, Steyr etc.

If no one stocks your gun, does anyone repair airguns in your area? That's another factor to consider, especially if you're talking an electronic gun. Unless you are 100% certain that you can get support in your country, I'd spend some time looking at the blowups of the air pistols and seeing which one you would feel comfortable maintaining if you had to.

I'm not gonna give any recommendations, because you need to find the gun you believe is best for you.

Thank god some1 feels me lol. I'm going further than just being competitive. I'm already using an Olympic grade pistol. I won't create this post if I'm satisfied with just that.

Yes there're gun repair shops in my country but none of them are official service centers but they're reliable (used their services for years). I'll have to ask them if they can repair the gun of my choice before purchasing.

[David M]

I'm a competitive AP shooter and I'm very anal and sensitive about triggers. .....
1. Minimal or no movement when the trigger breaks. (As crisp as possible, the trigger mechanism should not jerk the gun when it breaks)
2. Over-travel as smooth as possible.
3. Ability to adjust over-travel distance
4. Ability to adjust 1st, 2nd stage trigger weight
5. Ability to adjust over travel weight
6. Trigger movement from stage 1 all the way till the end of over-travel as smooth as possible (0 grittiness).

Your level of experience tells me that you really don't know what you want.......insufficent experience.
All current modern air pistols have fully adjustable triggers for travel, overtravel, weight and sear engagement.
You can change the feel of these triggers by adjusting these settings as desired.
No pistol I know of has a weight adjustment for overtravel resistance. (this does vary by pistol design between models).
To buy a pistol, look for your local dealers for support.
Buy a pistol in current production for support and parts availibility.
Find a good Club and Coach and be guided by them.