Who is the go to person for a J frame trigger job these days? Difficult to do yourself or better to send out?

Well sending it out to a reputable guy will get better results. That being said, I have put numerous Apex Tactical kits into J frames and every one of them was significantly improved with no change in reliability.

Good screw drivers. Go slowly. Don’t mess up the screw heads. Buy that forked tool for the rebound (?) spring removal. Easy.

Agree with Pedro about doing it yourself. I've not tried the Apex kit, but I have done some Wilson kits in N, L, and K frames and have had to shim the strain screw every time to fix light strikes. The J-Frame is a different critter though, and has a coil mainspring instead of a leaf. I also don't mind a heavy-ish trigger provided it's smooth and consistent through the entire pull.

A few things to add:

I tried to buy the rebound spring tool from Brownells a few months ago. Out of stock. Figures...that's what happens about 90% of the time that I need something from Brownells these days. I've always just used a screwdriver, but agree that's not the best way to go about it, and if you damage that pin you're sunk.

Get properly-sized, flat-ground screwdrivers and keep track of which screw goes where. You'll also want a good fine Arkansas stone.

Don't ever pull the trigger with the side plate off and the mainspring and rebound slide spring installed or you risk bending/breaking the pins.

Don't pry the side plate off. Rap the right side of the grip frame with a screwdriver handle and it'll jar loose.

To remove the cylinder, open it then pull the crane forward and out with the cylinder still in-line with the opening in the frame. Once the crane is out, pull the cylinder straight out. This will prevent scratches.

I don't touch the sear/hammer/trigger engagement surfaces unless they are absolutely horribly rough. The tolerances are too fine and they're too easy to screw up. If I have to, I'm insanely slow and careful. Polishing the sides of the hammer, rebound slide, and the ball of the hammer strut where it engages the hammer, along with the inside of the frame where they ride, are usually enough to see a major improvement. I've found that the hammer strut ball is usually 75% of the problem, as a lot of them are really rough and transfer that gritty feel back to the shooter as it rolls in the hammer pocket through the trigger pull.

You can go deeper and work on other parts if you have to but I usually just start with those. I also stone the ends of my springs where they ride against the parts or pins. Don't change the shape of anything, or remove enough material to alter tolerances or cut through the hardened surface of the parts...you're just trying to smooth out the surface and remove any burrs. Don't let perfect become the enemy of good enough so that you end up overdoing it and ruining something!

When re-assembling, put the hammer block in its upward position (sometimes it helps to tilt the gun with the top strap towards the ground so that gravity assists) before re-installing the side plate. Sometimes you have to play with it a bit to get everything to line up. Don't force it, if you have it right it'll pop into place with minimal pressure. Screws go back into the same holes they came out of.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 92fstech,

My simplistic answer is “does the gun go bang every time?”
If the answer is yes get used to the trigger as is. After a few thousand dry and live pulls, you’ll have it down.

If on the other hand you want a “lighter/ smoother trigger pull” you can certainly go down the rabbit whole of springs gunsmiths etc, until you conclude heavy and reliable beats light crisp and unreliable every time.

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NRA Benefactor Member

The above is good advice from 92fstech. I've found that a phillips screwdriver has worked fairly well for me to compress the rebound spring when reinstalling the rebound slide, after some careful polishing of the rebound slide itself and the area where it slides inside the frame. That, and about a 14 lb. rebound spring will greatly improve the trigger, as long as you have a snappy trigger return. (The factory spring is 18 lbs.) I leave the mainspring in a j frame alone. You can buy rebound springs from Wolff Gunsprings if Brownells is out of stock.

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heavy and reliable beats light crisp and unreliable every time.

100% agree with this. But you can clean up the pull significantly in some cases without changing the springs. I won't tolerate a gun that light-strikes.

That drum is wildly over played. Every manufacturer, yes every single one, over springs their guns. They have perfectly good reasons to do so. From liability to reliability. Do a good trigger job, lighten the springs, shoot it a bunch. It’s pretty easy to figure out.

When Beretta decides to put a lighter mainspring in the 92X lineup which is 4lbs lighter than the previous stock spring are they tempting “light and unreliable” too? Of course not. They just acknowledged the obvious. The old spec spring for a 92 is way heavier than necessary so they did what we have been doing for decades. Put in a D spring.

Nobody shoots a heavier trigger better than a lighter trigger all else being equal. If you think otherwise you are kidding yourself.

All of which ignores that your point is presented as a binary choice. Heavy and reliable or light and unreliable. Are we just going to pretend there is no options in between? Oh brother.

I've never lightened the mainspring in a J-Frame. I'm sure there's some room there to work with, but I haven't taken the time to find out.

The Wilson Combat mainsprings I put in the bigger guns have a different curve at the top and provide better leverage for a smoother pull. Every single one has resulted in light strikes on anything but Federal primers, though (they've also all had horrible burrs out of the box that needed cleaned up prior to installation, but that's another matter). I believe somebody makes a longer strain screw to add some tension, but I haven't sourced them. What I do is clean out a spent large pistol primer, pound out the dimple, and file down the cup a bit so I can squeeze it between the screw and the mainspring as a shim. So far I'm 4/4 on this approach hitting the sweet spot for 100% ignition with all primer types that I've tried, and still ending up with a significantly lighter and smoother pull than the factory.

There is a workable middle ground in there...you just have to find it.

I have some J-frames and have used Wilson Combat springs without issue. It brings the trigger pull down from around 16ish pounds to something like 9-10. It was not a difficult swap with the right tools. I sourced the correct screwdriver and case screws from Brownells. (Get some extras in case you bugger them). Those screws are tiny, and will get deformed unless you use the exact right sized screwdriver.

I also deactivated the lock mechanism on mine, the parts just come right on out and there is a small gap in the frame.

Ignition has been 100% in around 500ish rounds. I don't shoot them much anymore, as I've retired the jframe from carrying. Shooting the mouse fart type semi-wadcutter loads is actually pretty fun. Especially if you've got some cans or bowling pins to plink at.

I've owned multiple J-Frames over the years. Currently have a no dash 36 and a no lock 442. Every J-Frame I've simply dry fired it (into a spring loaded snap cap) and the triggers have improved from this. I think I did around 1000 per gun broken up over a week or so.

A little lighter, a little smoother, not a huge change but a noticeable one.

I’ve done the Apex kits on a bunch of J frames and the improvement was drastic. Wheeler has a rebound spring tool bit in it’s 89 bit set. I’m not sure if they sell the bit by itself, but it makes the job way easier to do.

Like I said, I’ve done the Apex kit on multiple J frames. Never once have I had a light strike. Not once. It’s a J frame so I don’t run 10k rounds through them but I have shot them plenty. No light strikes. If I handed you my 640 Pro you would agree that the change in pull is dramatically better than stock. I have zero issue with someone staying stock and just training with the heavy pull. My issue is those people pretending that lightening the pull (reliably) and training the same would not yield even better results. That’s silly nonsense.

It is tantamount to the common theme on another forum, that poor triggers are actually designed to that way because it’s better (somehow). If you could actually sit down with any actual designer of your favorite gun he would tell you the version that made it to market was a compromise of many things between legal, marketing, and the actual engineers. Once again I use the Beretta example. They over sprung the 92 for decades, perhaps because of the government contract but perhaps not since my 1980 decade 92F needed a lighter mainspring as well. Fast forward to today and the 92X which uses all the same fire control components ships with a significantly lighter mainspring. So what changed? Did the physics of reliability become altered? Umm, nope. Guns come over sprung. Some only a little, some a lot. Nothing magic about a trigger job and judiciously lightening springs.

By the way if you are really worried about light strikes but still want a lighter trigger, look at the rebound spring. It has ZERO impact on light strikes. As long as it returns the trigger back in a satisfactory manner that will lighten the pull without screwing with the mainspring. Of course doth both and it is way better.

I put the Apex springs in a J frame and a 686. very easy, and I am not proficient working on guns. As others said it is a big improvement. Apex has a video showing how it's done.

https://www.apextactical.com/j...uty-carry-spring-kit

Well now you guys have got me wanting to try an Apex kit. Pedropcola, have you tried one in your 43C? I'm curious if they'll light off rimfire rounds...

I did. I don’t remember if it was an Apex kit though. I also funnily enough did not swap the rebound spring. On my steel J frames you are leveraging against steel. On the 43c it is an alloy pin and if you over leverage you can bend the pin/post. I started to do it and it just felt hinky so I stopped. I swapped out the mainspring and the only issues I have had are the same I have with every 22. Poor rimfire priming. Spin the dud and it pops off. On the 43c I have shot tons of rounds through it. The trigger is still heavy but not as much. I think if I had been willing to keep going to get the rebound spring in it would be better but I wussed out.

Don't blame you...it always skeeves me out removing those. That's a lot of pressure on that tiny little pin.

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Originally posted by pedropcola:
That drum is wildly over played. Every manufacturer, yes every single one, over springs their guns. They have perfectly good reasons to do so. From liability to reliability. Do a good trigger job, lighten the springs, shoot it a bunch. It’s pretty easy to figure out.

When Beretta decides to put a lighter mainspring in the 92X lineup which is 4lbs lighter than the previous stock spring are they tempting “light and unreliable” too? Of course not. They just acknowledged the obvious. The old spec spring for a 92 is way heavier than necessary so they did what we have been doing for decades. Put in a D spring.

Nobody shoots a heavier trigger better than a lighter trigger all else being equal. If you think otherwise you are kidding yourself.

All of which ignores that your point is presented as a binary choice. Heavy and reliable or light and unreliable. Are we just going to pretend there is no options in between? Oh brother.

Your points are of course valid! My point was, and I see it way too often, that people fiddle with springs on carry guns and adverse affect reliability which is unacceptable. I agree a lighter more manageable trigger is absolutely easier to shoot better with, and IF it can be had without the chance of decreasing reliability, by all means, I just see a lot of stuff done that does affect reliability. With proper parts and skills it of course can be done, but concerted practice with a less than optimal trigger can overcome the impediments to a great degree as well.

I’ve done 4 of the Apex J frame kits and I completely agree with 92’s advice above, but I will offer this…

Getting the rebound slide/spring is a bigger PITA than it looks in the videos. I have the correct tool but it gives me trouble every time. Also if the rebound housing is not 100% properly oriented into the frame and the back of the trigger, the trigger will drag and not reset properly. Sometimes it takes me 2-3 attempts to get it right. Unfortunately, you will not know if it’s good or not without reinstalling the side plate. DO NOT DRY FIRE IT WITHOUT THE SIDE PLATE ON. If you have it wrong, you’ll have to take the cover off, the rebound slide out and reinstall the whole shebang.

I agree. If you decide to work on your gun you certainly need to do it with purpose and thought. If someone can't approach the task with those attributes then a stock trigger is the way to go.

I don't own a single Beretta 92, Sig classic P series, any CZ, any HK's, and most of my S&W's that are stock. I tinker. They are all better for it. I have tinkered and not been happy with the results. I then went back to a stock part or some other solution. Few guns won't benefit from some loving.

That rebound spring tool takes an impossible job and turns it into a merely hard job. lol

The Apex kit made a nice difference for me. The other thing I did that took it from “good” to “butter” was to dry fire the stew out of it. Every morning on my way to work I would click click click until my trigger finger got tired. A few weeks of that made a big difference.