Ruger Trigger Upgrades

A good trigger is essential to good shooting. What’s a good trigger? It’s one you can manage, meaning you have to be able to press it without moving the sights from the point of aim. Bad triggers make good shooting difficult, while good triggers make it easier to shoot well. Although the feel of a trigger is subjective we generally agree that good triggers should feel light and crisp, as opposed to heavy and crunchy. Most rifle shooters feel that a good trigger is one that breaks crisply at about 3 to 5 pounds, with the crispness of the break being more important than the weight of the pull.

While some rifles come from the factory with good triggers most are not very good and need some attention if one wishes to improve them. Traditionally, a trip to the gunsmith for some professional adjustment is in order, but in recent years some clever folks have produced trigger parts and trigger groups for some rifles that anyone can purchase and install. Two of the more popular trigger upgrades involve the Ruger 10-22, a reliable and accurate rifle not known for having a great trigger, and the AR-15, which is usually encountered with a crappy military grade trigger. As these two rifles have sold in the millions, you can well imagine there is a lively business providing upgraded parts for them. The folks at Ruger must have seen an opportunity here and have introduced replacement triggers of their own making for the 10-22 and AR-15.

BX 10-22 Trigger

The BX trigger is a complete trigger group for the 10-22 that includes the hammer, sear, trigger, safety, trigger guard and magazine release, along with the two cross pins that secure the module in the receiver. It is designed to fit any 10-22 rifle or Charger pistol of previous or current manufacture. The stock trigger in my Ruger 10-22 Takedown breaks at a little over 6 pounds when measured with the Lyman electronic trigger tester gizmo so I decided to replace it with the new BX trigger. Installation is easy. The directions that come packaged with the trigger are clear and precise and following them and switching out the trigger group takes only a few minutes. Ruger also has a video on their website that walks you through the process (LINK www.ruger.com/bx-trigger): Check to ensure the rifle is unloaded, remove the barrel band if present, loosen the stock screw, center the push button safety and take the action out of the stock. Remove the two pins holding the trigger group in the receiver and replace with the new trigger group. It really is that easy. After making the switch and checking the function of the new trigger I found it measured 2.75 pounds, a substantial improvement. It’s an installation anyone should be able to do at home that reduces trigger pull by more than half – what’s not to like?

Elite 452 Trigger

The AR trigger parts are mounted in a plastic receiver, or dry fire housing, that also includes the safety and pistol grip. This allows the consumer to test the trigger feel in the store but, being a firearms trainer, as soon as I got my hands on it I realized this is a great tool for teaching and demonstrating trigger press, follow through and trigger reset. If that appeals to you as well I suggest, after removing the new trigger parts and installing them in your rifle, you put the old parts back in the plastic dry fire housing and use it as a trigger control practice unit.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand – replacing your AR trigger. The Elite trigger requires a bit more skill to install than the 10-22 trigger. If you have never taken an AR lower apart you might want to have someone who is familiar with the process help you out, even though the printed instructions packaged with the trigger are very clear and helpful. You will need a light mallet (I use a small hammer with a plastic head – leave your claw hammer in the toolbox) and pin punch to tap the pins out of the receiver that hold the hammer and trigger in place. Take a good look at the way the parts and springs align before disassembly. When re-assembling with the new parts, I find using a second punch as a slave pin to align the parts helps me hold them in place against the spring pressure. I installed the Elite trigger in a AR lower with stock parts that had a typically crunchy and heavy military grade trigger measuring about 8 pounds, 6 ounces. The Elite trigger measured right at 4 pounds after installation, a considerable improvement in pull weight and smoothness.

The Ruger Elite trigger also gives you the option of replacing the pistol grip and thumb safety on your rifle with the ones provided on the Elite dry firing housing. If you decide to swap these parts out be careful – there’s a little plunger and spring held in place by the pistol grip and you don’t want to launch any parts into that place where they will never be found. Trust me, there’s a blue flash as the parts disappear into that other dimension, I’ve seen it many times.

Both of these triggers are available at your favorite gun emporium or may be purchased direct from Ruger at www.ShopRuger.com. The BX trigger retails for $89.95 and the Elite trigger goes for $159.95. These are nice parts at a fair price that perform exactly as advertised – and they’re easy to install. Highly recommended.

About the Author: Ed Head is a regular on Shooting Gallery, Gun Stories and Down Range TV. He has worked for almost 30 years in law enforcement, first in the United States Air Force and then with the United States Border Patrol, retiring as a Field Operations Supervisor. During his Border Patrol career, Ed worked in a variety of patrol, investigative and training capacities. Ed has an extensive background as a firearms instructor, having trained thousands, ranging from beginners to police, military and special operations personnel. Having taught at Gunsite for 20 years, Ed first trained there under the world famous shooting school’s founder, Jeff Cooper, then later ran the school as the operations manager for more than five years. Ed lives in Chino Valley, Arizona, where he continues to teach and write.