One of the most common complaints that we hear from the M&P is the trigger. Weather the complaint is that the trigger had no reset or that there is too much pre travel and over travel there is an obvious common complaint from the factory trigger. Apex Tactical Specialties has been a leader in improving the M&P trigger. Their Forward Set Sear and Trigger kits have been able to resemble the beloved 1911 trigger feel. But they didn’t stop there. Scott and Randy from Apex have announced their new flat face trigger for the M&P to further more allow the end user to replicate a 1911 trigger feel. I was fortunate enough to receive a prototype for testing. After shooting three local pistol matches and logging a few hours at local ranges for practice and accuracy testing, this is what I found.
The Apex flat faced trigger was designed to give the user a similar feel to the 1911 trigger while maintaining the trigger safety as found in the other Apex Enhancement triggers and trigger kits. As similar to the other Enhancement triggers, the amount of pre travel and over travel by about 20% and in conjunction with the Apex Forward Set sear kit, the achieved result is a smooth single action like trigger. Now where the Enhanced trigger stops in replicating the 1911 trigger, the flat face trigger continues to excel. While keeping the improvements to the pre travel and over travel, the flat face trigger now gives you the feeling of the commonly sought after 1911 flat trigger. The trigger feels like you are pressing the trigger directly to the rear of the trigger frame.
As another result due to the design of the trigger, the mechanical advantage allows the user to achieve a lighter trigger pull without changing any springs. In my specific case, I had the Apex Competition Spring Kit installed in conjunction with the Aluminum Forward Set Sear and Trigger Kit. The end result with this was a consistent 2.8lbs trigger pull. Once the flat face trigger was installed, the trigger pull came down to 1.4lbs.
The trigger came to me installed by Apex with the competition spring kit and Forward Set Sear kit. I immediately noticed how the flat faced trigger produced a very similar amount of pre travel and over travel to the 1911’s that I have felt. Even though the trigger breaks at 1.4lbs, I can still feel a small amount of take up in the trigger before hitting a wall right before the sear drops. Although it took a little practice to get used to, I was able to learn how to prep the trigger before breaking my shots on small steel plates during matches.
During each match and visit to the range, I kept having competitors and recreational shooters dry fire and live fire the gun to see their impressions of it. Regardless if they were a new shooter to the range or a regular USPSA shooter, the reaction was the same. After pulling the trigger, everyone would have a grin on their face and simply say “wow”. People truly thought that it replicated the feel of the 1911 trigger and were impressed in how clean the trigger felt.
In conclusion, Apex hit another home run with their product. The end result is exactly what I was personally wanting in a trigger to make the gun more comfortable and easy to shoot in competition while still maintaining every safety feature found on the other Apex triggers. I truly felt privileged to be able to test a prototype and hope that product overview can help you decide if the Apex flat faced trigger is right for you.
I can’t see your pictures here at work, but I would ASSume that this should only be installed on guns with manual safeties? I can’t see running a 1.4 lb trigger without one.
You can use different springs to achieve a heavier trigger pull. Since this gun was built for competition only, I wanted toTarrant how low I could get the trigger.
Implying that Apex is sending out gear to Shills is not really fair to Apex.
Apex told those of us that received pre production samples that we could go ahead and release information about the triggers on the 12th of November. That is what this poster chose to do. Could he have provided a little bit more information on who he is and what he does with the trigger, sure, but that’s up to him.
Basically any gun can be shot well if you train enough.
Wanting to change, tune or adapt trigger characteristics to your chosen platform is laudable and something i do on every handgun i own.
This isnt a 1911 trigger, it still pivots. It does however, offer exceptional throw, a VERY nice crisp and clean break and as i mentioned in my introduction, a design that minimizes the human hands influence on said trigger press. To me that is a win. I dont believe Apex was trying to shoe horn into or even market this as being a 1911 style trigger.
It is its own city smashing godzilla style monster and i like it, alot.
I didn’t want this specific review to be about me but more on the trigger. I am in the works of creating a video review but your video did very good job at reviewing the trigger. I’m am trying to think of a video script that Will be highlighting the trigger from a competition stand point.
Since you tossed the suggestion out there. I am a novice competitive shooter who was privileged enough to be able to test the flat face trigger prior to release.
Considering this thread was his first post with no other participation on this forum and it appears to be a generic cut and paste type of post that might be made for re-posting on various sites, it does seem a bit questionable. This is no jab at Apex.
And not every gun instantly needs to be gutted and have everything replaced which seems to be a common theme when it comes to the M&P.
Wanting to change, tune or adapt trigger characteristics to your chosen platform is laudable and something i do on every handgun i own.
That’s well and fine and no one says that you shouldn’t be able to do so.
This isnt a 1911 trigger, it still pivots.
It’s still designed to mimic the feel of the 1911 is it not? After all that’s the constant comparison in the OP. I swear people chase the 1911 trigger feel like a doper chases his original high
I did use this post on many other forums no question about that. I am also not a participating member of this particular forum either. When I made this review, I wanted to post it on various forums to spread the word about the trigger and give my initial findings on it. I am more active on other forums such as AR15.com. I see what you are saying and it is fair to say that seeing how I have not even logged into this forum for over a year until this original post.
It’s not really a problem if you preface your initial post. I am sure those here on this forum, myself included, very much appreciate the information but any forum is always leery of the one hit wonders, or those types who spam forums purely to draw views to youtube, blogs, facebook etc. And this is not directed towards Magsz as I am very familiar with him online and know that is not his style and respect his opinions as I have a basis or understanding of him through ongoing forum interactions. I too am a long long time member of the site you mention and still go slumming there from time to time ;), but in any event welcome to this forum and on going, positive participation here is always welcome.
I don’t get why people buy service-grade pistols and then put so much money into them just to make them almost as good as a higher end gun. I really don’t get the whole customizing your Glock thing. I don’t. I can’t wrap my brain around it. Just buy a VP9 and be done with it.
