Hello everyone, I have a rifle that I am looking to upgrade, and I think I am either going to get a free float handguard, or a geissele trigger, probably the SSA or possibly the ssa-e.
Does it make sense to do one before the other? I would like to hear whatever advice is available. I did search this topic, but did not come up with results that are applicable to this question.
Thanks for you time.
How accurate are you trying to be? And at what ranges? You will notice more immediate accuracy from a trigger job 1st. The triggers you listed are fantastic BTW.
have the SSA in my PredatAR and SSA-E in my SPR. Awesome triggers for sure, you will not be disappointed.
I think the trigger will give a bigger increase in accuracy, but it depends on the intended use for the rifle.
The rifle is a Daniel Defense XVEZ. I am going for a mid range type setup, if I ever put magnified optics on it, it would be 6x max. I have purchased a PWS FSC556 muzzle device to install. My goal is to make it as easy as possible to make hits accurately and quickly. I am primarily concerned with 0-300 yards.
Okay. I have a DD LPK in my rifle and the trigger is better than most, and I find it a solid carbine trigger. However, the Geissele is a whole other ballgame. Start with the trigger. Get that out of the way 1st. Is that DD non free-floating? I was under the impression every DD came with a free-float barrel and rail? I am probably wrong there.
That rifle uses the EZ carbine drop in rail, non free float.
Thank you!
I think you’d notice a lot more out of the trigger than a FF handguard, especially for those distances. I could be wrong, but I would think ammo may be a bigger factor than FF.
The trigger won’t increase the inherent/mechanical accuracy of the rifle. It will make your job of pressing the trigger without disrupting the rifle/barrel easier, which can and usually does increase your real world actual practical accuracy.
Free floating the barrel doesn’t necessarily really increase accuracy either, so much as it reduces or negates the effects of some forces. For example, hand pressure, sling pressure, bipod pressure, heat, bracing on a barricade, etc, etc, are more likely to shift your point of impact (POI) if your handguard/rail is not free floated.
Which one first depends on your intended usage for the rifle and your personal preferences, I think. Will you be mounting anything to it that is easier with a rail? Will you maybe end up spending more money in the long run by, for example, buying an MOE handguard + a mount-n-slot light mount, which you then have to replace with a different mount when you get around to changing the handguard?
So I’d think of it that way. What other changes and expenses will be associated with the rail. Because the trigger/FCG is just a stand alone drop in, usually, and nothing else is affected. Handguards/rails, however, will affect other things.
I put a Geissele SSA into my (first/only at the time) AR awhile before I got a free floating handguard.
Now that I am planning changes to my second rifle I think I’ll go with the handguard before the trigger, so that I can do all the ‘other stuff’ without having to think about “will this light mount work when I change rails?” or “will this VFG work when I change rails?”.
The XVEZ is a factory configuration that DD used to offer as their base model with the EZCAR 7.0 rail. 2012 was the last year they offered it. When i called DD to ask, they imdicated it was ecactly the same as all their other rifles, only with a different rail. So i was sold… and i’m still satisfied. It’s a great rifle. In hindsight I wish I had bit the bullet and put in the extra $300 at the time, but my budget was tight. I wanted a DD rifle, and this configuration was the best option for me at the time. Don’t get me wrong, I still love it, but I can now afford a couple more bits and pieces for it. 
One caveat about the Geissele triggers; they’ll make any other standard triggers feel like crap, and you’ll be itching to replace those as well.
Moon
Yeah…they will.
I thought my stock Colt trigger was just fine. Then I got an SSA and I thought “yeah, that’s pretty nice”. A thousand or so rounds later I put the stock Colt trigger into a new build and thought “this trigger kinda sucks”.
Ugh. That’s why another SSA is second on my list for upgrading that second rifle. Just can’t get away from it.
Warp,
I’m with you on the practical vs. mechanical accuracy issue. Like I said, i’m looking to increase hit probability. In the event I go the trigger route (which is the way I’m leaning currently), I am going to install an moe handguard, but I’m not going to mount anything on it.
Not a defensive rifle, I take it?
Any thoughts on the SSA vs. SSA-E for the applications I have described? My only concern would be avoiding going too light, or does proper trigger discipline and a two stage trigger system make this somewhat of a non issue?
LOL. No, not in the sense that I feel compelled to mount a light to it if that’s what you mean. What I need it to do, I need it to do in conditions with sufficient ambient light. It would probably not be a first grab once lights go out.
If it isn’t really a defensive arm/an arm you’d reach for for defense, I’d go with an SSA-E based on everything I have read. I have not shot one, though, only the SSA.
Yeah, it’s not my primary defensive option. It would only ever be used defensively in the rarest of near unimaginable extremes.
Excellent. Thank you for your time and input.
If there is the slightest chance you’d use it in a social situation, go with the SSA.
The break on the SSA is clean enough for about anything save serious benchrest work, IMHO. Yet it remains heavy enough to be safe when pulse and adrenaline are up.
Moon