Blackhawk’s Blaze Trigger uses Boron-infused steel to maintain exact mil-spec dimensions while improving trigger function and longevity.
I love AR-15 type rifles as much, and probably more than the next guy. But if we’re all to be honest with each other, I think we can agree that the standard mil-spec trigger kind of sucks. Of all the (standard, not premium) rifles I’ve handled over the years, there are very few that have a trigger worthy of positive thoughts. I guess it’s just part of the design. After all, the AR-15 / M-16 wasn’t really designed for all the things we’re using it for now like long range, precision shooting and use with infinity plus seven different calibers.
As a result, for rifles I buy, the very first thing I do is remove the existing mil-spec trigger, curse at it, then bury it in the swamp behind my house. Then I install a decent trigger like a Timney or Geissele. Once you shoot a “good” trigger, you’ll be spoiled forever. Obviously, a trigger upgrade doesn’t make the gun mechanically more accurate, but it does make it a heck of a lot easier to shoot the rifle more accurately. That’s part of the design goal behind Blackhawk’s Blaze Trigger for AR-15 rifles.
So why do mil-spec triggers suck the fun out of shooting? It’s not the pull weight really. A six or seven-pound trigger of a rifle isn’t necessarily a bad thing, provided that it’s smooth, consistent, and crisp. Most mil-spec triggers feel like the sear surfaces have been coated with 200-year old brick, so when you start your trigger pull, the primary sensation you feel is something like fingernails on a chalkboard. When things aren’t smooth, they’re no longer predictable either.
I pulled two AR’s out of the safe, both “standard” models made by reputable companies and did a bunch of dry fire trigger pulls – some using a trigger scale and others just listening and feeling operation. The first rifle almost always had a take-up stage that ended in an abrupt “click” before pressure increased before the break. While it was OK, I wouldn’t describe the break as crisp. Weight varied with each pull between 6.75 and 7.5 pounds. On the second rifle, the take-up stage was much improved with hardly any before the pre-break pressure. The gritty feel was much less than most standard triggers, but the weight was all over the map with pull measuring between 5.5 and 7.5 pounds on any given shot. Meh.
The $99.95 Blackhawk Blaze trigger kit includes trigger components and two sets of trigger and hammer springs for six and 4.7-pound pull weights.
The “meh” factor of AR triggers is exactly why Blackhawk! put some nifty patent-pending Boron infusion technology to good use with an improved mil-spec trigger system. Sure, you can spend a few hundred on a souped-up completion trigger with a three-pound pull, but that’s not ideal for a defensive rifle and certainly not appropriate for applications like law enforcement or military use. One of the driving forces behind the Blaze trigger system was to create a true mil-spec trigger that was compliant in all ways, but better. There were two design elements that the Blackhawk! folks had to consider: mil-spec dimensions and trigger weight.
Read the rest at GunsAmerica.
Got something to say?