The cheapest of triggers for most builders is going to fall into this category of milspec. Lower Parts Kits or LPK's that have a full trigger group included can be as cheap as $29 on sale which is a steal. Of course, at $29 you wont be getting a competition drop in trigger. What you will get is something that will more than likely work when you need it. Other than that it will leave much to be desired.
Stock triggers will be crusty, gritty, and have a long-ish 7-8 pound trigger pull and some staging. This is really obvious when they are freshly installed with no oil involved. This is primarily because the coating on milspec parts are simply to prevent rust and corrosion over time. The parts do not have the quality control or care put into them to be very good. These factories push these milspec parts out in bulk. The black coating on these parts work well for what is necessary but as with everything else, leaves much to be wanted. But hey, they will work for people on a budget. Honestly, for most users this is all that is needed.
So you have your AR build completed and you finally got to try a drop in trigger on a buddies AR at your local range. You realize that the "flat face, high speed low drag, 2 stage drop in trigger" puts your mostly milspec budget build to shame. Well duh. His trigger probably cost 1/3rd the cost of your entire build. And after looking at drop in complete triggers its just not in the books for the moment. There is some work you can do to meet in the middle. A polish job is in order.
Here is what you will need.
Milspec trigger assembly
Rotary tool (like a dremel)
Small buffing wheels - cotton cloth white pads
Buffing compound
Rags
Q-Tips
Oil
Know the parts of your trigger. There are only a few parts on the trigger that come in contact with each other. These very small parts are the areas you need to work on. A lot of people will suggest sand paper of various grits. Don't bother. You run a risk of taking too much material off and throwing the parts out of spec and it may not work. A hand held rotary tool will be optimal to work slow and steady. There is much less of a chance of problems this way. Its even better if you have a speed selector on the tool set to low or very low.
There are 4 small areas of the parts to polish. Its sort of hard to describe but in the pictures you can see where the polishing took place. The process is fairly simple.
Take the trigger assembly out of your AR. If the kit isn't installed then you can do this straight out of the LPK. There are some more detailed videos on youtube that show which parts of the trigger are in contact. Find out and identify them according to the names on the photo above first before you start if you don't have wear on a used trigger. On a trigger that has been used you can clearly see wear in the milspec finish and you simply remove the black finish and polish only those areas.
After identifying which areas you are going to hit with polish, get a cotton wheel and prep it with compound of your choice. You will have to reapply in between parts more than likely. I use a compound that turns black when its working so its very easy to see when I am getting results on new parts. It also makes it easy to know when I need more compound to the wheel.
Gently hit the parts on low concentrating on the faces of each part, and not blowing out corners or edges of every part. Work on the slowest setting if possible and check your work frequently. It wont take much to get the parts gleaming. Wipe the parts occasionally to check where you need to concentrate on and add more compound if needed.
On milspec stuff there will be machining lines and striations on them. With sandpaper you can blow these lines completely out but risk removing too much. The polishing will shine everything up and you may still have light lines. As far as I can tell you do not have to completely remove them to get results. The idea is to smooth it out as much as possible without risk of failure.
After the parts start to show a mirror finish after wiping the compound clean you can move on to the next part. The hook is particularly difficult and you may experience the sharp edges doing damage to your wheel. Be careful and don't get the compound and the bits from the wheel in your eyes. Wear safety glasses.
When all the parts are hit and like a mirror finish you can reinstall the parts. Note: if your safety selector is already in your lower you may have to mess with it to get the trigger installed correctly. I was able to do it and tore my fingers up a bit getting the pins back in the assembly.
After you get it back together and all installed test the trigger without letting the hammer completely drop forward. Use your other hand to block (or use a polymer hammer block) the hammer from it slamming full force, preventing damage. Test the safety selector and trigger make sure its all working. Lube any polished parts with a Q-Tip and finish reassembly.
Completed your trigger will look something like this.
Its difficult to get a picture that shows how the mirror finish looks but its very clean in person. The hammer has two points you have to polish but I could not for the life of me capture it on camera. The trigger has a flat face that is polished, and the disconnector has one point that is polished as well.
Is it worth the work?
Here is my assessment. If you have the tools at hand, you should do it. This method is very forgiving and has very little chance of warping parts out of spec. After I lubed mine up and ran it a couple of times to make sure it was all functioning the creep and staging was noticeably reduced. The break of the trigger is crisp and predictable. The gritty and crusty feeling is gone. The staging isn't gone but it is a huge improvement over stock milspec trigger parts out of the box.
If you have milspec gear and want to test the waters for working on your own gear and improving what you already have give this a shot. The method I describe is safe and effective with very little chances for issues. Don't be afraid to take your stuff apart and work on it. You can always get videos online showing how to put everything back together if you run into trouble. Do not let that deter you from trying it. Plus, if you got milspec triggers what do you have to lose? You have everything to gain benefit wise from a simple DIY polish job.
Or if you dont want to do it, you can pay someone who will. Either way its a polishing worth it. Then get out to the range and test it out. Don't just take my word for it.
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