On simplicity, consistency, and mass adoption, modern striker-fired pistols outperform. However, when gun shooters discuss great triggers, the discussion continues to revolve around well-fitting revolvers- particularly older types of the double-action type that were constructed around polished bearing surfaces, direct mechanical leverage, and a trigger stroke that does not merely release a striker.
It is not actually a comparison of nostalgia. It is of the way of each system conducting force, controlling friction, and strike equilibrium between safety margins and feel. When the old school lockwork of the revolver is held alongside it is easy to see why good enough became the order of the day with the strikers.
1. True clean single-action break geometry Direct search geometry providing truly clean single-action break
With revolvers the disengagement between the sear and the hammer can be achieved with relatively little in between. According to American Handgunner, with a revolver, the ammunition supply is in the cylinder, and the sear and hammer interact directly without any other elements to introduce play to the mechanism, which explains the type of break commonly known as virtually no perceptible movement before release, when using a single-action pull of a quality revolver (virtually no perceptible movement). In comparison, semi-auto triggers have to convey input circular around a magazine well and into an alternate moving assembly that enhances chances of slack, stacking, and uneven feel.
2. Revolver timing provides more disciplined and smooth triggering
Revolver dumping is not long. These are coordinated steps: pulling back of the cylinder stop, grasping the extractor ratchet by the hand, rotating the cylinder, and locking up prior to the hammer drop. Such a choreographed operation is referred to by revolver mechanics as timing, or as many things happening at the right micro-instant, and approximately 20 parts of a K-frame are directly linked to the process of cylinder alignment (approximately 20 parts directly linked). The mechanical necessity is more likely to compensate any continuous pressure that flows smoothly, since any sudden contribution is conveyed by a series of bearing surfaces.
3. Smooth and hardened contact surfaces minimize the real world grit
Service-optimized revolver triggers were supposed to remain shootable over a period of time without becoming sandpaper. As explained by American Handgunner, flaws on the engagement surfaces are indicated by steps or gritty creep, and that S&W revolvers solve this by polishing the sear/hammer surfaces very smooth and then hardening the surface. Numerous striker-fired triggers are instead reported by the shooters to have mushy takeup, an indistinct wall, and gritty break – issues that are more likely to manifest themselves where the trigger shoe and internal interfaces are designed to be efficient in manufacture.
4. Safety-by-stroke: long travel may be ready, and not twitchy
Longer travel is not necessarily a disadvantage; it may be an element of design that provides a margin that is not planned movement. Liberty Safe description has positioned the double-action pull as long, smooth, heavy and thus more difficult to move accidentally during carry and still leave the gun in a ready-to-fire position without the help of manual safeties (long, smooth, heavy DA trigger pull). Most striker systems seek to compromise the difference, and with a striker travel that is typically much shorter the result is that the decision space within the trigger press is also significantly smaller.
5. Trigger prep is not aftermarket, it is an inbuilt method
Since a double-action revolver (as well as DA/SA pistols on the initial shot) is fired with a longer stroke, a shooter can initiate pressing as the sights settle and break at the point of confirmation of alignment. Liberty Safe criticizes the use of aggressive trigger prepping as a routine practice in the DA setting, which is largely not considered safe or correct when using very light single-action firing or a great number of striker configurations. The stroke of the revolver gives tactile feedback on the entire arc of the shooter, this can result in the firing process of a trained shooter to feel more analog than binary.
6. Other compromises required by reset and reliability are fewer
Semi-autos require free movement to allow the trigger to clear during the slide action, as well as to maintain operation in dirty, hot and tolerance stacking environments. According to American Handgunner semi-autos commonly have takeup measurements of 1/16″ to 3/8″ before sear release, as it must be able to reliably reset even when the circumstances are less than perfect. The feel is not confined to those design allowances as revolvers do not need the same disconnector-and-reset choreography related with a reciprocating slide.
7. With revolvers out of order, this diagnosis is the explanation why they were feeling so fine
Eventually, wear manifests as timing problems, which is the carry-up that does not entirely align the chamber at firing. Both American Handgunner and Shooting Times explain the method of timing, which is done by cycling the action slowly and ensuring that the lock-up has been established before the hammer falls, and that the more common remedy is a new or oversize hand that restores the rotation of the cylinder. This is what is important: the quality of the trigger of a revolver can not be separated according to accurate mechanical relations. The accuracy that creates a glassy stroke, also causes the system to tells the truth on wear.
Striker-fired pistols are still supreme in the sense that they have become standardized in performance, and they are easy to train when dealing with massive numbers of users. Older revolvers with a meticulously crafted fit have been found to provide a more mechanically articulate trigger, one that provides a sense of friction, leverage, and alignment on its way. It is due to that openness that a large revolver trigger may grow into a kind of embarrassment to a present-day striker: it is not merely a release. It is a machine cycle which the shooter feels working.
