Striker-fired pistols are the central figure of the modern handgun culture and the majority of the arguments always lead to one point the trigger. Shooters use striker triggers as intrinsically bad or as intrinsically best and both camps tend to discuss past the mechanical fact.
It is more helpful to dissociate what a trigger fired by a striker does with the way it feels in a particular pistol. Using that lens, a number of popular arguments can be demolished within a short period.
1. Striker-fired refers to hammerless, thus it is an entirely new type of ignition
A lot of striker-fired pistols are said to be hammerless, but this is confusing. The most important difference is that a pistol that is fired by a striker does not have to employ an external hammer to propel a firing pin; it contains an internal striker mechanism that accomplishes the task. That is a design difference that alters the interaction of the trigger with springs and sears, but makes no guns striker-fired classified as simpler or more complicated in all aspects.
The use of striker fired systems has also preceded the polymer times. The notion that striker ignition is a new concept fails on fundamental history: the striker-fired version was popularized by the Glock 17, but that was not invented during the 1980s.
2. The striker trigger is always mushy
One of the most exchanged trigger insults is the word mushy, and it is also one of the most inaccurate. Shooter-to-shooter language will use mushy to mean a long, rolling, unclear wall take up instead of a clean stop and break.
One of the seasoned posterers in the forum explained it in simple terms: all striker fired guns have a mushy trigger to me. It is its action of compressing the striker spring. That is a statement of a literal mechanical donor: on most striker designs, the trigger stroke involves work to accomplish (or adjust) striker spring tension. But mushy is not necessarily a law of pistols with striker firing, it is only the effect of the geometry, the springing, and the engagement of the sear as it is felt by the finger.
3. When it is striker-fired, then it is the same trigger all the time
Shooters tend to refer to striker-fired as a single feel of trigger. As a matter of fact, striker-fired is a type of ignition, and not necessarily a consistent trigger profile. The take-up length, wall firmness, break character, reset length, and overtravel may vary vastly between two striker-fired pistols depending on the setting of engagement surfaces and spring rates by each manufacturer.
Even in a family of single brands, the feel can be changed by changing trigger shoes, leverage, internal parts to the point where the timing and accuracy of the shooter changes, particularly during speed.
4. It is an automatic and therefore more difficult to shoot compared to striker-fired
The triggers are usually strenuous with the double-action trigger, especially with the use of the double-action only mechanism where all the shots are long pulls. Nevertheless, the concept of double-action being less shootable is unaware of what actually experienced shooters are exploiting, a stable press and a predictable break and can be trained even when the stroke is longer.
In traditional DA/SA, the initial shot and the consecutive shots do not even pose the same question of the trigger finger. This contrast is one reason why some shooters may report a higher accuracy at range with DA/SA than striker-fired-because the longer pre-load and shorter follow-ups can allow the development of different timing habits and confirmation schedules.
5. Striker-fired is safer since it lacks external hammer
The existence or the lack of an external hammer does not give safety. A visible hammer is capable of providing an immediate external status signal, whereas striker-fired designs depend on internal factors which the shooter cannot observe. They are not inherently safer with either, and both require the proper way of handling it, discipline in the holster, and an understanding of the movement of the trigger and its reset.
The identification of no external hammer with safe also leaves out the largest practical variable: the actions of the trigger at the point of high-stress handling. A lighter or shorter press may be beneficial in shooting, and also may be abusive to slack finger training.
6. Pistols with striker-fires were invented by Glock
The power of Glock is factual, however, the concept of invention is another matter. The contemporary striker-fired boom is heavily informed by the success of Glock in the 1980s, such as how the brand helped popularize the use of polymer-framed duty pistols. However, Glock is not the one to give credit on the design of the striker-fired mechanisms.
John Moses Browning is credited with the previous concept of striker-fired as one of the overviews of the types of action points out. That historical fact is important as it puts the striker ignition back in perspective as a proven engineering route, rather than an invention of a single company.
7. A new trigger shoe is used to fix the fundamentals of a striker trigger
Aftermarket triggers and kits may alter the interface between a trigger and the finger and some systems provide significant changes in the reset behavior or adjustability. As an example, there are specific trigger kits designed to fit striker-fired models like the SIG P320 and SIG P365, and they have the option of hammer-fired.
Nevertheless, the improvement of feel does not necessarily redesign the fundamental design: the manner in which striker tensioning is done, the manner in which engagement surfaces release, and the manner in which springs are stacked during the stroke. Another shoe may enhance leverage and comfort, yet it cannot neutralize the mechanics underlying the creation of travel character, wall definition, and break quality.
Striker fired triggers are not magic nor junk. They consist of a combination of design options to trade crispness, travelling, and spring work in varying degrees based on the pistol. The striker-fired trigger myth is reduced to an engineering discussion when shooters refer to what they experience; take-up, wall, break, reset, as opposed to debating labels.
