HIPERTOUCH Enhanced Duty AR Trigger: First Impression

The HIPERTOUCH Enhanced Duty Trigger is a high-performance drop-in duty trigger upgrade for AR-15 and AR-10 rifles. The Enhanced Duty Trigger has user-adjustable trigger weights of 4½ and 5½ pounds. HIPERTOUCH has taken their match-trigger feel and put it into a duty-trigger weight at an affordable price.

HIPERTOUCH triggers retain Eugene Stoner’s simple design elegance while dramatically improving performance. Since the AR-15 first appeared, shooters have been trying to lighten and smooth the AR trigger pull. There have been one- and two-stage triggers with fixed weights ranging from between 2½ and 4½ pounds with a “a glass rod” trigger break.

Designers of two-stage products changed the functional location of the primary sear. Some of these triggers require factory or user calibration and maintenance. Wear or improper calibration causes malfunctions or doubling. Some systems employed reduced-power springs, which have compromised reliable primer ignition.

The EDT was designed for discriminating users who require a trigger pull weight of 4½ pounds, which tends to include law enforcement, competitive shooters, and those with a multi-purpose modern sporting rifle. EDT triggers are user-adjustable to 4½ plus and 5½ plus pounds by interchanging two hammer springs. The “plus” means that even after a period of break-in and/or heavy use, the trigger weight will always stay above the two thresholds.

Terry Bender is a very talented engineer. Back in 2003, he was a little bored and unhappy with available large-caliber semi-auto rifles. Instead of complaining about this on the Internet, he took it as a personal project and designed a whole new rifle. Four patents later, he was showing investors his new baby and looking to go to production.

One of them saw the prototype fire-control group and asked if it could be adapted for the AR-15. A week later, Hiperfire was organized as an LLC and the first trigger patent was applied for. Terry has worked his magic again, taking the geometry and feel of the HIPERTOUCH 24E trigger and putting it into a duty-ready trigger.

The reason conventional AR triggers have a heavy trigger pull weight is the high sear impingement force, which produces a lot of friction. The design geometry of the EDT increases hammer fall energy over the MIL-spec trigger while reducing trigger weight. This lets you ignite hard military and foreign primers, as well as .22 rimfire ammunition.

Everybody has a flinch now and again. This is caused by a subconscious reaction to the blast and noise of the shot. If you want to see this for yourself, just dry fire. Every once in awhile, you will flinch and dip the gun as you pull the trigger. The sear design paradigm used in the 24’s competition trigger has been maintained in the EDT, and helps a shooter overcome that flinch.

It gives you a smooth and flat pull with only a hint of creep, a clean break with little over-travel, then a fast, positive reset at a pull weights suitable for practical or duty use. EDT lock time is faster than MIL-spec due to the use of the heavier springs and by locating the center of hammer mass closer to the pivot axis, makes it spin faster.

A duty trigger demands reliability. Debris and carbon fouling can accumulate in the bottom of the disconnector channel of stock AR triggers, causing the disconnector to jam. The EDT trigger slot has holes, making the disconnector self-cleaning as it toggles. In a fairly common malfunction, a blown primer cup or debris can get under the trigger, preventing reset. To prevent this, the rear underside of the trigger has been raised and ramped, increasing the clearance with the floor of the fire-control cavity.