In today’s every expanding world of striker fired pistols a common complaint from many shooters revolves around long mushy triggers. It doesn’t seem to matter what brand of pistol whether it be a Glock, Smith & Wesson, Sig Sauer or even a CZ, most people agree the triggers could always be better. Enter Apex Tactical Specialties a company that stands out above the crowd in terms of aftermarket triggers for pistols, and seems to support most models of striker fired pistols on the market.
When Apex reached out to us and asked if we would be interested in performing a test and evaluation session on their Apex Glock Trigger we couldn’t respond fast enough to the email. We essentially told Apex that anything they wanted to send to fit out test Glock 19 was good enough for us to test. What we received a little over a week later was the Apex Action Enhancement Blue Kit for Glock Pistols (Part # 102-175). Since I already have experience with Apex and their triggers from my previous Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm project I knew right off the bat that what I was getting was quality parts. Before we get too far into this review lets break down what exactly comes with this kit from our friends at Apex.
What’s in the Package ?
Inside the Apex Action Enhancement Kit we have only three parts that are all manufactured in the free state of Arizona.
- One Apex blue anodized action enhancement trigger with generation III Glock factory trigger bar
- One Apex ultimate safety plunger for Glock
- One Apex performance disconnector
Photo:Rick Dembroski
Installation and Break Down
The first thing we had to address before testing the new trigger was rendering the Glock 19 safe and removing the stock Glock generation four trigger components. In this part of the break down all I needed was my Twist from Multitasker Tools and a few seconds of tapping the three pins out and the Glock 19 was disassembled into the parts you see above. Many readers of the site are familiar with how the Glock family of pistols breaks down, but for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, both YouTube and Apex’s home page has many easy to follow instructional videos to ease you into it. After the first few times you will become very proficient at it and any fear or hesitation you may have had will be gone.
During the installation of the new trigger and performance disconnector be sure to pay attention to how the spring is connected and make sure the new disconnector is fully seated. If you watch the Apex video and remember these few tips you can swap in a new drop in trigger in just a few minutes. Once the your new components are installed you can quickly reassemble the frame of your Glock and turn your attention to installing the new Apex safety plunger. Disassembling the frame of a pistol is a lot less daunting than breaking down the slide. Don’t worry Apex has videos for that and even if you have no experience taking down Glock slides you can develop the skills and self confidence to do that as well.
Photo:Rick Dembroski
Once you have watched the videos, pondered the possibilities of “what if I screw up?” Snap Cap by Tipton and have successfully followed all the steps outlined its time to reassemble the pistol. By this time reassembling your pistol should be easy and routine. If the pistol goes back together like it should this is a good sign. The next step is to test fire it and see of the trigger resets and the pistol operates in accordance with the normal manual of arms. We suggest first trying this with an inert cartridge like a or another type of testing rounds instead of a live cartridge. If that works well then move onto a session with live rounds. If this all sounds more complex than you want to attempt, there is no harm in buying the kit and dropping it off at your favorite gunsmith and have them do it.
Does It Really Work ?
Once all the sales hype wrapped about the marketing machine is finsished and the installation is complete, at the end of the day it all boils down to one thing. Does the Apex Tactical Specialties trigger kit do what it claims ? Does it really reduce the trigger pull and change the feel on a stock Glock trigger. The answer to that is…Yes it does deliver on the promise of reducing the trigger pull by over one full pound. Using my Lyman Digital Gauge the stock Glock 19 trigger was 5lbs 9 oz and after the installation of the Apex trigger that number dropped to 4 lbs 7.2 oz. In addition to the more than one pound drop in trigger pull the Apex trigger allows the shooter to feel a more consistent creep in the trigger and a more solid trigger reset during firing. Unfortunately this isn’t easy to show our readers rather its easier to feel when shooting the pistol.
Photo:Rick Dembroski
Closing Thoughts
Like almost everything in the firearms community the concept or discussion of upgrading pistol triggers can be polarizing and raise some anger levels. These groups usually can be grouped largely into two groups, with a few in the middle. There are some that think a person should just “make do” and shoot a pistol for thousands of rounds before upgrading a part or component. Then there is the other camp that I belong to that usually believes it doesn’t matter what you think of my choices, I will do what I want and can to make any firearm better for my shooting style of situation. Then there are the folks in the middle seem to see both points of view an want may see value from both sides points of view.
I think this combo is a great affordable way to clean up and lighten the trigger on just about any Glock pistol on the market. It’s easy to install and the basic all black model of this set up can be had for the price of a few Glock magazines. To me the upgrade is worth the price. As I said in the opener I’ve had other Apex products installed in my guns so I was fully aware of the company’s reputation and product. We are fortunate enough to have a great working relationship with Apex Tactical and we look forward to allowing as many shooters as we can get some trigger time on this gun and trigger combo.
Photo:Rick Dembroski
Are you running a striker fired pistol with an aftermarket trigger set up ? We want to hear from our readers what parts they are swapping out and why. It’s an interesting time in the polymer gun market with Sig Sauer and the P320 grabbing more market share as each month passes. Apex has seen this trend coming along time ago and has been supporting the P320 with their trigger upgrades for a while now. Check back often as we are trying to line up some Sig P320 triggers to test and see how they add to the mix with the reported issues surrounding that pistol.
