Sunday, February 5, 2017

Wilson Combat Short Reach Trigger and Hammer Spring for Beretta 92FS

If anyone has read my previous posts, you’ve probably read this phrase before, that I “can’t leave well enough alone”, lol!  Well, before I even shot my current 92FS, I already decided I didn’t like the factory trigger.  Actually, this is my second Beretta, and I flipped the first one before putting any meaningful mods into it.  I wasn’t satisfied with the trigger on my first Beretta, and wasn't really happy with this one either, especially when compared to some of my other pistols.

I ordered a Wilson Combat Beretta 92F/G Custom Tune Spring Kit which comes with an 18 lb Reduced Power Hammer Spring (factory is 20lbs), a 10lb Reduced Power Recoil Spring, 15lb Extra Power Recoil Spring, and a firing pin spring.  The Reduced Power Hammer Spring is supposed to reduce hammer tension for a reduced trigger pull of up to 25 percent according to Wilson Combat.  As I don’t reload, I probably won’t make use of the 10 lb Reduced Power Recoil Spring (for lighter hand loads), but I may use the 15lb Extra Power Recoil Spring as I currently only shoot factory ammo. 

Some have suggested the Beretta D Spring (meant for the Beretta 92D) so I ordered this one as well.  It's a  is a 16lb spring and is supposed to produce a noticeable difference.  It’s not too expensive, Firearms Outlet Canada has them for about $12, and you can contact them and have them ship it in a regular envelope instead of by courier for $15.  Someone from CGN suggested trying a 12-13lb Hammer Spring, but I’ll have to shop around for that one and see if anyone local carries those sort of things.


I also ordered the Wilson Combat Short Reach Trigger for Beretta 92.  It’s CNC machined from 4140 heat treated steel to replace the factory polymer trigger and as the name of the product suggests, it reduces trigger reach.  People without giant mitts often have difficulty comfortably gripping the 92FS and this Short Reach Trigger is supposed to help.


A parts map of the 92:




Installation of the hammer spring is fairly straight forward.  Remove the grips, and tap out the hammer spring cap spring pin.  I should rephrase the bit about easy installation.  It's easy to take down the 92FS, but there is a small difference between Italian made and US made 92FS and it can be a pain in the dick to reassemble.  More on this later.



Easy to knock out the pin with my Wheeler punch set.  I retained pressure on the hammer spring cap so the thing doesn't go shooting off into space when I pull the punch out.  




Once the cap is off, the factory 20lb spring just falls free.  


I'm not sure I will utilize any of the springs that came with my Wilson Combat Spring Kit.  I only wanted to reduce the weight of the trigger, and the 18lb hammer spring might not produce a noticeable difference compared to the factory  20lb.



Drop the new spring in, throw on the plastic cap.  Some people replace this with a metal one, or one with no lanyard loop, but I didn't bother.


I ordered this roll pin starter set for future  AR builds and boy did it come in handy with the Beretta. How it works is, you drop the roll pin into the tool, and it sort of keeps the pin in place as you tap the back of the tool. Before this, I was just holding the pin in place with either my fingers, or a pair of pliers or tweezers, and 9 times out of 10, the pin would fall out of position and I'd smack my fingers.  Or, I'd end up peening the pin because the hammer was just bashing it in.  


I applied pressure on the hammer spring cap and insert a punch into the hole to retain the cap (I have to figure out a better way to do this, maybe come up with some sort of pin that's slightly smaller than the hole.  Maybe for future maintenance, might cut a small steel rod or nail to size and keep it in my Beretta tool kit.


As you can see, the punch is retaining the hammer spring cap, but how the hell am I going to get the roll pin back in?



So, this is sort of what the roll pin looks like in the tool.  The problem is I had nothing brace the frame against, so I just held it and tried to tap in the pin....wasn't very smart.  


The punch fell out before the roll pin got started, and the hammer spring cap flew off to my mess of a work space.  Note to self, find a better way to do this, and clean up my work space so if this sort of thing happens again, it's easier to find parts.


So I rigged up my Pig Saddle to clamp down on the Beretta frame and started to tap in the roll pin.  Once the pin got in far enough to retain the hammer spring cap, I got out a brass much and tapped the rest of the pin in flush with the frame.  




So, this whole fiasco is a lot simpler with the US made Berettas because they use a 3/32 punch pin (described as a dog bone shaped pin) as opposed to the Italian made roll pins.  


Anyway, I'll have to make it a point to try and source one of these in Canada.  Something tells me that it could be a bit of a pain in the buttocks.

So after I messed with the hammer spring, I moved on to replace the factory trigger with the Wilson Combat Short Reach Trigger.  Although this was more steps than replacing the hammer spring, doing this was far easier.  






The slide catch wiggles free on it's own, nothing really keeping it in, other than the slide catch spring behind it.  Care should be applied however as it is possible to bend the spring.  



Next, flip the frame onto the other side and remove the trigger bar spring.  There's a slot in the trigger bar that it sits in, and a hole in the frame that the other side of the spring sits in. Fairly straight forward to remove with a pair of tweezers.


Next, pull the trigger bar free, it may take a little wiggling.  




Next, tap out the trigger pin.  There's not a lot of friction keeping this thing in and should come out fairly easily, however care should be take when removing it because the trigger pin also retains the trigger spring. 



If you knock out the trigger spring straight out, the trigger spring may fly out, never to be seen again.  I would recommend turning the frame upside down and the spring will hit your work mat instead of into your shag carpet or something.



Once the trigger pin is out, the factory trigger will pull right out.  


Comparison between the factory trigger on the left, versus the Wilson Combat unit on the right.




Basically reassembly is the reverse of the disassembly, drop the trigger into the frame and line up the holes.



Push the trigger pin back into the frame partway. 


The trigger pin was a bit of a pain to reinstall.  The spring loop sits in the lower position, with the feet up.  



I used a punch to push the loop low enough then push the trigger pin all the way in, capturing the trigger and the trigger spring.



Next, put the slide catch spring back on to the slide catch with the hooked leg handing free.  


There's a hole in the frame in which the leg of the spring sits in so insert this end in first, then twist the slide catch into position, being careful not to bend the spring out of shape.  






Wiggle the trigger bar back into place part way because you will have to pull one of the legs of the trigger spring over the bar.




I used a dental pick to pull the leg of the trigger spring back, but whatever works for you.


Next is the trigger bar spring.  One of the legs seats inside of a hole in the frame, so I insert this one first. The other leg sits in a slot on the bottom of the trigger bar.


The trigger in the non cocked position:


The trigger in the cocked position





Actually, before I installed any of these mods, I actually took my new Beretta to the range to shoot, just to re-familiarize myself with it.  I found the pistol surprisingly light, and the trigger wasn't as bad as I remember.  In fact, I found it fairly light, but that may have been because I was also shooting my Ruger that night and had a fairly heavy trigger pull compared to the Beretta.

Since installing the Wilson Combat 18# spring, I've only dry fired the pistol and I didn't really notice much of a difference in the weight of the trigger pull between the factory 20# hammer spring and the Wilson Combat one.  I did notice that the trigger reset is a lot shorter thanks to the Wilson Combat short reach trigger.

  


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