This $2 dollar upgrade to a Glock New York Trigger can improve safety with no discernible change in accuracy. It's an upgrade many law enforcement agencies have adopted, and you can too.
You might be a New Yorker if … your dog whizzes on the Johnny Pump and your deli man calls you “Boss.”
Actually, aside from these well-worn colloquialisms, The Big Apple has produced two things I genuinely do like: New York Vanilla … and the New York-1 (NY-1) Glock trigger.
A stock Glock comes from the factory with a 5-pound trigger pull. And being a rifle guy, I tend to think about accuracy in terms of lighter trigger weights. That’s correct for precision rifle doctrine, but heresy for combat handgunning.
Massad Ayoob, in the Gun Digest Book of Concealed Carry, advocates the New York trigger for the Glock. It increases the trigger pull from 5 to 8 pounds. In fact, the New York-2 (NY-2) trigger gives you an even heftier 11-pound pull. The part costs about $2 and installs in minutes.
Just for the record, if I had my way, Glock parts would be for sale at the local convenience store, right next to the fresh doughnuts, warm burritos … hot dog roller and Nightcrawlers. But for the time being you can pick them up from Brownell's and Midway USA.
Note that if you use the 3.5# connector — and hone that connector to smooth out surface inconsistencies — you can get the trigger pull back down to around 5.5 pounds. This is the route I went.
Ayoob gives two reasons to install the heavier New York trigger in your Glock: One is to lessen the chance of an accidental discharge under stress; the other is to demonstrate to a jury or prosecutor following a defensive gun use that yours is not a gun with a “hair trigger.” The idea is, don’t give an anti-gun prosecutor the “frail hook on which to hang the flimsy case.”
“Accidental discharges, sometimes with tragic and fatal results, have been clearly and convincingly related to very light trigger pulls over the years by countless police departments,” writes Ayoob. “NYPD now mandates a nearly twelve-pound (NY-2 or ‘New York Plus’) trigger module in all Glock pistols carried by members of their service.”
For the same reasons the New York State Police use the NY-1, yielding a 7.75-8 pound pull, he notes.
Yet, while my Gen3 Glock 22 is a real tack-driver with a light trigger, I fretted night and day over whether I could hit the broad side of a barn with the NY-1 on board. Could I?
Think of Your Glock as a Revolver
One thing the New York trigger group gives you, in addition to a heavier pull, is a double action revolver feel. It transfers the resistance into a vertical orientation as opposed to a horizontal one. For this reason it’s often installed to help revolver shooters transition to the Glock. To me, it feels like my Smith & Wesson Model 629, with a long “roll through” — almost as if a cylinder is rotating.
“Anyone who tells you it’s impossible to shoot well with these guns, doesn’t know how to shoot,” Ayoob states. “I’ve won IDPA matches with Glock and XD pistols in the above pull weights, and for three years running won the NH Police Association annual state shoot with a Glock 22 that had a New York trigger, shooting against some who had put 3.5 pound pulls in their guns before the match.”
Should you install a New York trigger in your Glock?
While initially apprehensive, today’s range session made a believer out of me. It took about 7 shots to get used to the new trigger feel. After that we were chuggin’ right along. And the gun was just as fast and just as accurate as the old, ultra-light trigger.
My conclusion? No more hair trigger for me. By focusing on the fundamentals of good defensive pistol shooting technique (solid stance, high grip, crush grip, sight picture and trigger pull) one can be just as accurate with a stout trigger as with a light one.
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All due respect, I might as well shave my front sight off.
I can see if you live in a draconian state like NY or CA where you have to live with extra gun laws, but imposing them upon yourself just because someone says its a good idea?
For the record, for my CCW Glock, I left the trigger the way it came from the factory, stock. For my game guns, IDPA, USPSA, etc, I changed my connectors. No need to go to a match and tie one hand behind my back because its the new thing.