Original MP5 triggers aren’t so great, but the Timney HK MP5 two-stage trigger fixes that.
There was a time when whatever trigger arrived in your firearm was the trigger you lived with. No one was more hard core about “you will own it and you will like it” than HK. I sometimes wondered if there was a special branch of the in-house design bureau devoted to making HK triggers hard to live with.
Well, no more.
Timney has a drop-in (more or less) trigger pack for the HK series. By series, I mean the entire rifle, PCC and large-format pistol line. That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that the Timney trigger pack only works with the “SEF” designed trigger assemblies and not the “Navy” ones.
So, my CETME 7.62 and my Century Arms G3 clone can get a nice trigger for the future.
My Navy-lower SD clone? Still outta luck. Sigh.
The process is simple, if aggravating. Why? Read up on your HK hardware. I had forgotten and had to be reminded that not only has HK been making three-finger triggers, but they have also felt free to change designs and not make them backward compatible. To be fair, a big part of that is the requirement by the feds that it be as difficult as possible to use real-deal surplus parts, if they happen to have come from a select-fire host. Don’t blame Timney.
The process, in a nutshell: unload. Disassemble. Once you have the trigger assembly off the rifle/carbine/PCC, remove the safety. Lever the old trigger pack up out of the shell. Remove the ejector/disconnector from the original and install it and its spring in the Timney packet. Reassemble.
What do you get for your efforts? A two-stage trigger with a 2-pound take-up and a 2-pound release. Four pounds, clean and crisp. And, all in an assembly that you won’t even have to remove for cleaning once you’ve swapped the parts.
For all of my griping about HK and their engineering decisions, the trigger assembly is about as care-free a unit as you can hope for. If you get to the point that cleaning your trigger assembly actually has to happen (10,000 rounds, anyone?), just pry it off of the receiver and use various aerosol cleaner/degreasers to hose the gunk and sludge out. Then, lube, wipe the exterior dry and reassemble.
And with the new Timney trigger packet installed, you can still do the same thing. You just have a much nicer trigger pull the whole time.
Isn’t competition a great thing? Now, goodness like this does not come cheap. You will find the list price of the Timney trigger at $300 to be a step up. Then again, you get a really good trigger in a firearm that previously did not have one.
Oh, you could spring for the HK match trigger if you really wanted to, but that will run you twice or more the cost of the Timney. I like saving money, but I love a good trigger.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the July 2026 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
More On Triggers
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- Double-Dipping: Best Binary Trigger Buyer’s Guide
- The Nighthawk Drop-In 1911 Trigger
- Rifle Trigger Upgrades: Flipping The Switch
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