Review of the Custom Grayguns P320 Trigger (PELT)

I’m a big fan of the SIG Sauer P320 platform.  I got my first P320 Compact in November of 2015 – FDE with a bronze slide.  I still have it and use it both for CCW and home defense.  Last summer I bought another all-black P320 Compact and had the slide milled for a Trijicon RMR, and got a stipple job on a grip module – I use it as my competition pistol.  Still, for as much as I like the P320, there is one glaring problem when using the gun for competition – the trigger pull weight.  Most P320’s have a trigger pull in the 7 lb. range.  That’s not horrible – and actually it’s a weight that’s preferred by many that would use the firearm for CCW and self-defense.  But my previous competition pistol was an M&P 9mm Compact with an Apex FSS trigger which is right about 4 lbs. even in pull weight.

Because the P320 is a relatively new platform, there are few options available for trigger modification work.  In fact, I’m only aware of two – Grayguns, and the SIG Armorer.  Both gunsmiths require you to send them your gun and wait for the work to be completed – in addition to paying approximately $300.00 plus shipping each way.  The cost didn’t bother me as much as waiting did.  But I was just about to send off my P320 when I learned that Grayguns would “soon” be releasing a drop in replacement trigger for the P320.  This seemed like the perfect option for me.  In fact, I even signed up for and took the P320 Armorers Course to prepare me for being able to install the trigger myself.  That was in June of 2016.  I immediately placed my order.  And I waited.  And waited.  And…well you get the idea.  My new Grayguns Practical Enhanced Leverage Trigger (PELT) didn’t arrive until February 2nd, 2017.  The good news?  The price was just $100.00.

This “DIY” trigger kit is available in two different configurations – traditional curved and flat-faced.  I chose the curved trigger because A)it’s what I’m used to and B)it is USPSA legal as it is, cosmetically speaking, virtually indestinquishable from the stock trigger.

In addition to the replacement trigger and trigger spring, Grayguns also provides a “heavier duty” replacement for the sear housing retaining pin.  According the Grayguns, they find that it is typical in the P320 which has the factory sear housing retaining pin, that examples with high round count or perhaps that have had the retaining pin removed and reinserted several times will experience rocking of the sear housing as the retaining pin fails to hold the sear housing in place.

INSTALLING THE GRAYGUNS COMPONENTS

To assist users in the installation of these components, the man himself Bruce Gray recorded an excellent video of the installation process.  Having said that, I ran into problems that were not addressed in the video.  Specifically, while installing the replacement sear housing retaining pin, I managed to dislodge the 3 springs contained in the sear housing assembly (the safety level spring and twin sear springs).  Replacing them basically requires a complete tear-down and reassembly of the Fire Control Unit (FCU).  It is for this reason that I will caution all that purchase the PELT replacement trigger to think twice about replacing the sear housing retaining pin.  It literally took me all weekend and several attempts to reassemble the FCU of my P320 and there was at least a dozen times I thought “I’m just going to have send this to SIG and let them charge me whatever to reassemble it.”  It has been about 7 months since I took the P320 Armorers Course and I had long forgotten what I’d learned.  Alma Cole’s FCU Reassembly video was a life saver.  I practically wore out YouTube watching and rewinding segments of that video.  But I finally managed to re-assemble my FCU and got to try out the new trigger.  On the plus side, I gained a lot of experience taking apart and reassembling the FCU – it was a great refresher of my P320 Armorers Course.  But it was painful.

If you JUST replace the trigger as shown in the tutorial video, I think most will have not problems.  It really is quite simple, and the excellent video makes it even more so.  But replacing that sear housing retaining pin translates to a fair amount of hammering on the FCU near the sear housing, which is what I believe caused the springs in that housing to dislodge.  Note that in the video, Bruce Gray uses a nifty “hockey puck” armorers tool for the FCU.  I think if you happen to have one of those, it will help a lot.  I didn’t – I was just beating on the pin on my work bench.

Before replacing the stock trigger, I did meaure it’s pull weight.  Here is the 5 pull average of the stock trigger before it was replaced:

You’ll note that in Bruce Gray’s video, he does a “before” measurement (using the same Lyman gauge which I’m using – only about $50.00 on Amazon) on the brand-new P320 works on in the video – it comes in at 7lb. 9oz.  He also makes the statement that they “seem to average about 7.5lbs.”  My P320 has about 6000 rounds through it in addition to countless hours of dry fire which has no doubt reduced the trigger weight.

I then performed the same 5 pull average on my P320 with the new PELT trigger installed and was quite shocked at the result:

That’s a reduction of about 3lbs.2oz. which is better than what I hoped.  In the P320 which Bruce Gray works on in his tutorial video, his “after” result is 5lbs. 1oz., so I think I got lucky.  In fact, my trigger is now not much heavier than the “3lb. 10oz to 3lb. 12oz.” trigger weight Bruce Gray indicates comes with the in-shop installation only Competition Kit for the P320, so again I couldn’t be more pleased with my results.  Additionally, the pull does feel much cleaner/smoother than the stock trigger.  Unfortunately, there’s no change in the amount of take up or “slack” in the trigger, but none was promised or expected.  I also note a reduction in both the tacticle and audible feedback on the reset.  You can still both feel and hear the trigger reset, but it’s less pronounced than it was.

HAS SHOOTING PERFORMANCE IMPROVED?

I have not as of this writing been on the range with my PELT trigger equipped P320.  However, I was already pretty fast with my P320 when it had just a stock trigger:

I’m anticipating a considerable increase in accuracy and perhaps a bit of a speed increase as well.  I will report more on my range and competition experience with the the new Grayguns Practical Enhanced Leverage Trigger.