Should I get a roll trigger?

I have crisp triggers in both my 1911's. I'm considering getting roll triggers put in. I've shot a roll trigger 45 for a couple of weeks, but it had a pretty long "roll". Does anyone have a short roll trigger, and how do they like it? Who did the trigger work?

I've got two guns with medium length roll triggers. I wish I would have done a long roll instead. A long roll would allow me to start the trigger moving before coming into the black, which I find desirable. I'm sure there will be some scoffers who will read this with contempt but I've jumped 2 classifications this indoor season since having roll triggers and attending a Zins/Moody clinic.

I also like the long roll. I've had a shortish roll, but went back to my long roller.

Hi Phil,

Roll triggers are very much a personal preference thing. I had a med-long roll trigger set made for one of my wad guns last summer to give it a try and found that at times I can shoot it very well. At other times it messes with my mind when it starts moving and I get some bad shots. Really bad ones at times. I have come to the conclusion that for me the roll does not work well so I'm going back to my regular trigger set. Hard to tell until you give it a try.

A few years ago after Zins started talking about how great a roll trigger is lots of people lined up in the RRA store at Camp Perry and had Chuck make roll triggers for their guns. By the end of the week most came back begging to put the triggers back the way they were.

When people talk about roll trigger jobs these days sometimes it comes across like its some sort of cult thing when its really just a factory new hammer and sear that have not been cut down. The "roll" is nothing more than the distance the sear has to travel across the hammer hooks before it goes over the edge and fires. The amount of hook creates the roll, long = long, shorter = short, shorter than that = crisp. This is just how i did it,If your not familiar or comfortable working on a 1911 get a gunsmith to do it. To try a roll, I just dropped in a new hammer, The best roll trigger will move the sear very smoothly and not have a graby feel which is called creep .So first with a dremel tool with a polishing wheel, I polished the hooks then put it in I polished the sear face too. Ive done this several times and most times with a gun that had a crisp setup this does the trick, plus its easily reversible by just putting the old hammer back in. When polishing a sear, you just want to shine it up, dont round the edges or remove any material so it wont effect it if you reverse it.

I would like to add that it's taken a good 8 months to get accustomed to the roll trigger.

There are polishing stones designed for hammer hooks. I personally would not use a dremel tool to polish anything other than a feedramp and small parts prior to blueing.

Polishing should be done with stones on critical surfaces. Then the non critical surfaces can be stoned or sandpaper on a true flat surface such a slab of marbel. You can polish to a mirror starting with 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit wet or dry paper. I do the final polish with the 2000 dry.

FWIW

Perhaps people here know about this forum but I recently found it while looking for information on 1911's after picking up my first one. Pretty good information and perhaps more involved than an average person would want but detailed and interesting nonetheless.

www.1911Pro.com

There's a few threads on triggers.

Joe Fobes wrote:There are polishing stones designed for hammer hooks. I personally would not use a dremel tool to polish anything other than a feedramp and small parts prior to blueing.

Polishing should be done with stones on critical surfaces. Then the non critical surfaces can be stoned or sandpaper on a true flat surface such a slab of marbel. You can polish to a mirror starting with 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit wet or dry paper. I do the final polish with the 2000 dry.

FWIW

The dremel tool i use, has a very hard felt wheel, combined with a little jewelers rouge, works great, since like i said, polish lightly, do not remove any material. If the hooks are rough then dressing them should be done as joe said with the proper stones.