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Hellcat #2 trigger heavier than Hellcat #1 . . . advice needed

Caanuride

Operator
First let me say, while I have only been shooting a little over 4 years, I have immersed myself in handguns, so while I don't know it all, I'm not a novice at this point. I have an array of Springfield pistols, all which I absolutely love and shoot very well. I bought a Hellcat at the beginning of last year (2021) and it was no different. Felt great in my hand and I shot it well from the start. I liked it so much that I decided I was going to buy a second Hellcat and this time, one that is optic ready one so I could learn how to shoot with a red dot. I got that 2nd Hellcat late January. I took it to the range a couple weeks later to run the first 100 through it. I was hugely disappointed that I could not be consistant in my groupings with this gun. It felt like the trigger was much stiffer and just heavier than my first Hellcat. I thought, it will loosen up as I get shooting here....by the time I get through 100 rounds, surely it will improve. Well, better never came. When I came home, I quickly got out my trigger pull sale (not digital) and measured about 5 pulls. All of them were 8 lbs or better. I pulled out my first hellcat and measured it's trigger pull. Of 3 pulls, they were all at or very closely to 6 pounds.

I called Springfield the next morning. Spoke with customer service, explained my concern and asked if an 8 pound trigger pull was in spec. He said it was not and quickly made arrangements for me to ship the pistol back to Springfield.

Today I received an email from Springfield with an attached invoice stating the pistol had been inspected and they made no changes/improvements. They said the trigger pull was 7.5 pounds and was within tolerance for that pistol.

I am super frustrated. I'm not sure what everyone else deems as adequate, but this trigger pull is too heavy to be consistantly accurate for me. I will not carry something that I do not have complete confidence that I can shoot it well, and this is not it. I know most self defense situations occur in a close enough proximity that accuracy is pretty simple, but I try to keep myself as prepared as possible. I also am involved with church security, so I want to be confident with my carry gun, that God forbid a situation arise in a church setting, I could handle my firearm with confidence.

I am not looking to have a competition style trigger pull. As I mentioned, my other Hellcat has a 6 pound pull and I am accurate and confident with that. I am looking for at least those same results. Since Springfield deems this as acceptable, I am thinking I have 3 options. 1. Sell the Hellcat and take my losses. 2. Have a PRP trigger kit installed. 3. Have an Apex trigger installed. I have had really good luck with PRP kits in my xd mod 2's. I have had really good results with Apex in my S&W shield. There are more springs in the PRP kit and of course, a higher price tag. If I keep this Hellcat, I really need trigger improvement. If it becomes a 1,000 dollar Hellcat (trigger kit, labor, optic), it had better shoot like one!!! Or should I take my losses and learn to shoot dots on another pistol and continue to happily carry my non-optic ready Hellcat.

If you have put in a PRP Hellcat trigger kit or the Apex trigger kit, I want to hear from you. I just doubt most other hellcats started with a 7.5/8 pound trigger.

Do you think Springfield's response was acceptable? I would have though they would have done SOMETHING to to improve the trigger. At least to justify the shipping expense! What would you do?
 
Hi. I don’t have an answer for you but Iam thinking of getting a ops Hellcat and would be very interested in your findings and what you will do to fix it. Bobby M
 
First let me say, while I have only been shooting a little over 4 years, I have immersed myself in handguns, so while I don't know it all, I'm not a novice at this point. I have an array of Springfield pistols, all which I absolutely love and shoot very well. I bought a Hellcat at the beginning of last year (2021) and it was no different. Felt great in my hand and I shot it well from the start. I liked it so much that I decided I was going to buy a second Hellcat and this time, one that is optic ready one so I could learn how to shoot with a red dot. I got that 2nd Hellcat late January. I took it to the range a couple weeks later to run the first 100 through it. I was hugely disappointed that I could not be consistant in my groupings with this gun. It felt like the trigger was much stiffer and just heavier than my first Hellcat. I thought, it will loosen up as I get shooting here....by the time I get through 100 rounds, surely it will improve. Well, better never came. When I came home, I quickly got out my trigger pull sale (not digital) and measured about 5 pulls. All of them were 8 lbs or better. I pulled out my first hellcat and measured it's trigger pull. Of 3 pulls, they were all at or very closely to 6 pounds.

I called Springfield the next morning. Spoke with customer service, explained my concern and asked if an 8 pound trigger pull was in spec. He said it was not and quickly made arrangements for me to ship the pistol back to Springfield.

Today I received an email from Springfield with an attached invoice stating the pistol had been inspected and they made no changes/improvements. They said the trigger pull was 7.5 pounds and was within tolerance for that pistol.

I am super frustrated. I'm not sure what everyone else deems as adequate, but this trigger pull is too heavy to be consistantly accurate for me. I will not carry something that I do not have complete confidence that I can shoot it well, and this is not it. I know most self defense situations occur in a close enough proximity that accuracy is pretty simple, but I try to keep myself as prepared as possible. I also am involved with church security, so I want to be confident with my carry gun, that God forbid a situation arise in a church setting, I could handle my firearm with confidence.

I am not looking to have a competition style trigger pull. As I mentioned, my other Hellcat has a 6 pound pull and I am accurate and confident with that. I am looking for at least those same results. Since Springfield deems this as acceptable, I am thinking I have 3 options. 1. Sell the Hellcat and take my losses. 2. Have a PRP trigger kit installed. 3. Have an Apex trigger installed. I have had really good luck with PRP kits in my xd mod 2's. I have had really good results with Apex in my S&W shield. There are more springs in the PRP kit and of course, a higher price tag. If I keep this Hellcat, I really need trigger improvement. If it becomes a 1,000 dollar Hellcat (trigger kit, labor, optic), it had better shoot like one!!! Or should I take my losses and learn to shoot dots on another pistol and continue to happily carry my non-optic ready Hellcat.

If you have put in a PRP Hellcat trigger kit or the Apex trigger kit, I want to hear from you. I just doubt most other hellcats started with a 7.5/8 pound trigger.

Do you think Springfield's response was acceptable? I would have though they would have done SOMETHING to to improve the trigger. At least to justify the shipping expense! What would you do?
I have had great experience with SA warranty. I wonder if there is something can be done to improve the trigger "feel". It seems that the difference between the two pistols you have is hard to discern the actual trigger pull weight, however, the feel may be what could be adjusted? I would give them another call and see what they might be able to do? Just my 2 cents....
 
I have had great experience with SA warranty. I wonder if there is something can be done to improve the trigger "feel". It seems that the difference between the two pistols you have is hard to discern the actual trigger pull weight, however, the feel may be what could be adjusted? I would give them another call and see what they might be able to do? Just my 2 cents....
I will call them back this morning, but the problem is they already shipped it back. Yes, they could re-route it back or have me ship it back again, but I'm doubtful that will happen. I feel like I just dealt with Century Arms all over again....ship it back for them to say there's nothing wrong. 😡
 
This sounds more like an expectations vs manufacturing tolerances problem than anything.

They have already expressed thier position that the trigger is within specification tolerances. You obviously desire them to feel identical. In this case one may be at the high end and the other the low end of thier specification range, and you feel a difference. They however are likely not going to change much since they say it is fine. Without having both pistols in hand it would be impossible to match triggers anyways.

When you consider the perhaps thousands of weapons they are checking at any given time, they are unlikely to "waste" time on an in spec weapon. Yes I know to you it's not a waste.

Your options are probably limited to custom tuned trigger work, ON BOTH PISTOLS at the same time if you wish an identical feel. Even APEX probably has a slight variation in weight and feel of two individual triggers. But if you install on both they most likely could be much more similar. That might be close enough.

Just an opinion.
 
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This sounds more like an expectations vs manufacturing tolerances problem than anything.

They have already expressed thier position that the trigger is within specification tolerances. You obviously desire them to feel identical. In this case one may be at the high end and the other the low end of thier specification range, and you feel a difference. They however are likely not going to change much since they say it is fine. Without having both pistols in hand it would be impossible to match triggers anyways.

When you consider the perhaps thousands of weapons they are checking at any given time, they are unlikely to "waste" time on an in spec weapon. Yes I know to you it's not a waste.

Your options are probably limited to custom tuned trigger work, ON BOTH PISTOLS at the same time if you wish an identical feel. Even APEX probably has a slight variation in weight and feel of two individual triggers. But if you install on both they most likely could be much more similar. That might be close enough.

Just an opinion.
I agree with what you're saying as far as Springfield is concerned. As for the custon trigger work, I don't need them to be identicle. I need this gun to be shootable for me. That means a lighter trigger. I am lucky enough to have a decent variety of handguns and almost all of them I feel I can shoot fairly well. I just want to know if I spend the $ on either of the above mentioned trigger kits if it will bring the pull weight down as advertised, especially when the trigger started out heavier than average. Or should I just cut my losses and sell to someone else.
 
I agree with what you're saying as far as Springfield is concerned. As for the custon trigger work, I don't need them to be identicle. I need this gun to be shootable for me. That means a lighter trigger. I am lucky enough to have a decent variety of handguns and almost all of them I feel I can shoot fairly well. I just want to know if I spend the $ on either of the above mentioned trigger kits if it will bring the pull weight down as advertised, especially when the trigger started out heavier than average. Or should I just cut my losses and sell to someone else.
It depends upon you, if it's worth the money to you, do it and don't let anyone tell you it's not. I have spent plenty of money on upgrades to handguns that were worth it to me and others thought not.
 
You could break down the #2 pistol and do a full polishing job to all the internals. It won’t cost you anything but some time and a little flitz metal polish. Assuming you have or have access to a dremel tool.
 
You could break down the #2 pistol and do a full polishing job to all the internals. It won’t cost you anything but some time and a little flitz metal polish. Assuming you have or have access to a dremel tool.
I do have a dremel but I'm not confident I could do that kind of work. I wish I could. I have had a gunsmith do that before and have had varying results ( I think it's him ).
I spoke to Springfield c/s this morning and the rep wasn't even aware the service dept. Shipped the gun back. He did verify that unfortunately, the tolerance for the Hellcat is 5.5 - 7.5 pounds. I asked if there was anything they could do and my only option is to send to their custom shop for a trigger job, which honestly seems like the best option if I want to keep it.
 
I don't know for sure, but here's what you may also be experiencing. Sometime within the last year or so, Springfield came out with a Gen 2 trigger for the Hellcat. Mine has the original trigger, so I'm not sure if you have one Hellcat with the Gen 1 and one with the Gen 2 or not. I'm pretty sure there is some physical difference between the triggers that you can see by looking at them. Maybe this is part of the problem?
 
I don't know for sure, but here's what you may also be experiencing. Sometime within the last year or so, Springfield came out with a Gen 2 trigger for the Hellcat. Mine has the original trigger, so I'm not sure if you have one Hellcat with the Gen 1 and one with the Gen 2 or not. I'm pretty sure there is some physical difference between the triggers that you can see by looking at them. Maybe this is part of the problem?
Gen 1 has grooves, gen 2 is smooth.
 
How many rounds have you shot through the Hellcat? Will it lighten up with breakin?
Hellcat #1 over 500, Hellcat #2 only 100. Hellcat #1 was great from the start. I thought the same thing at first, but after measuring the difference in trigger pulls, changed my mind. 500 rounds really isn't that much. Granted, it's more than 100, but.....
 
I don't know for sure, but here's what you may also be experiencing. Sometime within the last year or so, Springfield came out with a Gen 2 trigger for the Hellcat. Mine has the original trigger, so I'm not sure if you have one Hellcat with the Gen 1 and one with the Gen 2 or not. I'm pretty sure there is some physical difference between the triggers that you can see by looking at them. Maybe this is part of the problem?
This may be the case, but it just seems like I got one that is on the heaviest end of the trigger pull tolerances. IMO, a 2# range is pretty wide. It's just odd that Hellcat #1 is on the low end as are every gun tuber I have seen review the Hellcat. Yet, again, if 7.5# pull "meets the tolerance range," there is nothing they will do under warranty.
 
Hellcat frame complete disassembly/reassembly

That's a great video, but I am just a bit too intimidated to do this. I am so afraid I would get things apart and not be able to get them back together! One day I might get brave and take a gun apart to polish and maybe change some springs, but I don't think I will start with a gun intended for carry. I am confident in changing sights, springs are a whole 'nother ball game!
 
I don't know for sure, but here's what you may also be experiencing. Sometime within the last year or so, Springfield came out with a Gen 2 trigger for the Hellcat. Mine has the original trigger, so I'm not sure if you have one Hellcat with the Gen 1 and one with the Gen 2 or not. I'm pretty sure there is some physical difference between the triggers that you can see by looking at them. Maybe this is part of the problem?
I think you are right about this gen 1 vs gen 2 trigger. I was reading the comments in the PRP trigger kit and someone mentioned the blade safety on their Hellcat being sharp. I had forgotten about my other complaint to customer service and that was the fact that after 100 rounds with Hellcat #2, I had a nice blister on my trigger finger from the blade safety pinching my finger. I had never experienced any issued with Hellcat #1. This makes me rethink having Springfield do the trigger work as they would keep the same trigger, which no matter how great the pull, if it still pinches....it's a problem! I don't want to sound like a wuss, but I have NEVER left the range with a blister on my finger. Now I am thinking PRP trigger and kit is the best option.
 
With only 100 rounds thru it its not even broken in! If using a gun for CCW I don't even start carrying until the 500 round mark! Neither of your Hellcats are broken in. If its personal preference on the trigger then don't blame Springfield. A pound here or there isn't that much of a difference. If it makes you feel better change the trigger. I would just go out and put rounds thru it.
 
With only 100 rounds thru it its not even broken in! If using a gun for CCW I don't even start carrying until the 500 round mark! Neither of your Hellcats are broken in. If its personal preference on the trigger then don't blame Springfield. A pound here or there isn't that much of a difference. If it makes you feel better change the trigger. I would just go out and put rounds thru it.
I agree that it's not broke in yet. Kudos to you if you can shoot a 7.5 or 8# trigger well. I know my limitations, as seen on the paper targets used to determine accuracy. Unfortunately, with the cost of ammo, I cannot afford to shoot any gun like I would like to. But nothing gets put into the carry rotation until 300 rounds.
No where did I blame Springfield. I did however question the high tolerance of pull weight. That is not blaming. As I stated initially, Hellcat #1 was great from the start. #2 gave me a completely different experience. It may loosen up some with more rounds, but I'm quite certain it will not come down 2# in pull weight even with 1,000 more rounds. That's just not realistic. Maybe you don't care if you are not accurate with a gun, but I do. It's not enjoyable for me to blow $350 in rounds that are not consistantly on target.

I still have yet to hear from anyone who has installed either the PRP or Apex trigger. I would realky like to hear if those triggers perform as advertised.
 
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