24 Jul TriggerTech Triggers, Sliding Friction, and FRT: What You Need to Know
When you first get into the shooting sports, as so many millions of people around the country have done over the past 5 or so years, you’re going to be positively bombarded with information.
Some of it will have to do with firearms law. Some with safety, handling, and transportation. Other information will have to do with shooting acumen, drilling, form, and how to get better.
And some – a lot, actually – will have to do with the actual gear you’re shooting. It’s hard to get really involved in the shooting sports, and not get absorbed, lock, stock and barrel, into gear and performance, if you can excuse the pun.
Granted, not everyone becomes a gearhead (for lack of a better term) but at the same time, once you learn about things like advanced bolt carrier group coatings, rate of twist, and barrel harmonics, it’s hard not to get excited with the new stuff that comes out every year.
Now, to dial in on one specific area of firearms performance, let’s take a look at the trigger.
Like so many other firearm parts, like the barrel, muzzle device, and optic, the trigger has a profound impact on handling, response, and performance, which affect accuracy – and to boil things down to the fundamentals, what’s more important than that?
When you pull the trigger, the goal, one way or the other, is to hit something. And, to put it lightly, some triggers are simply better than others.
The name that comes to mind is TriggerTech, specifically a unique piece of technology with which they produce their wares, which is known as FRT, or “Frictionless Release Technology.”
So, let’s dive into sliding friction, triggers in general, and why TriggerTech Triggers are consistently ranked above the best that the market has to bear, bar none.
What Is Sliding Friction? How Most Triggers Operate
Every trigger mechanism works a little bit differently, so for the purposes of our illustration we will be painting with broad strokes – but the truths here are sufficiently transferable to explain how a trigger works, what sliding friction is, and why TriggerTech’s FRT is a welcome development in the market for firearms parts.
Take, for instance, a standard trigger group to be used in an AR-15 rifle. There are multiple components, including the trigger itself, along with the disconnector, safety, and hammer.
When the rifle is cocked, a part called the sear is held in place within a notch underneath the hammer, under the influence of static friction.
When you pull the trigger, the sear lowers away from the hammer, disengaging from the notch in the hammer. This allows the spring to push the hammer forward, until it strikes the firing pin, and so on and so forth. This initiates the firing sequence, which is a topic for another post.
For our part, our focus is on the sear and the hammer, which engage each other, and which are released from each other, through sliding friction.
It works, and it’s worked in the AR15 for more than 60 years – and in other firearms for much longer.
But it is, simply, not the best technology available, which is where the sliding friction-free FRT of TriggerTech Triggers comes into focus.
FRT: Frictionless Release Technology
Up to the present, all other triggers on the market, in some way or another, hinged on sliding friction to operate – if you can excuse the pun.
This is problematic because sliding friction results in creep. That is, backward movement of the trigger before the sear disengages and the trigger breaks. Some triggers have worse creep than others, but the truth is all triggers that utilize sliding friction exhibit some.
Creep is a problem moreover because it makes the process of breaking a trigger somewhat unpredictable. Customarily, creep is a bigger problem with factory triggers than aftermarket adjustable triggers, which is why so many shooters, especially hunters and competitive shooters, replace the trigger groups in their rifles.
But TriggerTech Triggers have actually solved that problem, once and for all. Lest that be written off as marketing hype, a short exposition into the solution is due.
Rather than allowing the sear and trigger to communicate directly with each other, TriggerTech Triggers feature a design with a small roller that sits between the sear and trigger. This entirely eliminates sliding friction, allowing the parts to roll past each other rather than sliding.
The result is a trigger with absolutely zero creep, that allows for impossibly reliable, consistent, predictable and crisp breaking.
The use of FRT in TriggerTech Triggers was just the beginning of a revolution in design that also allowed for controllable pull weight, consistent release across volumes, and even improved safety. With TriggerTech Triggers there are no pre-load issues, and the design even allows for greater sear engagement.
Other triggers rely on coatings, polishing, or enhanced pivot points to deliver such crisp release, but TriggerTech offers the only triggers that operate without sliding friction, entirely.
Now, as significant as this is, it is not the only benefit of these triggers. In addition to the fact that these triggers offer true Zero-Creep performance (through the aforementioned FRT that enables ZCT, or Zero Creep Technology), but they also offer less overtravel and a reset that is extremely short, that enable faster, more accurate follow-up shots with greater confidence.
For what it’s worth, TriggerTech Triggers are also exceptionally safe, long-lasting, and durable. They are designed to perform, without fail, in some of the harshest conceivable environments, and are made with internal components of 440C that are remarkably corrosion resistant.
TriggerTech Triggers: The Culmination of Superior Technological Performance
If you’re looking for a better trigger, it’s impossible to look past TriggerTech. Engineered for exceptional performance and consistency from shot to shot, there is no other manufacturer that makes it easier to love your trigger – which is not an easy thing to do.
Take a look through our collection. We sell TriggerTech, along with other premier trigger manufacturers like Timney Triggers. Check out what we offer for more details and if you have specific questions about compatibility, installation, technology, or performance, get in touch with us at 833-980-0333.
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