There are many connections that a human being has to their rifle. Barring the emotional and psychological to focus strictly on the physical connections, there’s the support hand, the shoulder, the cheek, and the strong hand which houses the most important part, the trigger finger. Yes indeed, I reckon that the trigger is the lifeline to the rifle, and a bad one can ruin your day along with your accuracy. Luckily for us gun guys and gals, the aftermarket world is filled with companies willing to give you a premier experience as long as you’re willing to part with some of your hard earned dollars. For $200 + S&H, Tactical Shit will happily send you their Bang Switch Trigger to cure what ails you . . .
Regular readers will no doubt be left scratching their heads wondering what I’m doing writing a trigger review. I’m supposed to be the holsters, hand guards, and target systems guy. As you no doubt know, Jeremy is our trigger man, but he sent me an email when I got this in the mail to say that he’d happily let me test it since it appears to bear a striking resemblance to the KE Arms DMR trigger he wrote about a few weeks back.
I compared the trigger in my hand to the pictures Jeremy posted in his review of the KE, and damn if it didn’t look identical to the KE unit in every way shape and form. Right down to the shape, length, and color of the trigger shoe. Truth be told, the only other cosmetic difference I could find was that the housing on the Bang Switch trigger is black, and the KE trigger is blue.
The trigger that normally sits in my EDC AR-15 was a Timney that I reviewed back in 2011. It has been the benchmark by which all other drop in triggers get measured, and it finally took me laid out prone on my shop floor with the Timney in one gun and the TS trigger in another for me to decide that the TS trigger comes up just a touch short. In deference to Jeremy, I’ll use his format for this review to keep things standardized.
- Take-up. The Bang Switch trigger has no discernible take-up at all. This is very much a single stage trigger as there’s zero movement before you start engaging the sear.
- Creep. Roughly handing the TS unit, it feels super extra special crisp. But laid out prone on bags or a bipod, there’s a hint of grit before the shot breaks. It is imperceptible at anything faster than benchrest speeds, but if you slow it way down and focus on fundamentals, the creep is there, and it flat out doesn’t exist in the Timney unit. I was only able to pick up on that minute amount of creep dry firing two identical guns side by side to pick up on it.
- Break. Once you get past that one little gritty spot, the break is very clean
- Overtravel. Like the KE that Jeremy tested, I found very little overtravel with a pronounced stop at the end
- Reset. Jeremy got picky with the KE for the reset being a little gritty, and I’m going to have to agree with him on the Bang Swith unit. It isn’t nearly as glassy as a Timney. Again, at speed, you’ll never notice, and with the short little reset the Bang Switch has, you’ll be back on the break very quickly. But slow it down to benchrest speeds with a focus on the fundamentals and you’ll start to notice the grit.
- Pull Weight. One place where the Bang Switch trigger shines against a Timney is that it is user adjustable for pull weight. I cranked this one up to five and down to a hair over three pounds to test it, but settled on the lower setting as I like a nice light trigger for most of my shooting.
Installation was a snap, and Tactical Shit is nice enough to include two new trigger pins with their kit along with the allen wrenches you need to tighten the set screws and adjust the pull weight. Installation and pull weight adjustments were so easy a caveman could do it.
Over several months of range trips and assorted varieties of XM 193, XM 855, and commercial .223, the Bang Switch has proven to be an utterly reliable companion. Primer strikes are deep and seem to be given with a great deal of authority. No matter what I’ve shot through it, this trigger has kept on humming.
The only downside I can find in this whole thing is its relative price to various competitors. As I’d said, the Timney single stage is my bar for success. Its the finest single stage drop in trigger I’ve ever used. It can be had for about $35 more than the Bang Switch, and while not adjustable, it has less creep leading up to the break and much less on the reset. Similarly, the KE arms trigger can be had for $20 less than the Bang Switch and to Jeremy and my eyes, there’s not a bit of mechanical difference between the two.
Rating (out of five stars):
Overall * * * *
This trigger is right in the sweet spot for drop in triggers priced at a penny below $200, and offers some very nice and functional features. As a standalone until, this is a fantastic trigger, but given the competition in the market, and shot side by side with other compelling offerings, it truly does play second fiddle to slightly more expensive offerings and third fiddle to slightly less expensive offerings that seem to be identical in function.