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When I reviewed the Tavor rifle, my biggest complaint (other than that it’s a bullpup in an AR-15 world) was with its trigger. It’s heavy, creepy, and awful. But Tim over at the Military Arms Channel has a way to fix that for similarly afflicted Tavor owners.

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30 COMMENTS

  1. “Similarly afflicted Tavor owners.”

    Can I say I hate you all? No flaming, just jealously. Dammit.

      • Well, I put aside the money. And now I’m not allowed to get one anyway. At least you can hope to have the money one day. I have to hope that in 5 years or so the USSC decides to allow me to get one.

    • Seriously. “Bleh, the trigger on my awesomely kickass Israeli battle rifle that nobody else has doesn’t have a 1 lb kitten-fur soft trigger”

      This is me not feeling sorry for you in any way. Matter of fact, I hope all Tavor owners car batteries die today. Yup, I’m that bitterly jealous.

      • Man, that explains why I couldn’t get my car to start this morning…

        For the record, not all of us think the trigger is a design flaw. I happen to like the 12 pound trigger. There’s no creep and it breaks cleanly, the reset is great too.

        Some of us don’t expect 3lb triggers on our combat rifles!

        • All of s Tavor talk makes me sad. I just dropped 1500 bucks on tires for my truck. That is almost the price of the Tavor. I am glad I don’t have one today due to the Tavor car battery curse. I use a car battery to run my winch. Loading a car would not have been fun without it.

  2. Thanks, Nick.

    For those of you wishing to do this mod, know that IWI tells me it technically voids your warranty. So far they’ve not enforced this for those who have lost their springs and called up trying to get a free one under warranty — but that may change if enough people try it. So please, keep track of your spring if you pull it out.

    IWI also confirmed this will not harm your rifle. However, you may experience reset issues once the rifle gets a bit dirty or if you’re operating in adverse conditions. I lubed the trigger bar channel of my rifle with Frog Lube and have had zero trigger reset issues over several hundred rounds fired. Some folks have reported the occasional failure to reset. If this does happen, stick your trigger finger in that spacious gap behind the trigger and give it a slight nudge to reset it.

    I would *not* do this to a defensive rifle or a rifle you plan to take to a rifle course. It will hold you over until an aftermarket trigger is released, and several are in the works. But for those of you who absolutely hate the Tavors trigger, this will give you a little relief.

    • Tim,

      Can one disengage the spring and leave it in the hammer pack? or will this run the risk of binding up the hammer?

      • You can leave it dangling in the pack however I personally wouldn’t fired the rifle with it in there. It hangs precariously close to the other trigger components and there’s a chance the spring could be damaged. If losing the spring is a concern, I would put it in a little plastic bag and tuck it into the storage area of the buttstock.

    • Mine, too.

      Mostly because I don’t own it yet, so the current owner, whoever they might be, might get cranky. :p

    • Me, too. The reports that there were rare trigger reset issues was enough to warn me off. Sounds like they really need a LIGHTER version of this spring, versus removing it entirely.

  3. Eh. Go shoot a DA revolver for a while. Then a tough and creepy military rifle trigger is not even a nuisance.

    Haven’t shot a Tavor yet, looking forward to it, but I’ve pulled some atrocious triggers. A large part of the problem is mindset and expectation.

    • I would agree. I remember when I got my FN FAL 50.00 “Match” rifle a few decades ago I was appalled by the trigger. Military grade FAL’s had notoriously heavy triggers.

      Most military rifles have heavy triggers easily topping 8lbs or more. This is by design not by accident. They weren’t designed for bench rest shooting, they were designed for grunts running around in high stress situations where hair triggers would be a bad thing for obvious reasons.

      With that being said, the Tavor does take things to the upper edge of pull weight with triggers ranging from 10-12lbs. I was able to get 3″ groups with military ball ammo at 100 yards with my Tavor, despite the heavy trigger. But then I’m a military rifle shooter, I don’t own a bench rest rifle or even a rifle with a light trigger. It’s not my thing. So I can work with the Tavor’s trigger.

      Dare I say for personal defense I prefer the heavy trigger over the light trigger? Yup, I’m going to say it. I do. It’s likely for the same reasons many people prefer double action revolvers or autos for personal defense.

      • MAC, there aren’t many people on this earth whom I would love to shake hands with AND kick in the shin at the same time. I love watching your stuff but I am also childishly jealous of the hardware.

        • Do me a favor, wear a shirt that says “I want to kick MAC in the shin” if you ever go to SHOT Show, the NRA Show or an Indiana gun show… it will give me a chance to brace myself. 🙂

        • Keep making cool videos with said hardware, and I’ll postpone my shin-kicking… For now. :p

  4. Ran into an guy at my FLGS asking the clerk if he could order a Tavor. Told him about the trigger issues, which seemed to take his interest. Then again, he seemed pretty nonchalant about the Tavor price tag, so if he got the money to casually drop on it, he’s probably got the money to get a gunsmith to modify it to his liking.

  5. Personally I have no problem with the trigger on my Tavor. Maybe because I learned on Heavier Triggers I don’t mind a little heaver trigger. Now with that said if a replacement trigger pack can be bought for not to many dollars that I can just swap out then I might consider softening it up.

    Thanks
    Robert

  6. “Heavy, creepy and awful…” Also describes a few of the less pleasant people I’ve run into over the years.

  7. I also don’t mind the heavy combat trigger on my TAVOR. I took my spring out last week (and made a less interesting version of MAC’s video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd5abMIUdAQ) to test it out and will run it like this for a while. Definitely made a very noticeable difference that you can CLEARLY feel with your trigger finger — no measurement device necessary to tell you that a major change has happened. This IS my primary ‘defensive’ rifle now so, most likely, I am going to choose to put the spring back in. OR… my local hardware store has an awesome selection of little springs in all sorts of sizes and weights and I’m positive they’ll have a few that will fit in the same spot but be a bit lighter. So… maybe I’ll do that and try to split the difference.

    Again, though, I’d like to reiterate that I did not find the trigger creepy. It’s heavy, but it’s short and pretty crisp and there is takeup as you move that sear bar thing and I understand how that can feel like creep, but it’s takeup and once you’re on the sear/hammer itself the break is clean. I mentioned in my video but pulling the 11.5-lb trigger felt to me like pulling against an engaged safety. That’s how little it actually travels once a tiny bit of slack is taken up. Multiple times while getting used to it I thought the safety was left on. Yeah, that’s how much heavier the trigger was vs. what I expected hahaha… but also, unlike a pistol w/ a heavy trigger (Beretta Nano, which is my EDC, or most DAO carry pieces), it doesn’t travel an inch — it just holds almost still… like flexing a trigger bar against an engaged safety 😉

    • I agree, my two Tavor’s have great triggers aside from the heavy pulls. Once I removed the secondary spring the trigger was surprisingly nice, better than many of the OEM rifles I’ve fired over the years and certainly no worse than the majority of AR triggers I’ve used.

  8. To all the envious non-owners.
    Eat your hearts out,
    I have 3 brand NIB Tavors, 2 18″ flattops and a 16″ with the Mepro sight (nice but washes out in bright light and covers built in sight )and anti-washout light ( works but is in an awkward place). It also has the Manticore Arclight rail system w. vert. grip and Surefire Ultra light with pressure switch. Solid.
    For all those that do have one – yes , the trigger utterly sucks other than being metal.
    Note these guys say they have an adjustable trigger and a lighter sear and spring – coming soon.
    http://gallowayprecision.com/
    Meanwhile I’m looking through my box-o-springs for the right length light one to replace the reset monster spring Why pull a working part that you just know you’ll need if the gun gets or stays dirty. ?. And Where is a schematic with the spring spec. ? I can just measure dimensions and strength but type is important and so is the end hook configuration.
    I bought and installed the ambi safety and the same company sells a “double arm” safety – in stock for $ 12.50.
    I put the forend rails from Bullpuparmory on the 18’s and both versions are solid ( one goes underneath , the other by the bayonet lug .. you pick ).
    I ordered the port cover sling attachment to stop the powder face problem but don’t have it yet.

    Now where can I find the 9mm or Soviet short kit ?
    Or maybe a SBR version… ?

    Or maybe I’ll get 2 more in FDE…

    You folks in the anti-gun dictator-states – I feel for you.
    But did you EVER vote for a liberal ? Bet you did so that’s what happens.
    Please don’t nove to Texas since the last nigration from libera-hell almost ruined the whole state due to that inbred “government is good , nore government is better” attitude y’all just can’t seem to shake.
    Meanwhile if anyone finds a decent trigger or spring in stock please post it.

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