There has been a lot of discussion brought on by a fellow named Duane Thomas concerning his article in Handguns magazine February 1997 issue entitled Living with the Glock 19: How To Get the Best From This Popular Pistol. It is, as far as I can tell, an average article dealing with the trials and tribulations of a gun writer and his Glock Model 19. Additionally, he puts his slant on the history of the Glock (that's the first page or page and a half). Beyond the first portion of his article, it loses something in the translation. The article begins to sound like paragraphs from an aftermarket parts catalog. It touts the advantages of this gadget and that trigger configuration (primarily a New York Trigger Spring and a 3.5 pound connector), but he fails to analyze his decisions and gives the reader some anecdotal fodder that does not seem reasonable to, nor very filling to me (maybe I'm jaded). He claims that he experienced a broken trigger spring, so he changed to an unbreakable and more reliable New York Trigger Spring (plastic and metal - must be more reliable). Well, I wonder if he really experienced the broken spring or did he read about them in Peter Alan Kasler’s book Glock: The New Wave in Combat Handguns. He may have experienced a broken trigger spring, but does that warrant two pages of discussion about his sick Glock 19 trigger?

After reading the article, I had the feeling he was a paid spokes person for a few products he seemed to be hocking (I’m not going to mention them - I won’t give away free advertising).
 
 

We have handled thousands of Glocks (every one) and we have only come across a very few broken trigger springs (most of them in very old guns). We have seen broken magazine springs, broken slide lock springs, broken slide stop lever springs, a bent firing pin spring or two and a worn out depressor plunger springs. Does this mean that the springs are no good? I think not. Springs are made of metal - metal is not always perfect. Springs are made by people and we know people are not perfect. I hear stories about someone who knew someone that had a broken trigger spring, but the numbers are not supported by direct experience. My question to Mr. Thomas is how can he prove that New York Trigger Springs are more reliable? And how much experience has he had with the products he is endorsing? I may seem to be nit picking, but far too many of this type of article fall into major gun magazines - they lack real substance. With all of that said - let's get on with our trigger pull tests.

We began with a stock Glock 19. It was rebuilt with a new recoil spring, a new firing pin, a new firing pin spring, new spring cups, a new firing pin channel liner, a new spacer sleeve, a new firing pin safety, a new firing pin safety spring, a new trigger bar with trigger, a new trigger housing with ejector, a new connector, and a new trigger spring. The gun was lubed according to the Glock Armorers Manual with a quality gun oil. We will present our findings as pounds of pull as measured with an NRA Certified Gunsmith weight set (accurate to plus or minus .1 pounds). We built a jig to hold the gun and guide the scale, so that every measurement is the same (or as close as we can get it outside of a lab). We built up some tape on the trigger where the finger pulls the trigger. The tape is placed there, so we can hit the trigger at the same spot with every measurement. The measurements are given at two points and are as follows: 1) Peak Take-up Pull (PTP) - which is the peak pull of the trigger take-up measured to a point before the trigger break and 2) Trigger Break Pull (TBP)- the pressure required to release the firing pin at the final stage of the trigger pull. The measurements will be taken three times and their average will be listed in the table below. The component changes will be listed and their effect will be evident (if there is an effect) by the trigger pull in pounds indicated in the two columns PTP and TBP. Note that only the part or parts that are changed will be listed (the parts are not left in) - all other parts are stock.
 
 

Part/s added	PTP	TBP
Stock Configuration	3.0	5.25
Wolff reduced power firing pin spring (WRPFPS)	2.0	4.0
Glock 3.5 Pound Connector (G35C)	3.0	4.0
Glock 3.5 Pound Connector (G35C) and a WRPFPS	2.0	3.375
G35C and a Glockmeister Heavy Trigger Spring (GHTS)	2.25	3.75
S35C and a GHTS	2.25	3.75
New York Trigger Spring Olive (NYTSO)	4.375	7.625
NYTSO and a WRPFPS	3.125	6.250
G35C and a NYTSO	4.375	6.0
G35C, NYTSO, and a WRPFPS	3.125	4.75

WARNING: you CAN NOT use a Glockmeister heavy trigger spring with a Wolff reduced power firing pin spring - reason is that there is not sufficient pressure to fully return the trigger forward making the trigger safety work.
WARNING: NEVER use an 8 pound connector with a New York trigger spring - you can make your gun unreliable.
WARNING: Using a reduced power firing pin spring can result in light primer strikes. The reduced power firing pin spring is intended for competition use only.