Step 5: Upgrade your P226 Trigger
Among all the wonderful things one might say about the P226 Legion, the one thing that truly stands out is its trigger. The movement is smooth. The break is candy-cane crisp. The reset is minimal, and single-action “take-up” on follow-up shots after the reset is non-existent. This impressive trigger action is actually a combination of four different elements all working together:
- A Grayguns P-Series Precision Adjustable Intermediate Trigger
- SIG’s Short Reset Trigger Kit (SRT)
- A modern-style hammer strut and mainspring
- “Enhanced” action
We’ll talk about the Grayguns trigger in this step, and the other three elements in the next step.
The Grayguns Intermediate Reach Adjustable Trigger works perfectly in the Legion
One of the only “issues” some shooters have with the classic P226 design is that if you’ve got smaller hands, it’s hard to reach the trigger with your index finger. On top of that, the traditional DA/SA setup of the P226 means that the initial pull is, by design, pretty heavy. It’s designed that way so that if you shoot someone, it’s probably because you actually meant to shoot them, rather than because your finger happened to inadvertently graze the trigger.
My unmodified West German P226 pulls its DA shot at around 15 lbs. The combination of the long reach and heavy pull can make that first double-action shot on a P226 a challenge.
SIG addressed that challenge in recent years by releasing what they call the Short Trigger (part# TRIGGER7). The name’s a bit of a misnomer, since it isn’t actually any “shorter” than the Standard Trigger. It features a slimmer profile, which shortens the distance your finger has to reach to pull that first DA shot. You’ll also hear it referred to by SIG as the Reduced Reach Trigger. I think that’s a much more accurate name, but it never really seemed to catch on.
The Short Trigger often gets confused with the Short Reset Trigger Kit (part# PKITSRT22622) which is something totally different, and discussed in the next step. It’s unfortunate that these two items sound so similar, and it’s not uncommon to see people mix them up when discussing them. Because of the confusion, some incorrectly refer to the Short Trigger or Reduced Reach Trigger as the “Short Reach Trigger,” and will sometimes incorrectly abbreviate it as “SRT.” That only adds to the confusion. If you ever see the “SRT” abbreviation in SIG’s marketing materials on a particular gun, it always means that gun has the Short Reset Trigger Kit installed, regardless of whether the gun has the Standard or Short Trigger. The Short Trigger and the Short Reach Trigger Kit are totally unrelated, and you can have either installed in a gun without the other, or both, or neither.
To go back to the Goldilocks analogy, while some shooters find the reach of the Standard Trigger too big, and the reach of the Short Trigger too small, that leaves a need for something juuuust right.
Enter Bruce Gray.
Bruce is well-known in SIG circles, with over 35 years of experiences as a pistol smith, professional shooter, writer and firearms consultant. As demand for his custom work on SIG pistols increased, Grayguns Inc. (GGI) started making their own aftermarket parts — including the P-Series Precision Intermediate Trigger, or P-SPIT. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of all three triggers:
(from left to right) SIG Short Trigger, Grayguns P-SPIT, SIG Standard Trigger
GGI’s P-SPIT trigger gained popularity among hard-core SIG shooters, but Grayguns went one step further and added over travel adjustability to the P-SPIT, which they launched as their 2nd generation trigger, the P-Series Precision Adjustable Intermediate Trigger, or P-SAIT.
Grayguns P-SAIT Trigger
The improved P-SAIT garnered a lot of attention from defensive, recreational, and competition shooters… and speaking of competition shooting, did I mention that Bruce Gray also happens to be the manager and coach for Team SIG? That means the factory probably already had his phone number when it came time to choose a trigger for the Legion. GGI confirmed to me that they supply the same P-SAIT directly to SIG for the Legion that you can purchase directly from GGI’s website. As of the writing of this article, however, the GGI website shows the P-SAIT backordered, since SIG is taking them all for installation in the Legions. But if you call GGI, and are very polite on the phone, you might just get lucky and they’ll find one to send you.
The P-SAIT sells for $62.50, while the SIG Short Trigger sells for around $30. Some P-Series owners are happy with the less expensive Short Trigger from SIG, but it you’re trying to get as close to Legion-spec as possible, you’ll want the P-SAIT.
