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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.

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The trigger that normally sits in myĀ 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 SwitchĀ 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 fasterĀ 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.Ā 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 SwithĀ 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,Ā 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 SwitchĀ 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.

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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 weightĀ 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 isĀ myĀ 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.

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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.

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33 COMMENTS

  1. Sorry not paying 200 for ‘shit’

    What a terrible name – it’s almost like they went out of their way to name the company to ensure they got lower sales. Maybe that’s their goal, if they only sell 10 triggers they can focus on excellent customer service.

    • Well, they’ll get plenty of attention with that name, that’s for sure. Whether that will translate into sales is anybody’s guess.

    • Then you’re missing out on one of the best drop-in trigger assemblies on the market. Books and covers dude… books and covers.

  3. “Regular readers will no doubt be left scratching their heads wondering what Iā€™m doing writing a trigger review.”

    Got a couple good lulz from this, thank you. The housing thing is pretty much personal preference imo, once its installed, only a small portion near the trigger is visible. I really like the adjustable option, I ended up getting a Velocity trigger this past week for 130 shipped and its been good so far.

    I really wonder what they were thinking naming their company after poop, my inner caveman gets it but still…

    • The housing certainly makes installation of a drop-in trigger unit faster and easier, but as most people do the trigger once and pretty much just leave it in there it isn’t such a big deal. The companies will tell you, however, that there are performance benefits due to the fact that the hammer and trigger are rotating apparently with less friction. The bushings though the housing are the parts that receive all of the pressure from the trigger pins, leaving the hammer and trigger to rotate more freely on the other side of the bushings. The geometry of hammer-to-trigger (sear) is also fixed in these units, whereas when they are separate parts any variation in where the pin holes are drilled in the lower receiver directly affects your hammer/sear engagement. You could end up with a trigger that’s fantastic in one lower but has lots of creep in another lower or isn’t safe in yet another lower. Pin hole location does vary. In a drop-in unit, as long as the pin holes aren’t so far out of spec that the unit can’t be installed, you’re guaranteed an identical trigger pull no matter what lower you drop the unit into since the hammer and sear/trigger are fixed in space relative to each other by the housing rather than by the receiver. I think that’s the biggest or at least most important benefit to a drop-in unit.

      Basically, the manufacturers will argue that it’s more than just convenience or aesthetics and, as I own an Aero lower with a FCG pocket that’s a couple thousandths too tight, which meant my JP trigger was just slightly too wide to fit in there properly while any of these drop-ins work fine, I know that scenarios do exist in which it’s definitely true. Out of spec pin hole location is an even bigger deal, as a couple thousandths of an inch change in hammer/sear engagement is or certainly can be a real issue.

      • I should’ve mentioned color in the preference comment about the differences in the KE arms trigger vs this one. I havent had enough experience to know about the bushing sizes, but my pins definitely felt sloppy loose before the tightening. Having done the installation on one now vs a normal trigger, I could agree more about the ease of it. I had a little trouble when re-inserting the safety selector but that was it.

        I had one issue on the Velocity was that I did not initially want to really torque too hard on the installation screws, and after 4 rounds on the range, I got quite the surprise when it began shooting bursts and also when I released the trigger.Velocity emailed me back the same day about correcting the issue, which was of course the screws, and I am curious to see how it shoots next time in my Frankengun.

  4. Although the name may gross out a few readers, I give them a thumbs up for telling it like it is.
    In the deeper inner workings of my corrupt mind, I’ve always wanted to open a restaurant that was really classy, and expensive, etc. In my imaginary world, I would name the joint
    “Scarf & Barf”

  7. A lot of ignorant comments… TS is a great Main Street business owned and staffed by veterans (some combat). They will spend as much time with you as you need and have enough experience to answer all of your questions. Everyone whining about the name… pull up your big boy underwear and check them out.

    • I get where they are coming from, The name “Tactical Shit” is clearly going to turn away some people and I can’t blame them.

      That being said those people really are going to miss out on some deals from time to time. I’ve ordered from Tactical Shit before and have saved some good money in doing so. They shipped quickly, everything I ordered showed up and was packaged well enough to prevent damage. I really couldn’t have asked for more.

  8. Great company and great guys who run it. Ordered a couple times without any issues and will order from again. I can’t speak for the trigger bc I don’t own it. I think their name is hilarious, though it seems to be a little too much for some of the girls on this site.

  9. All of you the are taking issue with their name come on grow up and act like you have a pair. They sell some great stuff are easy to get a long with and have a great time doing it!! So check them out on Facebook or at Tacticalshit.com

  10. “We need a name.”
    “What do you sell?”
    “A bunch of tactical shit.”
    “There you go.”

    Hey, if they make a good product, they can call themselves whatever they want.

  11. I own a small retail store (just down the street from TS) and put out a “Help Wanted” sign

    HELP WANTED –

    LOUSY PAY
    INCONVENIENT HOURS
    JERK BOSS

    We had people comment on the sign… “I would NEVER work at this store”… and then we had “this sounds like a fun place”. If you don’t “get it”… then we don’t need you to work here. If you get your panties in a bunch over this… who needs ya?

  12. They also sell an awesome line of beard products, Bad Motherfucker Beard Oil/Balm/Wax. Of course, you turds commenting on the name probably have more hair on your vaginas than your face.

  13. I have visited their website and am on the mailing list of http://shop.tacticalshit.com/
    Their name I believe is meant to be a joke of sorts. They have lots neat shirts and patches that Military personnel will appreciate. I have had excellent customer service from them and suggest you get past their crazy name and visit the site.

  14. Look, the name might piss off some folks, and I guess we all have our thresholds, but I installed this unit on the Air I built for my dad this last spring. It’s a solid unit, adjusted at three pounds even, and my father a fellow veteran couldn’t be happier. Great company, solid product, and no complaints whatsoever.

    For those unable to stomach the name of the company? Well, buy from someone else and keep on keeping on.

  15. If your a genuine Christian and love the Lord Jesus who died to rescue those who turn away and repent from their sin you should not have anything to do with this retailer. You can tell me they are a great bunch of boys all you want but I think they are sick.

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