Timney Triggers is now shipping its trigger pack replacement for the IWI Tavor. I was so freakin’ happy with Timney’s trigger for my Mosin that there was no question about getting my mitts on this thing as soon as it was ready. I had one concern though: how much of a difference could it actually make, considering the entire trigger bar and linkage in the Israeli bullpup remains untouched? . . .
Install
If there’s an easier firearm on which to do a trigger swap (or call it the hammer/sear, trigger pack, or fire control group, as the actual trigger itself stays in place), I haven’t found it. It can literally be done in well under 30 seconds on the Tavor. Push out two captive pins — you can do it with only a couple fingers, but it’s easier with a pointy object like a pen or a rifle cartridge — and the trigger pack drops right out the bottom. Slide the new one in, push the pins back into place, and you’re good to go.
The only thing to remember is that the hammer needs to be cocked for the pack to drop out easily and to go back in properly aligned with the trigger bar.
Tech Note
If you aren’t already familiar, the Tavor is a bullpup rifle and the trigger (the actual thing you put your finger on) sits almost a foot forward of the trigger pack, where the hammer, sear, hammer spring, etc reside. Pulling the trigger on most bullpups pushes on one end of a long linkage that pushes against the sear on the other end. This typically introduces flex and slop in the linkage and is responsible for most of what makes your average bullpup trigger pretty lousy.
On the Tavor, pulling the trigger pulls on a steel rod, which pulls on the sear. There’s no flex in this arrangement and that leads to a very good trigger in the bullpup world, which translates to a marginal trigger in the rest of the rifle world. It’s also quite heavy for a rifle trigger — mine measured 11.5 lbs. from the factory (!), and 8 lbs. after removing the “extra” trigger return spring.
Still, the linkage has a compromise that made me wonder how good the Timney replacement could be. To allow for easy removal of the trigger pack, the back of that rod isn’t solidly fixed to it. The rod connects to the trigger pack by loosely sitting in a U notch (it pulls forwards on this notch to trip the sear). To ensure alignment when inserting the trigger pack, the U notch is oversized — it’s of a larger diameter than the rod. This effectively guarantees slack in the trigger system, and I didn’t imagine a simple fix for that at the trigger pack level.
Truly Technically Testing The Timney Triggers Tavor Trigger (T8) (Please read EDIT at bottom of review)
My fears of retaining the factory trigger bar-to-trigger pack connection were partially founded. There is still slack (aka pre-travel or take-up) in the trigger, but just a touch less. Turns out the Timney U notch is marginally smaller and in a slightly different physical location front-to-back vs. the factory notch.
In an ideal world you could tune out the slack by tensioning the U notch bar (not sure if it’s referred to as a sear bar or a connector or what) after the trigger pack is installed in the firearm, but this would add additional complication and cost to an already fairly complex and expensive assembly. Timney simply refers to this trigger as having a “two-stage trigger feel,” and the first stage is the bit of slack that remains.
Don’t let this discourage you, though. The rest of the trigger feel — the more important facets — were massively improved.
Timney’s Tavor trigger is factory-set for a pull weight between 3.5 and 4 lbs. and isn’t user-adjustable. My trigger pull gauge very consistently pegged it at 3.5 lbs. Needless to say, this is a gigantic difference from the factory pull weight and it makes the rifle nicer to shoot on the range and easier to shoot accurately. I can also shoot it significantly faster — not that this is usually much of a concern, especially with ammo prices what they are.
One T-word I didn’t work in above is “tactical,” despite its popularity these days for everything from sandals to bacon. Now, the mass of the wire EDM cut, Teflon nickel coated hammer (larger and heavier than factory) and the smoothness and quality of the action and of the machining and materials leads me to believe that this trigger absolutely can and will hold up in a “tactical” use case. However, it is my personal opinion that a 3.5 lb trigger pull weight is at the extreme light end of acceptability for home defense and actual battle use. It’s ideal for hunting, target shooting, etc. Just an opinion, but I’m in the 4.5 lb+ camp for high stress scenario triggers.
A change as equally noticeable as the lighter pull weight is the shorter travel. Yes, there is less overtravel, but the bulk of the improvement comes from a near-complete elimination of trigger creep. Only the tiniest amount of perceptible creep remains in the Timney trigger, and then only if you’re pulling it as slowly as possible and really looking for it. If that Mosin Nagant trigger was perfect (and it is), this is a close runner-up. Again, a truly massive difference from stock.
The break is clean and precise and consistent. Also about as good as it gets.
Reset is slightly shorter and slightly lighter. That’s not to say it’s “light,” though. It’s audible (you can hear it from 10 feet away in the video) and tactile and I found it easy to ride. In fact, the ability to easily and intuitively ride the trigger reset — not let off the trigger any more than needed for it to reset — is a huge factor here, because it negates that pretravel slack. If you ride the reset, there is zero slack as you begin to pull on the trigger for the next shot.
Conclusion (See EDIT At Bottom)
Awesome! Huge difference. Nothing short of amazing considering it’s a 30-second drop-in installation. It almost feels like cheating to make the trigger this freakin’ much better without having to work for it. Well…it’s $350 so you do have to work for it, but you know what I mean.
Also, if you want to see what the slack, pull, travel, reset, etc look and sound like, check out the video. I have benefited from other folks’ videos showing close-ups of really slow trigger pulls and I’ve been trying to build that into my videos when relevant (any firearm reviews, trigger reviews, etc). In this one, I do a few slow-mo pulls of both the factory trigger and the Timney, and I believe you can easily see the difference that is sometimes less meaningful in written form.
Specifications: (from Timney’s product page)
- Self-contained drop in trigger. Unbelievably easy to install.
- Because of the unique, bullpup design of the Tavor the Timney replacement is a two-stage trigger feel.
- Lightweight 6061-T6 CNC Machined aluminum housing.
- Wire EDM cut, heat treated, Teflon nickel coated hammer to guarantee a lifetime of reliable service.
- Factory tested and preset at 4lbs. (Not adjustable)
- MSRP: $352.95
Ratings (out of five stars):
Build Quality (see edit)
Really nice. Made in U.S.A. No shortcuts, only the best.
Slack (pretravel/takeup) * *
Slight improvement over factory. Again, not a lot in the way of options here without adding an adjustable trigger or adding post-install adjustment to the U notch arm (whatever that’s actually called).
Creep * * * * 1/2
Or lack thereof. Near perfect. Any other trigger I’d probably be giving it a 5, but because it’s a Timney and because of the price, I’m taking off that half point since it isn’t actually, completely perfect.
Break * * * * *
Great. No real room for improvement.
Reset * * * * *
Excellent.
Overall (See EDIT Below)
If it were either less expensive or got rid of nearly all of the slack, I’d give it five stars. If it were less expensive and got rid of all of the slack, it would be the highest five star rating in the history of the world ever. As for the price, it’s expensive but I don’t think it’s unfair or unreasonable considering the absolutely top-notch construction and quality, and the fact that it’s a made in the USA product with a lifetime warranty. Of course, $352.95 is the MSRP, so prices may be closer to $299 from retailers online.
[EDIT] 05/05/2014: It appears that Timney changed the design of this trigger within the first couple weeks of product shipment. Due to issues with light primer strikes and failures to fire on ammo with hard primers (basically any NATO-spec ammo), they added a stiffer hammer spring. Timney also beveled the holes for the pins that hold the trigger pack into the frame in order to facilitate easier installation. As you can see in my photos, the trigger I received was one of the first ones with these changes. You can tell because the holes for the pins were beveled after the body was anodized gold. As part of my testing for this review, I did shoot some Federal-loaded XM855 with no issues whatsoever. It fired every round and primer strikes looked pretty standard.
BUT… I took the Tavor back to the woods yesterday to test this further since I was suddenly concerned about it. I brought some Israel Military Industries M193 and M855 — actual, legit NATO stuff — and some more of the Federal 5.56, which is supposed to be NATO-spec. I suffered multiple failures to fire with the IMI ammo (like 30%) and had one failure to fire with the Federal. Insufficient primer strikes caused all of these failures. When put through the gun a second time, they all fired except for one of the IMI rounds, which also didn’t fire upon a third strike. Unfortunately I did not bring the factory trigger pack with which to test that stubborn round.
New Conclusion:
Timney needs to make some edits to this product before it is ready for prime time! The current units should be considered beta testers. Or, they should only be trusted/used on ammo with ‘commercial’ (soft) primers, with which I have still had 100% reliability (and I’m updating as of 06/13/2014 with a few hundred rounds of various sorts through the Timney).
So far Timney has tried to fix the light strikes by using a stiffer hammer spring. If you already own this trigger pack, know that it uses an AR-15 hammer spring. You can punch out the hammer pin from the logo side of the pack towards the other side, but you will really need a press or a bench vice to press the pin back in. Timney will do it under warranty for you as well, but it appears they are not going stiff enough on the springs still. Mine is the stiffer spring, and it isn’t working right. Note: an even stiffer hammer spring would barely affect trigger pull weight at all.
I will update with the results of my hammer weight reduction tinkering (Update: ever so slightly better with a lightened hammer but still tons of failures with ‘mil-spec’ primers and some failures to fire with Russian steel-cased ammo, which also has hard primers). At this time I think it’s safe to say that the Timney Tavor trigger is only reliable on commercial .223. 5.56 only if it has commercial primers. And not on Russian, steel-cased ammo that also tends to have stiff primers. I have removed the ratings on ‘build quality’ and ‘overall’ for the time being but I won’t be amending the body of the review at this time (and please accept my sincere apologies for not originally testing it with a broad enough ammo selection! Primer strikes looked completely, totally normal and I had no suspicions about it). TTAG will post an update if (when) Timney makes changes to the product.
07/30/2014 update:
Timney updated me with the latest status and it still sounds like they’re working on it. Quote of their response:
It has come to our attention that the Timney Tavor sear pack has been experiencing light primer strikes in some rifles. Crazy good products are extremely important to us, therefore we have focused our engineering efforts to consider all feedback and make any required adjustments. We do have a number of beta tests occurring at this time and have had excellent results in our studies.
Having said that the design of the Tavor rifle and the multitude of ammo choices available, lends itself to be problematic for some shooters. Although a minority, we are listening to each and every story told and adjusting to their feedback from the field.
Timney has been in business for nearly seventy years by improving our products and listening to our customers. Our replacement trigger for the Tavor rifle will continue to evolve, as have most all of our triggers, as we strive to deliver the utmost product available on the market today.
Great review! Now I just need a TAVOR… 🙂
This makes two of us…
This is where I gloat for overpaying for mine a year ago.
oh… wait…
We tested my friend’s new Tavor on the range last month. The only time we had any problems were FTE and FTF after he had fired the VERY first 1 or 2 rounds. After a bit, I figured out what was happening. My friend is former Army and he was nervous about shooting his first bullpup. He kept sliding the bolt back an inch to check if a round had been fed in, which lead to light primer strikes or a FTE.
It’s an old habit from his use of the M4 and something to keep in mind. If you get a light primer striker on a Tavor, you probably did something to keep the bolt from throwing forward with authority. Remember, no forward assist on this sweet machine.
But, when Will they make one for the Steyr???
There is a kit that allows you to use AR triggers and bolts in AUGs. Made by Ratworx I believe, seems interesting.
@Jeremy S, nice review (again) sir.
We can discuss this more after the jump…
I see what you did there…
Boooooooooooooo!!!
Now you just need to cut “needless to say” from your vocabulary. 🙂
Seriously, though, nice review. I wouldn’t buy that gun without an available replacment trigger.
The factory trigger really is not as bad as many people say. It’s way better than a factory Glock trigger, IMHO, and plenty of folks are happy to live with those. Okay… 11.5 lbs is ridiculous but the 8 lbs you get by removing the second return spring and the ~7 lbs you get by polishing up some of the parts is acceptable. But trigger weight doesn’t bother me as much as it does some people. Other than weight the trigger is pretty decent.
…I’ll always be somewhat colloquial in my reviews. They aren’t dissertations or college writing assignments. Needless to say, you’ll just have to deal with it.
🙂
Another excellent review. Thank you!
well, I went for the Timney trigger in my Rem 700 (see here http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2012/12/foghorn/gear-review-timney-trigger-for-the-remington-700/ ) instead of sending it back to the factory. My experience with warranty and such work is pretty abysmal – why have someone do the same bad job, twice? Hopefully the result will be as good as this – another good review for their triggers gives me great confidence.
I have one in my 10/22 and it is awesome. I think your 700 will get the same results.
on a 10/22? Didn’t that cost more than the gun?
I did the same for my 700 AAC-SD after being notified of the recall (I sent back FOUR XD-s, never again) and the Timney trigger is absolutely sick. Worth every penny and a must-have upgrade for the 700 regardless of recall. I went with the straight blade and it’s amazing.
Best group of the day was .404″ edge-to-edge @ 100 yards, 300BLK 125gr Nosler BT. Was about a 1MOA rifle before the trigger upgrade, now sub-1/2MOA with ease.
You’re going to love the Timney trigger in the 700.
I’m getting a lot of that lately, folks just won’t bother with Remington’s awful service so they buy a Timney or have me order one up and drop it in, tune it up and off they go. Timney’s bolt gun triggers are very reasonably priced, and definitely cheaper than the aggravation of dealing with sending a gun back and forth while Remington screws it up more. Same deal on the Marlin leverguns lately, people would rather have a local smith fix it than warranty it… it’s a sad state of affairs.
Another article that makes me want a Tavor.
Astonishing review, thank you. The pictures alone show the build quality, with the bevels for the pins so clearly obvious. Makes me at least think about the gun itself!
I recently received a T&E Tavor trigger kit myself and couldn’t agree more with the review. I would also like to note that the hammer spring is a standard AR-15 spring, so if you wanted it heavier and don’t mind wrestling what appears to be a pressed in hammer pin, you could use an extra-power spring to bump it up a little.
I’ll be digging more into the components and technical design aspects in my own forthcoming review. Timney really did a hell of a job on it, and you get what you pay for in quality for sure.
That would be awesome!
…I mentioned in the video that it appeared to be an AR-15 hammer spring, but I certainly didn’t remove it to verify so it isn’t in the write-up here. It’s definitely way lighter than the factory Tavor trigger pack’s hammer spring, but the hammer on the Timney unit is much larger and heavier, too. I was actually fairly surprised just how different the two hammers are.
That said, in terms of trigger pull weight I wouldn’t be surprised if putting a significantly stronger hammer spring in there barely affected it. As far as I can tell, the sear/hammer engagement surface is quite short and smooth and parallel (there’s no camming of the hammer when the sear is pulled).
Yep! It would by my estimation add only a few ounces. My particular unit clocks in at 4 pounds exactly on the break, which I agree is edging in on being a bit too light for my go-to rifle. The changes in design are really interesting, and Timney actually seems to have greatly simplified the components in the process while removing any sources of slop internally. It really does seem to be a hybrid of their long-proven AR designs blended into the Tavor’s sear pack.
It’s always great as a smith to see a mirror polish on a sear surface, and engagement that’s downright perfect. Proper angles either neutral or slightly positive, amount of engagement, supporting material.. Timney knows their stuff. Damn it’s difficult to talk about a Timney trigger without sounding like a fanboy…
I’m sure there’s still a market for my 6.5-pound Tavor tuneups, but for the crème de la crème it’s going to be a tough battle between Timney and Geissele here.
I contacted Geissele a while ago about getting a loaner but did not hear back. If you happen to get your hands on one I’d be happy to pay you for rental rights for a week so I can compare it side-by-side with the Timney and post my thoughts. OR… actually… you’re more than welcome to write up a comparative review of the two of them and e-mail it my way. It’ll go up on TTAG here credited to you, of course. I’ll shoot you an e-mail now so you have mine handy if something like this comes up in the future…
I think there would be a market for a 6.5 pound Tavor trigger – especially if it’s less than a $350 Timney. Geesh. Not all of us are made of money, and not all of us intend to use our military-bred rifles as the firearm version of a race car.
I’m hoping to get a Tavor shortly. Admittedly, I’ve never shot one so I can’t attest to how great or sucky the stock trigger is. All I know about it is what I’ve read so far. I’ve heard that, once broken in, a stock Tavor trigger isn’t half bad. And there’s always the free spring job to lighten the pull. The only thing that scares me about that is the possible long term reliability implications, but so far I haven’t heard anything.
So yes, if there was a reasonably priced Tavor trigger pack that didn’t cost an arm and a leg, I’d seriously consider it! I might be tempted to pay for a whole new trigger to have the added security that comes with being able to easily swap back in the original trigger.
The factory trigger is okay. Removing the second trigger return spring is extremely easy and drops the pull weight from 11.5 lbs to 8 lbs. It’s completely and totally reversible if you don’t like it or if you experience any trigger reset issues. Some people claim they have had reset problems (almost every one of those mentions it happening while firing from a bench). I never have — not even a hint of a less-than-powerful reset — and my trigger pack has been plenty dirty.
Also on this trigger pack thing, it’s fully reversible. You mentioned a whole new trigger but this is WAY easier than trying to remove the actual trigger itself. The pack drops in and out in seconds and you can swap back and forth between aftermarket (Timney, in this case) and factory as many times as you want. Nothing would keep you from reverting back to 100% factory configuration in a few seconds.
Got mine last week and couldn’t agree more. I had concerns about how much impact the trigger can make since it all goes through the linkage, but it really is night and day. It’ll be interesting to see if the significantly reduced trigger weight has any impact in stress test environments (such as when dragged through mud and dirt)
I have a Tavor and did the poor mans trigger job. I removed the extra spring and mirror polished everything that I could. I have a Geissele Trigger in my SCAR and LOVE it, so I have been waiting for both trigger reviews before making the plunge. When is the Geissele trigger going to be available?
It looks like Timney has delivered, and I’m glad that these new options are coming to market. At least it’s so quick to change out, I can imagine some big Tavor fans swapping trigger packs on the fly and getting used to several triggers. Maybe they varmint or target shoot with their Timney, and and use another trigger pack for home defense. ShootingSight and Geissele’s new Tavor trigger packs are a bit heavier (4.5-6lbs), two-stage, and said to be more combat-oriented, more in line with the design intent of the Tavor and the most common roles it’s employed in. Personally, I’d be selecting a trigger ideal for high-stress close-quarters combat—it’s a Tavor—but I’m glad Timney took a different approach and offered shooters something different in design that can be complementary to other triggers that are competing directly.
See Outdoor Hub’s post-SHOT Show comparison between the Timney, Geissele, and ShootingSight triggers (based on show floor info). I’m excited now that shooters are getting trigger time and shooting experience with them, the availability of these triggers, and other aftermarket accessories, is simply making the Tavor a better weapon. If I was in the Israeli Defense Forces, I’d be campaigning to have a civilian version of their X95 Micro-Tavor released in the USA just so that I could improve my rifle with American aftermarket upgrades!
That’s true… considering I could swap back to the factory trigger pack in a couple of seconds I suppose using one for HD and the other one for range time wouldn’t be out of the question at all.
I think the biggest issue with the X95 in the U.S. is the NFA Short Barreled Rifle laws. Not only is an SBR defined as a rifle with a barrel shorter than 16″, but it’s also defined as any rifle with an overall length shorter than 26″. That’s from the buttstock to the end of the barrel (which doesn’t include any removable muzzle device). The 16″ barrel Tavor like the one I own is 26-1/8″ in overall length. It is just BARELY not an SBR according to the BATFE. You literally cannot have a shorter rifle without having to pay your $200 tax stamp and suffer all of the restrictions that come with SBR ownership.
From what I know now I don’t think the X95 is necessarily a superior weapon to the standard Tavor, but different. I do believe it is advanced in some ways and furthers the Tavor concept. Some may prefer the Tavor. I’d like to have a choice. Those of us who find bullpups so appealing because we want to use sound suppressors on a rifle that is still handy are used to putting up with NFA restrictions, and for an expensive rifle like the X95 that doesn’t travel much (dedicated home defense, perhaps) it may be worth putting up with the burden and the $200 stamp. But IWI makes a 16.5″ barreled X95L that meets overall length requirements (670 mm, about 1/2″ longer than the 16.5″ Tavor SAR). Even though it isn’t smaller than the Tavor SAR, I’d be interested in that. The largest advantage I notice is that it weighs 7lbs, about one pound less than the heavy Tavor SAR. It also has the AR-15 style magazine release button and I’m sure there have been a few small improvements. I also really like the variants in other calibers: 5.45x39mm (the X95R), the 9mm SMG (X95 SMG and integrally-suppressed X95S), and a 7.62×51 X95 is currently in development.
“Bottom line: if you’re looking for a factory Tavor trigger pack, make me an offer because I have one for sale.”
Funny, I’ve got a stock Remington 700 trigger for sale. Cheap.
So Tavor fans get to sink even more money into their over-priced and over-rated rifles? Good.
I don’t really think it’s either of those things. Well, I do think $1,750 is overpriced but not for the Tavor, since it’s in-line with other high-end, piston-driven rifles on the market, but just in general for what people are charging for “similar” AR’s and such. And I use high-end to describe fit, finish, and materials quality. It’s all top notch on the Tavor.
As for overrated, you’d have to make a strong argument to me for how that’s the case. I freakin’ love it. The couple dozen ex-IDF folks I’ve spoken with freakin’ love it. Especially those that transitioned from the M16/M4 to the Tavor. If I could have any wish for changes I would make to the rifle, I’d add an adjustable gas system. Other than that I think it rocks harder than a convertible on prom night. And… the gas block is a relatively small issue as mine reliably and appropriately cycles everything from weak .223 reloads to full power 5.56 NATO and does so just fine with or without a suppressor — it would just be even better if I could fine tune as desired.
Had to edit the review. Please see the red headline EDIT section…
My apologies to everyone!!! It appears I did not run a sufficient ammo selection through the Tavor originally. I did run what is supposed to be NATO-spec ammo and had no issues. But obviously some primers are harder than others and I have now found some that don’t ignite reliably. I’ve run 4 entirely different brands of .223 through it without a hitch.
can you guys bump this review back up on the front page? I just ordered the trigger from Timney this morning then went back and saw the EDIT… sucks for me 🙁
Last I heard, Timney is still working on fixes and updates and, on the plus side, they’re legit on the lifetime warranty and they WILL take care of you by fixing or replacing your trigger at no charge to you. Most likely this is going to involve a much stiffer spring. I’d suggest calling them or e-mailing them to discuss.
have you thought about running a less stiff firing pin spring to see if that may help?
Not willing to modify my Tavor to make a trigger work. I also don’t know of any aftermarket Tavor spring replacements so I’d have to invent something on my own.
The ShootingSight trigger has been AWESOME and it’s staying in my Tavor. I like it at least as much and it fires every round no matter what.
I too just had the light primer strike issue with LC M855. I am so glad I found this article as I was very disappointed. I love the trigger but it failed 3-4 round per mag last weekend at a big shoot. Was embarrassing to have such a nice gun and have it fail every 4th shot in front of 25+ guys with ARs.
Other than that the trigger feel amazing…
terrible review, how do you have a massive ftf percentage yet refuse to change your rating of the product? I get that there is professional courtesy amongst all industries, but the author of this article needs to be fired. i will never trust him again, 30%ftf and it gets 5 stars for quality and 4 stars for overall?!?!!! what good is this website if i learn more from reading forums? i hope the editors of this site take a minute to reflect on how badly this article makes them look.
Well like I said, the ratings and article were finished before I encountered the FTF issues, having run hundreds of rounds through it with no problems but obviously not trying any with stiff enough primers. I made the edits really obvious but chose not to actually change the text of the original review. When Timney finalizes their updates to the trigger and fixes the issues, we’ll do a follow-up.
Obviously nothing is being hidden whatsoever, so I’m not sure where the trust problems are. You clearly were not at all confused with the current state of the trigger’s reliability or anything. It’s very apparent what’s going on and nobody could ever miss all of the bold, red warnings about the FTF w/ hard primers findings.
My 2 cents.. For what it’s worth, I don’t shoot competitively … Just for fun… got the new trigger in this week tried it out and went back to the original trigger, it may be the 1.5k rounds I’ve run through the old one, but I didn’t find the factory original to be a bad trigger.. In fact I preferred it. Now on my AR’s I run 3.5 or 4.5 lb timney or Wilson triggers and love them… The Tavor is just a different beast I guess.
I took my Tavor out yesterday for the first time firing Federal Nato ammo. I encountered multiple failures to fire. I was able to fire a number in rapid succession, however when stopping for a few minutes, the next round failed to fire and this was repeated multiple times. This should not happen with an expensive, $1800+ rifle. Thinking about sinking another $300 in a trigger pack is ridiculous. The Tavor may look cool but what good is it for protection if you cannot rely on it to function. I would now only trust my Colt AR 15 for anything other than target practice.
You experienced that with the factory trigger?!?! I’ve never heard of an issue like this with the Tavor, and have most definitely not experienced that myself. After the Timney fiasco I’ve been shooting a lot of super-hard-primer ammo like the IMI stuff and the factory trigger pack has never, ever failed to leave a solid primer dent and ignite every round through it (and the same so far with the ShootingSight replacement trigger pack, which I like at least as much as the Timney but it actually works).
Any word on improvements?
Fantastic improvements. My original trigger had over 25 failures to fire in the first 200 rounds I put down range. I emailed Timney and they offered to send me a stronger spring for me to swap in, or to have me send it back to them so they can fix it. I decided on the latter option, and then shortly after received an email stating “The engineering department is making slight modifications to the design to ensure light primer strike issues are eliminated. We will get this return to you ASAP.”
The returned trigger pack had what felt like a beefier spring behind it, and also appears to have some of the material milled out from the hammer, reducing its weight, which should lead to a quicker strike on the firing pin. The results – astounding improvement. I’ve since put around 1,500 rounds through mine, and haven’t had a single failure to fire yet. I had once instance of a failure to reset, but that was at the end of a long range day, so it’s hard to say if the trigger is to blame.
As for the other ergonomics of the trigger, they still seem to match the review for the most part. The creep and break are still fantastic, and the trigger weight feels the same, however, at least with my trigger, I have noticed inconsistent reset. The all aluminum construction gives a satisfying *clink* when the reset happens, but I’ve noticed inconsistencies with how far forward the trigger needs to travel before reset occurs. Sometimes it feels near-instantaneous, sometimes the trigger needs to be halfway to fully released in order for me to get my little metal clink.
**Note** I obviously only have the fixed trigger sent to me by IWI, and not the original one now, so take any comparisons with a grain of salt, since without both versions side by side direct comparisons aren’t really possible, so I’m relying on my memories and impressions from a few months ago.
Taylor, it’s great to hear your positive feedback! I did ask Timney for an update to get their official word on where the trigger stands, and this is what they sent:
“It has come to our attention that the Timney Tavor sear pack has been experiencing light primer strikes in some rifles. Crazy good products are extremely important to us, therefore we have focused our engineering efforts to consider all feedback and make any required adjustments. We do have a number of beta tests occurring at this time and have had excellent results in our studies.
Having said that the design of the Tavor rifle and the multitude of ammo choices available, lends itself to be problematic for some shooters. Although a minority, we are listening to each and every story told and adjusting to their feedback from the field.
Timney has been in business for nearly seventy years by improving our products and listening to our customers. Our replacement trigger for the Tavor rifle will continue to evolve, as have most all of our triggers, as we strive to deliver the utmost product available on the market today.”
Nice write-up and glad for the continuous updates. Just got my Tavor – I resisted right up to the Kryptec Highland hydrocoat came out, then I was toast. Yes, Kryptec makes the weapon lighter, adds 200fps to the rounds and eliminates the need for cleaning… (kinda).
So, Timney has now posted on their site that the trigger is NOT compatible with suppressors. That is disturbing and makes me curious what the readers here have seen. Any experience?
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