We’ve broken for lunch after a morning of shooting with the guys at Tac-Con, makers of AR trigger groups. They’ve debuted some new products, modified some of their existing lineup, and reduced prices. I’ve managed to burn through a few hundred rounds this so far, watched an AK nearly catch fire, and started the formation of some opinions . . .
Where to start? First and most exciting for me is the debut of Tac-Con’s 241 trigger seen above. The Tac-Con patch is covering up a patent pending feature that allows the 241 to do its thing. Like the original 3MR, the 241 features three positions. Obviously, there’s the necessary “safe” position but switching to what you know as “fire” gives you the assisted reset feature that debuted on the original 3MR trigger. That mode rewards the user with a very crisp 4.5 pound single stage with a very short reset. Once you learn to ride that reset point, quick follow-up shots are very easy to send downrange. I haven’t mastered the triple tap or the mag dump using this position yet, but FAST double taps are easy to pick up.
Once you switch the trigger to what you’ve come to know as the “giggle” position, you have a fairly nice two-stage trigger for precision work. The first stage is 3.5 pounds with the second stage at just 1.0 pound. Like the first mode, you’re dealing with a 4.5 pound trigger, but broken up into 2 stages.
This has a longer and more traditional reset point reminiscent of nearly ever quality two stage trigger that I’ve ever put my hands on. I said fairly nice in my intro as the first model that I shot had a bit of “mush” between the first and second stage. I brought it up to the Tac-Con engineer standing by and he immediately tore the trigger apart to see what was going on.
It is hard to see above, but the coating on the sear engagement point has delaminated. According to the engineer, this was a known issue. They’ve switched coating vendors and are doing further testing to ensure that this won’t happen in production units.
What this delamination creates is a shoveling effect where the coating builds up on the engagement surface. So when you push through the second stage, you’re fighting the build-up of coating. Once I tried out the revised unit, there was no mush whatsoever. There’s a solid 3.5 pound take up, a crisp wall, and 1 pound sends it over the edge. I want to make it very clear that I’m currently shooting a pre-production version of the 241 trigger. Assuming Tac-Con can keep the unit running, which I don’t doubt, this is a solid trigger for those who want a crisp short reset single stage and a nice two stage in the same package. Tac-Con is expecting to start shipping by the end of the year, and the price will be $395.
Speaking of price breaks, the 3MR will now be priced at $395 down from the original ~$500 price point. Further changes to the 3MR will include moving the assisted reset point from the “giggle” position to the standard “fire” position driven by demands from their current user base. For those that already have the 3MR in the field, this will be a retrofit made possible by switching out the safety selector.
I mentioned in the intro that I watched an AK nearly catch on fire. Savvy readers might be wondering what an AK is doing at a range day for an AR trigger manufacturer. Drum roll please……. Tac-Con is debuting an AK trigger! Seen above, the Tac-Con AK trigger is a direct drop in for the stock unit. They have it deployed at our range day on stamped and milled receiver, century rifles, an Arsenal, and a couple of Saigas.
If you’ve picked up a stock AK, you know how much the trigger sucks. The bangswitch and the sights have been the two things that have made me shy away from the AK platform. There are aftermarket triggers out there for sure, and in the spirit of full disclosure, know that I’ve never run any of them.
Taken as a standalone unit, and in the short time I’ve shot it, the Tac-Con AK trigger feels exactly like a good single stage trigger. It has the same assisted reset that the 3MR and the 241 feature, but doesn’t feature a third position. It’s either safe or in single stage with assisted reset. That mode allows for fast double taps out of the box and with practice, nearasdamnit full-auto rates of fire are possible. I haven’t yet gotten to consistently triple tapping steel, but with more trigger time, I’ll be able to run it quickly. Tac-Con will be shipping this trigger sometime late this year (they hope), and pricing will be set at $349.
I’ve been assured that TTAG will receive production versions of the new 3MR, the 241, and the AK trigger for extended testing. So far, I haven’t seen any full-on failures in our R&D models, and the results of what I’m seeing are good. The reduced prices are surely going to help move more triggers and I’m inching closer to the opinion that dropping a Tac-Con in a rifle is worth it.
Yay!!! AK trigger…I’m getting it…I do hope they do one with the 3 position just like on the fully automatic AK. Top- Safe Middle- Assisted reset and Bottom- Semi
That going on at Ben Avery? I’m only a few minutes north from there.
Best range I’ve ever been to. This place is fantastic. You Arizonians are lucky to have this gem.
How does it compare to Best of the West?
I have to agree. I moved here in August and that facility has it all. I am lucky to only be 8 miles away from it! You should make it over to the shotgunning range, there is everything there!
While you’re there with the Tac-Con guys, please encourage them to produce and publish some training information and videos on how to use the 3MR trigger. It’s not a bad product, but for the price that some if us paid for it, the company should provide better documentation and training on how to get the most out of it.
I have. And will continue to do so.
“Savvy readers might be wondering what an AK is doing at a range day for an AR trigger manufacturer.”
That sentence there, more than halfway through the article, is the first mention that all this info this is about AR triggers. I kind of guessed that from the start based on other contextual clues, but you might want to start off with a sentence to the effect that “Tac Con makes AR trigger groups and…”
Updated. My bad.
Just darn good to know that the envelope is being exercised. Thank you TTAG for the review and thank you Tac Con!
If Tac-con is having trouble with coatings, one of the best shops doing that is outside of Maricopa, AZ, Alpha Tech coatings, they have done several jobs for me, ceramic and teflon as well as powdercoating, Look them up,
DLC coating. Extremely hard.
Now tell me that they are providing the new selector switch free of charge to people who bought the old-gen trigger. i should think the $105 dollar price differential should cover that little service.
BDub, feel free to contact us and we’ll gladly update your trigger to the new rev parts. Thanks for the support
Mike
My gut tells me I’d prefer dual stage trigger in the regular fire position and the short reset in the third position. This would be for by bedside rifle which has a Geissele in it atm. As you seem to own the trigger BDub are you wanting to reverse this setup due to the mentioned “hard to go from third position back to safe” or do you have another reason?
Also, it is nice to see Tac-Con standing behind their product!
I’m sure that they’re nice triggers but that’s some steep coin (even after a price reduction)
“It is hard to see above, but the coating on the sear engagement point has delaminated.”
I’m always amazed at the technical inaccuracies on this blog (still my favorite blog). An ar-15 doesn’t even have a sear in the conventional sense. The trigger itself has a “sear” surface which interacts with the hammer. Since the picture shown has fingers directly over the “sear” engagement surface it is anyones guess what in the heck the author is talking about. Perhaps he meant the disconnector engagement surface? Who knows.
I’m sitting across from the engineers. They’ve confirmed that’s called a 2 stage sear.
You are correct Jim, I am covering the sear for the single stage. The two stage mode uses the sear in center frame that Tyler is attempting to show the issue on. This would be easier to show but for patent reasons we’re only allowed to show certain parts. The two stage sear is up top like that of a traditional two stage trigger. Hope this helps
Mike
*Wes
I’m still at a loss to see why it’s worth $395 when Geiselle triggers can be had for less (and have a number of years of in the field reliability history). The reason for the excitement surrounding the Tac Con and the reason to swallow its original $500 price tag was its purported ability to closely simulate full auto fire while remaining more controllable than something like the Slide Fire bump stock. I haven’t seen anything yet in your posts on this media trip that would counteract the rather negative press that the 3MR has gotten (including from our own Foghorn who I would suspect knows one or two things about shooting a gun fast).
i hope that as you continue this series, you can place a definitive TTAG stamp on whether the Tac Con 3MR lived up to its original billing.
Tyler: perhaps while you are there you can get a straight answer to a question I raised with Tac-Con a while back:
Does Tac-Con *actually* have any patents (i.e., issued patents from the government) for this, or are they claiming that they have *applied* for a patent (i.e., they’ve applied for patents but the Patent Office has not made a decision on them yet)?
Their earlier press intimated that they had actual patents (references to Tac-Con’s “patented” design), but in checking with the USPTO I could find no record of any issued patent.
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