# Reasonable price for trigger job?



## Wyoming_1977 (Feb 24, 2016)

I've decided that I don't have the courage to risk messing up my trigger on my 1911, so I am going to farm the work out to a gunsmith. I've seen all manner of ranges of price, but I wanted to ask you folks what is a reasonable price for a trigger job for a 1911? Mine is a GI-spec model and I'm not going to change out parts just yet, so I just want my factory stuff reworked to get rid of the take-up, grit, and reduce the pull somewhat.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

A good trigger job on a 1911 requires an experienced gunsmith with lots of patience and the right tools.
Not everyone can do it right.

The big question to ask: "If I want a light, crisp trigger action, will you shorten or soften any springs to achieve it?"
A "yes" answer tells you to find someone else to do the job.
A 1911 trigger job should be a matter only of resetting sear-contact angles and smoothing with polishing stones.

Brownells opines that it should cost between $60.00 and $100.00, which averages out to $80.00.
If the job is really good, and the 'smith delivers the pull weight that you specified, I suggest that $100.00 would be fair.

The last time I had one done was so long ago that a really good, three-and-a-half-pound trigger cost me about $30.00!

(I've done my own, and my work is OK, but I'm nowhere near as good as an experienced 'smith. I suggest that you can learn to do it, if you have lots of patience.)


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## dereckbc (Jan 2, 2016)

Going rate use to be $20 for a trick when I was a young man in the USN on the Island of Hawaii. I imagine it is a bit more today.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

dereckbc said:


> Going rate use to be $20 for a trick when I was a young man in the USN on the Island of Hawaii. I imagine it is a bit more today.


Ah, well...
The price of a trick, even then, depended upon the, um, services to be rendered and the attractiveness of the, um, provider.
Like a good gunsmith's trigger work today, some, um, jobs cost more than others.

Years ago, when I lived in New York's West Village, the brownstone next door was occupied by a, um, service business of the sort to which you've alluded.
I learned, in daytime stoop-to-stoop conversation, that the legends were true: Many of the girls really were NYU students, working their way through college!


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## Wyoming_1977 (Feb 24, 2016)

I have tools and somewhat of an inkling of mechanical aptitude, but it seems like things on the 1911 are sensitive enough that I could easily mess them up, which would mean I'd have to buy new parts and have a gunsmith do the work anyhow, and being as I am tight as bark on a tree when it comes to money, I'd prefer to not spend a dime I don't have to.


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## Cait43 (Apr 4, 2013)

Wyoming_1977 said:


> I have tools and somewhat of an inkling of mechanical aptitude, but it seems like things on the 1911 are sensitive enough that I could easily mess them up, which would mean I'd have to buy new parts and have a gunsmith do the work anyhow, and being as I am tight as bark on a tree when it comes to money, I'd prefer to not spend a dime I don't have to.


You have answered your own question............ Use a good gunsmith........


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## Wyoming_1977 (Feb 24, 2016)

I made some phone calls today to a few different shops that do gunsmithing work and got estimates ranging from $50 to over $200. Now I am even more confused.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

Let the shop with the very best reputation do the work.
If you like, limit the work to the trigger job alone, since many shops like to do a "package."
Remember to tell whichever shop you choose that you do not want any springs cut or "softened."


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