I was looking for a way to improve the trigger pull on my AR15. Standard parts from factory were giving me a 7 to 8 pound pull. Kind of gritty too. Knowing that the hardened surface of the sear and hammer on an AR are typically very thin, I didn't want to stone the mating parts to change their geometry to improve the pull because chances are it would have left the parts soft and possibly leading to doubles, etc.
After a few nights of sitting in front of the t.v. drying firing the lower (with a stop to catch the hammer so as not to damage the lower or the bolt catch), the pull got better. (Dry firing was cheaper than running ammo through it.) I then put an almost-mirror polish job on the stock parts with simi-chrome. I ended up with about a 6 pound pull. The creep from the stock parts remained but at least it was smoother. I decided I wanted it lower in poundage so I jumped online. I found instructions for some guy's "15 minute trigger job" that required one leg of the hammer spring being trimmed off and the trigger spring's arms being bent at an angle. I read some bad reviews though of the effect of having the hammer spring with only one leg so decided against that.
I had read some great reports about JP Rifles trigger groups, and since they are in Hugo, I thought I'd throw some business to a local shop. I checked out their website and decided against the price of a complete trigger group. Although I've read that JP's complete groups are the best single stage ones on the market, I decided I might buy those parts all later. For now, I wanted a less expensive option even though I knew it wouldn't be as good as a new complete group. I settled on JP's replacement spring kit, the JPS3.5.
The kit comes with reduced strength hammer and trigger springs as well as a new disconnector spring. You use your stock trigger, disconnector, and hammer. Installation was a simple drop in. You need to remove the rifle's safety, hammer, trigger and disconnector from your lower to install the parts, but it's very basic work if you have even a little mechanical skill.
Price for the kit was 9.95 plus MN sales tax. When I called the shop to see if I could stop by the Hugo store to pick it up so as not to have to pay shipping, the sales guy said he'd waive the shipping for my local purchase because they don't have a store front for retail sales. Ended up being a total of $10.60 and took two days for mail to deliver it.
The difference with the new springs is amazing. Although its product name--"JPS3.5"-- indicates a 3.5 lb pull is possible, the instructions online say it should provide a 4 to 4.5 lb pull with stock parts. Notwithstanding the instructions, I'm now getting an average 3 lb pull, with some readings as low as 2.6! I'm using a Lyman digital scale to test. Obviously this trigger set up shouldn't be used for combat purposes, but for punching paper or some varmit shooting, it should be a big improvement over the stock pull. (JP offers separate kits that have names including "4.0" and "4.5" so those probably provide higher pull weights.) Again, I still have trigger creep while the hammer gets cantilevered during the pull, but I can live with that due to the lightened pull.
I highly recommend this product if you're looking to reduce the pull weight on your stock AR trigger.