Ruger22.com takes an indepth look at Rugers new 10/22 PLASTIC Trigger Guard,
it's new "bushingless" design hammer,
and how the new Plastic Hammer units (guards) function with aftermarket hammers


Recently, we had several customers at CheapGunParts.com
(Our Store, and the largest 10/22 parts supplier in the world)
Ask us about the new "Plastic" trigger guards Ruger has replaced the old Aluminum ones with,
and also wanting to know how the aftermarket hammers function with this new plastic housing.

What really made us want to conduct new tests were reports that some ruger trigger units were now being shipped with very light trigger pulls.
Almost as light as the units upgraded with aftermarket hammers and hammer kits.

So, we rounded up several examples of both the old aluminum style housings (now very hard to find), and the new plastic ones with the new style hammers, and ran a battery of tests, and below are the results.


Here are the Two Trigger (guard) Units we used in our side by side tests:

1. An original RUGER (with all Ruger internal parts) Silver painted ALUMINUM unit (from our stock we use to build our YellowJacket Brand triggers from).

For these tests 100% ruger internal parts were used.




2. An Original Ruger PLASTIC Trigger (guard) Taken from an Brand New 10/22LR Carbine purchased today (march 21st, 2009)from the local Walmart.

Note the NEW Style hammer with the side indentations.



While we were at it, we also tested An Original Ruger PLASTIC Trigger (guard) Unit removed from a new early run, Ruger Charger Pistol.

Please note it came with the old style ruger hammer that still required bushings.



Please note that while Ruger hammers usually do not come polished or modified for a lighter pull, the factory installed hammer from the 10/22 Charger we purchased (when they were first introduced), came modified/polished!

We assume, as this was a very early charger model, that the engineers were playing with these parts to obtain better firing conditions.

If this is true, some of our customers who received factory original rugers (both 10/22's and chargers) with lighter than normal trigger pulls, may have received one of these RARE samples that were later sold to the general public.



We found the Factory Trigger Pull much lower than normal for a Ruger 10/22 Trigger group, with 10 pull averages on our Lymen Digital Scale coming in at 4.7 pounds.

When the charger hammer was switched out with both a Power Custom and and Volquartsen hammer, the aftermarket hammers only came in 1/2 pound or so lower than the polished/modified factory hammer that came in the 10/22 charger.

Again, we want to point out that this is the first time we have ever seen a Ruger factory hammer ship in a manner where it appears to have been pollished or modified.



We conducted our testing using these three hammer types. The New "Bushingless" Ruger original hammer, the Power Custom Competition Hammer, and the Volquartsen Competition Hammer.

All were tested in both the Aluminum and the new plastic trigger housings.



If you are new to 10/22's or triggers in general, it is the cut of the hammer where it engages the sear that determines how hard you need to pull on the trigger for the rifle to fire.

Ruger rifle are well known to have hard trigger pulls, and by substituting an aftermarket hammer, you can cut the amount of pull needed by half or more.

All of our tests were conducted with the industry standard Lymen Digital trigger pull meter with an average of ten equal pulls as the final reading on each hammer.



Please note that the trigger units were actually installed in a complete 10/22 rifle for these tests.
The photo above is simply for demonstration purposes, and using a digital meter in anything other than a level horizontal position will result in poor or confused trigger pull readings.





As you can see, the new style ruger hammer no longer requires side bushings, as they are now part of the hammer designs:

..

This means that an aftermarket hammer (Such as the power Custom shown here) must also be installed with a set of Bushings (sold at CheapGunParts.com )

...



This also brings up the question of
"Are shims then needed for a proper fit?

The actual width of the new factory hammer with it's built in shims is .500"

And as you can see below, the volquartsen with Bushings measures at .501" while the Power Custom measures at ".506"

Our testing has show that even with an extra width of .006", the power custom hammer still performs with full movement,
so, to obtain better accuracy with the volquartsen hammer you CAN use the provided .005" shims that come with the hammer and not loose any movement,
but we do not recommend using shims with the wider Power Custom Hammer


...



For our first round of trigger pull testing, we will start with the older factory Aluminum Ruger trigger guard.

All measurements are in Pounds of pull.

And are the average of 10 trigger pulls until the hammer releases.

IN AN ALUMINUM TRIGGER GUARD (HOUSING)

FACTORY HAMMER	POWER CUSTOM HAMMER	VOLQUARTSEN HAMMER
5.83LB	3.50LB	3.01LB

For our NEXT round of trigger pull testing, we will use the new factory Plastic Ruger trigger guard.

All measurements are in Pounds of pull.

And are the average of 10 trigger pulls until the hammer releases.

IN A PLASTIC TRIGGER GUARD (HOUSING)

FACTORY HAMMER	POWER CUSTOM HAMMER	VOLQUARTSEN HAMMER
6.20LB	3.12LB	3.20LB

---

THE BOTTOM LINE!


As you can see, there is not much difference between the old style aluminum and the new plastic trigger housings as far as actual trigger pull goes.

In both units, an after market hammer gives around a 50% lighter pull that the Ruger factory hammer.

Where we did find a difference, was in "feel".

All the hammers did brake much cleaner in the new PLASTIC trigger units.

We did some external measurements and found the specs on the Plastic Triggers were slightly changed ( .050" wider pin placement) and this may be what helps with the crisper feel.


So, If you get a trigger unit with a light pull from the factory, feel lucky.
Otherwise, the addition of an aftermarket hammer will make a big difference in your shooting accuracy!


Other Brand Hammers?

We only tested the Volquartsen and Power custom hammers because they are the two most used aftermarker hammers in the current marketplace.

We have tested Clark Hammers in the past and found them to be about even with the volquartsens with a slightly gritty feel, but still a great hammer.

And we found the "skeeter" brand hammers to not live up to there promoted pull weights, and actually pulling closer to 4.5 pounds but with a crisp break.



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