Bob's Sear Kit vs Powder River Safety Lever Kit

[rgeliske]

I just finished installing Bob's Sear Kit in my XD45 Compact and I had installed a Powder River Safety Lever Kit in my 45 Tactical a couple weeks ago. I thought I would give everyone a comparison of the two latest upgrade kits for the XDs.

The Bob's Sear Kit consists of a new sear (#10) with a significantly reduced striker engagement area and relocation of the tab for the trigger bar engagement. The kit also provides a new trigger bar spring (#9) and a new sear spring (#13).

The Powder River Safety Lever Kit uses a different approach with a new Striker Safety Lever (#25) which has a relocate tab for engaging the sear. The Kit also includes 2 4-40 setscrews for the trigger bar to create an adjustable trigger reset.

The two are a straight forward installation that requires a full disassembly of the frame except for the grip safety and the magazine release. The Powder River Kit provides the setscrews needed to modify the trigger bar to reduce the amount of trigger reset. This does require the drilling of the trigger bar or the frame so the setscrews can be installed. I found this to be a plus because these screws are hard to find in your local hardware or Home Depot. Bob's Sear Kit provides new springs which I assumed are to improve the trigger pull and sear reliability. Bob's Kit does not provide any means to adjust the trigger reset.

Both kits had well made parts as good or better than the original parts. Both Powder River Kit and Bob's Kit required some fitting to get friction free movement inside the frame. This was nothing more than lightly sanding the parts to make them thinner so they would fit easily into the frame.

As for the results both were a great improvement over the stock XD the most impressive results coming from the Powder River Kit. Part of this is due to the optional trigger reset but this kit removed nearly all of the pre-travel in the trigger. If you are looking for a kit to put in a range gun or you competition gun this may be your choice. The trigger pull is short, crisp and makes the XD and totally different gun to shoot. On the other hand if you are looking for a better trigger on you carry gun this one may be a little too short. This kit has almost no pre-travel.

Bob's Sear kit reduces the trigger pre-travel significantly will still allowing a safety margin of movement making it a better choice for a carry gun. That is not to say that this kit would not work for competition because it is still and major improvement over the factory trigger set up. The break is more crisp than the stock sear but still feels like the stock XD, which is good. I was concerned about putting the Powder River Kit in my carry gun but I will be leaving Bob's kit in my Compact.

Trigger pull. I held off on comparing the effect on trigger pull for the two kits because my tactical already had Canyon Creek Springs installed and a lot of polishing to get the trigger pull down to about 4#. With the Powder River Kit the trigger pull is now less than 3.5# closer to 3#, so there is some improvement. I honestly felt very little change in the trigger pull of the Compact and I'm not sure the new springs are lighter than the original springs.

Both kits work and work well to reduce the pre-travel of the XD's factory trigger and, if you don't want to send your gun in for a full trigger job, are a definite first upgrade for a new XD.

All of this is just my opinion and as always subjective, but for the money these are both very good upgrades for the XD.

[ghettocruiser]

I think you mean the set screws are for over travel..not reset with the powder river part.

The Bobs kit requires either a trigger bar, or his new do-hickie for over travel adjustment.

What did you need to fit on the Bob's sear kit??? Like where did you have to sand? Mine dropped right in and worked perfect. Just curious for the next time my pistol is apart...Ill see if i have evidence of rubbing in the same spots.

Good comparison by the way! I was looking for something like this when I was trying to decide. The group buy made up my mind for me though. haha.

J.

[jtkratzer]

The set screws are in fact for limiting overtravel. The safety lever part and trigger bar modification do shorten the reset significantly.

Installing the PRP lever only requires you to go as far as moving the sear pin out enough to get that lever out, not a full disassembly.

Also, about the screws, I found them at Home Depot and a local hardware store for pennies.

No fitting was required on my safety lever and you're the first I've read that had to do some.

The Powder River part does not reduce the weight of the trigger pull at all. If the springs stay stock, so does the weight. Your trigger on your XD with the PRP part is not lighter because of the PRP part. It's impossible.

I have the PRP part in my carry gun, with the trigger safety and grip safety, I feel it's fine, especially since I'm fine carrying a 1911. Also, there is slightly more take up than my 1911, just a teeny bit.

[powder river]

Originally Posted by ghettocruiser

The Bobs kit requires either a trigger bar, or his new do-hickie for over travel adjustment.

I'm not sure what "do-hickie" you are referring to. If it looks like the one in the picture then it is a Powder River Precision part. I'm still working on getting this new over-travel stop in to production.

[propellerhead]

For me, Bob's Sear Kit Level 2 reduced take up and trigger weight. The Powder River Kit reduced take up.

[rgeliske]

I try responding to these in order.

ghettocruiser

To me over travel and trigger reset are the same thing if you reduce the over travel the trigger reset is shorter. My mistake, please explain the difference so I don't do it again. Both kits when installed in the frame had some friction against the side of the frame. The both functioned but if you push on the sear without the spring installed I could redetected some drag. I simple used a stone to remove some material from the sides of each part where it had contact with another part or the side of the frame. I then polished those same surfaces using a felt wheel and white polishing compound. I just remove a little at a time until the sear move without any drag. This is usually done when you have any kind of trigger job.

jtkratzer

The only 4-40 screws I could find in my area were either slotted head or phillips, the smallest set screws with allen head were #6. Sounds like you have a better selection.
Please see the fitting response above. As for the trigger pull I can only tell you that they were measure using a Lyman digital trigger pull gauge. The Tactical had been polished and Canyon Creek springs installed before installation but I did not pay any attention to drag on the sear before installing the safety lever. You are correct it is not necessary to remove the whole sear assembly but once I noticed the drag I had to take the whole thing out to correct it, I figure do it anyway. The XD45 Tactical had a trigger pull of a little less than 4# prior to the change and about 3.25# after the change. The XD45 Compact on the other hand still had factory springs and did not have anything done to reduce the trigger pull other than some light polishing. The trigger pull on that started at about 4.5# before the sear and springs change and was still above 4# after the change. The trigger was more crisp and the creep or what ever you want to call before release was gone.
I believe many people would probably be comfortable with the Powder River Kit for me the little bit of extra pre-travel in Bob’s Sear Kit is an extra safety margin. Both kit do what they advertise to do.
For me checking trigger pull is a little tricky because the roller on the pull gauge slides on the trigger but it did the same on both guns so I believe the reading are correct. Both results are an average of 10 readings.

Powder river

Neat "do-hickie" I will be interested to see it when you have it ready, I still need to do something with the Compact’s trigger bar.

Propellerhead

I was very surprised that I did not get some reduction in trigger pull with Bob’s Kit. The Compact is newer than the Tactical and not really broken in yet. I plan on putting a couple hundred more rounds through it maybe it will change after that.