DA/SA Service Grade Automatics. Who’s your favorite? Okay, we’re talking the Brand on the whole, considering all the related models and variations they make. Who’s your Top Brand and why?
SIG?
Beretta?
CZ?
Other?
The Traditional DA/SA auto seems to be in the gold years with more and more trainers and advocating striker fired guns with uniform trigger pulls from first to second shots. Glocks, M&P’s, an XDM’s being the Striker Triad. But I think that the DA/SA platform still has its place, and I still love them. Especially for Open Carry, Duty Service… They are big, menacing, sexy, and very stable and accurate. Outside of 1911’s I shoot them them best. A lot better than Safe actions or DAO guns.
I’m thinking the Holy Trinity for DA/SA’s is SIG, Beretta, and CZ. Across the board, I think the Beretta Brand takes the lead for consistent quality. From what I’ve seen and dealt with with 8+ years behind a Gun Counter and… ahem… a few more years of shooting… I’ve seen problems with all of them. I’ve seen far fewer though with Beretta. But that’s not just the thing. It’s also how good they’ve been. How smooth the triggers and slides were. How tight they locked up. I don’t think any brand for any type of auto is nearly as smooth as Berettas. SIG’s are second and CZ is 3rd overall for smoothness.
However, for an out of the box trigger – the very best DA/SA trigger I have ever felt was on a CZ 97B. Just incredible! But other CZ triggers left me disappointed. Same with SIG, overall very good, but not quiet as good overall as SIG’s I’ve fired. One SIG though, a 229 SAS…. Oh man. That was truly a great trigger. Flip side, the SIG’s have shown some triggers that were less than stellar.
Beretta though wins in the same way a Race Team wins the Championship overall without having actually taken first place.
My 92FS had a very good trigger to start out with. I swapped the main spring for the “D Spring” and it got a lot better. It’s not a GREAT trigger. This makes me wonder, why doesn’t Beretta just use the D Springs as standard? Because the difference was dramatic!
I love the 92. I love the SIG 220/226/228/229. I love the CZ P-01/SP-01. Overall though, I think that Beretta takes it.
What are your thoughts?
For me I’ve found H&K triggers to be consistent with each other and I know pretty much what I’m going to expect when I pick up a USP or P30. Pretty much any new DA/SA trigger is a little “rough” but every H&K trigger that I pulled were very nice after the break-in period. Yes H&K’s are expensive, but so is SIG…a brand new P226/229 is about the same as a new P30 and the USP line is even a bit cheaper now.
I had a USP .40 I carried for 4 years. New – it was just terrible. After the 2nd year it was telekinetic.
Still fond of the S&W 5904 series of 9mm’s for a holster gun.
The S&W 3rd Gen family of guns were all very high quality…
I’d love to have about 6 of them I have in mind…
My only real DA/SA experience is with my early serial # Ruger P85. DA is around 14# with about 2 miles of take-up. SA is around 8/9# but has a positive reset.
i like the trigger on my Walther P99, it is a very good trigger with a quick reset.
Not really a DA/SA type auto, is it?
It’s not hammer fired but it does have two distinct trigger pulls.
For me it’s the CZ line. Concerning the CZs, they should be divided into two groups, the Decoker models and the Manual Safety models. The decockers all have the rougher triggers as they are more complicated internally. The two I own (a P01 and SP01 Phantom) have very good triggers, just not in the same class as the manual safety models.
The manual safety models have the better DA and SA triggers. I own a stainless 75B and it has the best DA/SA trigger of any pistol I’ve owned. My son’s SP01 w/ the manual safety is very good also. Both are extremely accurate and have very positive manual safeties, nice and crisp, positive locking and located perfectly on the frame.
I consider them Locked and Cocked pistols that just happen to have second strike capability.
You need to post this subject on WTA, this is a good topic.
I agree – if you carry like an SA, but have the advantages of second strike and instant readiness (eg, if you grab it in the middle of the night upon hearing a break-in, or somesuch) – then a DA/SA gives all of the advantages of a striker-fired pistol, plus those added ones.
My list is the same as yours. I was shooting my 92 today & loving it. I also love racking the slide, it feels like it’s got ball bearings in there.
The S&W 3rd Generations have the best all around DA/SA triggers to me. My 4506 has the best DA trigger and the SA isn’t bad at all.
I don’t think they are great triggers, but I urge people to not overlook the Ruger P series pistols. They are very reliable, and comfortable to shoot. I personally have not spent the time to get good with DA/SA pistols but would not hesitate to rely on one of the mentioned pistols.
I work at a shooting range in Montreal, Canada, and as soon as I saw that reverse two tone Sig you have pictured up top in my counter I thought “If only Mad Ogre was here, I’d sell that gun today”.
Yeah… I’d buy it!!!
Not arguing with your choices but the only DA/SA I own is the USP Expert. I like the trigger and it shoots better than I do.
I own and enjoy all the listed choices, but it’s Berettas that sleep on the nightstand. I have three 92-series guns, and they would be the last pistols I parted with.
I still want a 92FS Compact and a 90-TWO. One day…
For me it’s a tough call between CZ and SIG. I think SIGs tend to have better out of the box triggers (and the non SRTs seem to have better DA pulls than the SRTs) but the CZs have better ergonomics and less muzzle flip. I’ll take either one and be happy.
I like the Beretta 92 as well but I don’t like the factory trigger, grips, or safety. I would have to modify it a bit first but I do love how they shoot.
I respect HKs and shoot them well in single action but their DA pulls are uniformly terrible. That said, I had my eye on a used P2000 that was priced right, but somebody else snatched it up.
Ultimately though I’d rather shoot any of them than most striker fired guns these days (with the exception of the PPQ).
Sig just keeps rolling out awesome guns. I think they are the most thoughtful design of the DA/SA guns.
SIG P224: http://youtu.be/IaYovqqD1Kc