Apex Tactical Springfield Hellcat Trigger Review

The Springfield Armory Hellcat has received a mostly positive reception from the industry. Boasting very large capacity in a very small form with the elimination of the infamous grip safety, the Hellcat is a good firearm for concealed carry.

As with most things, though, there is usually room for improvement. The main concerns for different people are the rear sight (something I dislike because it distracts my eye), the recoil spring being stiff, and the trigger being less than awesome.

Apex Tactical's Action Enhancement Trigger for Hellcat —

That last part is right where Apex Tactical stepped in with a new trigger system, called Action Enhancement Trigger, in an attempt to help the shootability of this pistol.

Apex sent me one of these triggers to test for the Hellcat I have, and I've got exactly 100 rounds through this pistol so far with the newly installed trigger in it.

I have to say that so far. I'm impressed. I also think that if you own or plan to own the Springfield Armory Hellcat that this is a no-brainer for 80 bucks.

Now, I personally didn't think there was anything necessarily wrong with the way the Hellcat's trigger felt. Though, it was clearly nowhere near as good as some other pistols on the market. My 365XL comes to mind.

For being such a small gun, the trigger on the XL is pretty darn good. But the stock Hellcat trigger has some issues that the Apex fixes.

Fixes a Functional, Safety Issue —

The most prominent issue is that if you put sideways pressure on the trigger before attempting to pull straight back, the blade safety would NOT always disengage. I watched a video on this and was able to replicate it on my own, on purpose.

Though, I will say here that this is a training issue. If you just pull the trigger straight back to the rear as it was intended you won't have this problem. Still, everyone is at different skill levels and this is something that clearly should be fixed.

The last thing anyone needs is to draw their weapon in self-defense, only to put too much sideways pressure on the trigger in the heat of the moment and get killed because of it.

The Apex Tactical trigger does solve this, as well as improve how the trigger feels. It also breaks consistently at 5.5 pounds on our gauge, and didn't give me a single issue during my time shooting those 100 rounds, nor any of the dry fire pulls I've conducted since.

I had some video footage of me doing the install of the trigger, but it didn't turn out how I had hoped and is kind of embarrassing, so I'm not going to include it. Basically, what I was trying to show is that I could install the trigger myself, even though I have no gunsmithing experience and have never done anything like that before.

While I fumbled a few times and had to hit the rewind on their instruction video more than the average person, I did get it in, function checked, and fired.

Besides putting one of my AR-15s together and vowing to never do it again because I'd rather spend my time doing something else, I generally don't do work on my own guns. I'd rather give someone else my hard-earned money to do it for me to make sure stuff is functioning properly after installed.

I'm just not that good at it.

I've therefore never installed a trigger on a pistol. Heck, I rarely even take my guns down past field strip.

All I'm trying to say here is that if I can do it, a monkey can do it.

Just follow the directions in their video to ensure that you don't crush the trigger to the point where the safety won't engage as I was told a few other testers did, and you should be fine.

Check out their trigger install video, here:

My Opinion on the Apex Tactical Trigger —

Overall, I'm pleased with how this turned out. Not only was I able to put it together myself with my limited skills as a gunsmith, it improved the overall feel and function of the Hellcat's trigger a lot.

The difference is night and day, and the low cost of entry makes it that much more appealing.

This trigger gets my stamp of approval. You can find out more information on their website, here.