Literally The Best Trigger Ever Made

May 04, 2022 By James Tarr, Handguns Editor

In addition to putting out some very excellent products, like the Honey Badger, Kevin Brittingham of Q (LiveQOrDie.com) is one of the best marketers on the planet. Take the name of his company's newest product—Literally The Best Trigger Ever Made. No, that’s actually—literally—its name, Literally The Best Trigger Ever Made (which I will shorten to LTBTEM as I’m not typing that out every time). That title alone is sure to get it all sorts of free publicity, but I wanted to see if it at least attempted to live up to the name, and secured a sample.

Technical information about the trigger, even on the Q website, is a bit sparse. It is a drop-in cassette trigger, with an advertised two-stage pull and very short reset. They also advertise that it allows you to put your AR on Safe even if the hammer isn’t cocked, unlike how every other AR trigger system works. As you can see from the photos, the trigger bow itself is mostly straight, with a slight forward angle at the bottom. The face of the trigger is gently rounded.

Aesthetically, it is the prettiest trigger unit I’ve ever seen. Every surface of every part of the trigger assembly is silver, polished to a mirror sheen. And it is as slick as it looks, which can only contribute to a smoother lighter trigger pull, as the parts will not be grinding against each other. One of the few missteps Eugene Stoner made in designing the original AR-15/M-16 trigger system was positioning the hammer hook too low. That increases tension, and requires more force to release when you are pulling the trigger. With this trigger the hook is all the way at the very tip of the hammer, which means it will require the least amount of force necessary to release it. That’s just physics.

One of the problems with cassette drop-in triggers for the AR is the tendency of the hammer and trigger pins to “walk” (migrate) under recoil/cycling, as there is no direct spring tension between them and the lower receiver. Manufacturers have tried various ways to inhibit this, including tensioning screws on the bottom of the cassette body, but none of them work very well, which is why you see so many people using KNS or other brand “anti-walk” receiver pins.

To solve this problem, Q went with a completely different method. If you look at the left side of the cassette body you will see a simple spring that provides upward tension on the pins. The unit ships with two slave pins in place, and two receiver pins that have grooves meant to fit the detent in that tensioning spring. You can also use standard trigger/hammer pins, you just have to make sure to orient them so the groove is on the left side to engage the spring.

In addition to the spring on the left side of the cassette body fitting into a detent and providing tension against the pins, there is a blue rubber bumper at the bottom of the cassette, providing additional tensioning. The light blue rubber bumper is just press-fit into the underside of the chassis, so if you are clumsy like me you will be able to knock it off while fondling the trigger and have to crawl around on the floor looking for it.

The unit is as easy or easier to install as any other cassette tape trigger system due to the slave pins. Drop it in, replace the selector, and then use a hammer to knock in the trigger and hammer pins. They recommend starting with the trigger pin. The provided slave pins will drop right out the other side of the receiver, and they state you should reinstall them before removing the trigger unit. Easiest and quickest install of any AR trigger I’ve literally ever done.

Apparently, this isn’t just Literally The Best Trigger Ever Made, it’s also Literally The Most Secretive Trigger Ever Made. I reached out to the Marketing Manager at Q and inquired as to the fancy silver steel/coating in the LTBTEM trigger unit, and what the factory spec for the trigger pull was. I was told, “At the moment this is not information that we give out, due to this being a newly released product.” Luckily, I’m a trained detective. The trigger components appear to have a polished nickel boron (NiB) coating. This is both lubricious and corrosion resistant. And if I’m wrong, blame Q.

I installed this on a semi-tactical AR I built a few years ago, which has a San Tan Tactical lower receiver and a 14.5-inch fluted stainless Wilson Combat barrel with a permanently attached muzzle device bringing it out to 16 inches in length.

Installed, this trigger provides a very nice, crisp, and consistent 3.0-lb. pull. The take-up is very light, with almost non-existent weight to it, but it is a bit longer than you might expect. The break is crisp, and the reset is short, although not the shortest I’ve seen. This is not an adjustable trigger, what you see is what you get. I put several hundred rounds through the rifle with the trigger installed. Trigger pull remained consistent, and the trigger and hammer pins did not migrate. Being able to put the rifle on Safe with the hammer forward was a bit weird.

The trigger reset is not particularly stiff, and if you like to ride the reset you might not like this trigger, as the reset, while short, is soft.

Because there is literally no weight to the take-up, you could almost ignore it and treat this as a single-stage trigger. Either way, it is a vast improvement over a stock GI-style trigger pull.

How you define “best” will determine your view of the trigger. It does provide an excellent, crisp, match-grade trigger pull that is half the weight of a standard AR trigger group, with a distinctive trigger bow. And you can tell your friends you bought Literally The Best Trigger Ever Made without lying or even exaggerating. MSRP on Literally The Best Trigger Ever Made is $350.

If you have any thoughts or comments on this article, we’d love to hear them. Email us at FirearmsNews@Outdoorsg.com.

About the Author:

James Tarr is a longtime contributor to Firearms News and other firearms publications. He is also the author of several books, including CARNIVORE, which was featured on The O’Reilly Factor. His current best-selling novel, Dogsoldiers, is available now through Amazon.