P320 M17X-"ish" Build Part 1 — Armory Craft Trigger & Brouwer Grip Module

We're huge fans of Sig's P320 M17X — fantastic gun. But we thought to ourselves, what if we could do it just a little bit better? So we're building our own version, the M17X-ish. Part one covers a trigger upgrade and a grip module upgrade; part two will handle optics and accessories. We started with a completely broken-down M17: grip module, takedown lever, slide, extended mag, and the FCU — the fire control unit — with its standard curved trigger.

The swaps: out goes the factory curved OEM trigger, in goes the Armory Craft adjustable flat-face trigger. It's adjustable two ways — a screw in the back affects your reset, and a screw up into the center of the trigger face affects the travel. And out goes the standard M17 grip module for the Brouwer M1811, which gives your P320 more of a 1911-style grip with a nice beavertail. Quick apology: we couldn't film the disassembly and assembly, because YouTube is being... I'm just going to bite my words there. YouTube is being difficult about showing that stuff.

Real talk on the install: definitely watch the video from Sig Guy before you attempt the Armory Craft trigger. It is not the easiest process, even though he makes it look that way, because he's an expert. I fiddled with it for almost an hour — I just couldn't get the trigger bar positioned right to snap the trigger into place over it. You will get it if you play around with it long enough; just leave yourself enough time.

Once it was together, we ran trigger pull weights from three different finger positions: 2.98, 3.24, and 2.44 pounds. Call it right about three pounds, maybe slightly under, versus the five-to-sixish I was getting on the standard M17 pull — with a lot of mush involved in that one, too. After adjustment we took out almost all the play: there's maybe a tenth of a millimeter of travel before a clean, crisp break at the wall, and the reset drops you right back. It's a massive, massive, massive upgrade over the stock trigger, and the skeletonized look is badass too. It comes in red, aluminum, and black — ours is black.

The Brouwer M1811 grip is the other half of the story. You get the 1911 beavertail, the grip angle of a really comfortable 1911, and it just looks sexy overall. Because of the high bore axis area, it lets you choke your grip up as high as it goes with no sharp edges and no slide bite — the beavertail lips up at the end so nothing jams into the webbing of your thumb. We also threw a TLR-1 HL on the rail for now, mostly so it fits our holster, and left the Cyelee Shark X Pro optic on there from another review — that's not the optic that'll stay for the full build.

At the range with Fiocchi 115 grain, those were honestly my first shots with the trigger and — wow, what a difference. Phenomenal. The break might genuinely be better than my AXG Legion's; I'm going to have to run them side by side to find out. I highly suggest anybody with a 320, M17, or M18 pick up one of these Armory Craft triggers — DM me on Instagram or drop a comment and I'll share the settings I used. Can't wait to show you part two, where we add the optic and a magwell for the Brouwer grip and finish our own version of the M17X.