Small problems with my 1911? How can I fix them?

[wonderwolf]

Ok, I bought my RIA 1911 two weekends ago and since then I have fired about 200 rounds through it. It works great, feeds great, and is not picky on ammo as far as I can tell at this point. My only problems with this gun is that sometimes when I go to rack the slide back to dry fire or when I'm in live fire after a shot and the slide goes back to battery the hammer goes to half cock. now it dosnt do this when the trigger is pulled back. I have taken the gun completly apart and cleaned everything. I dont just mean field strip I mean all the little parts as well. And I know I put it back together correct. This isnt the first 1911 I have tinkered with. And as a side Q? what type of beavertail grip safety should I look at for this? I tend to grip high and in line with the barrel so I get "bit" alot also is a skeleton hammer worthwhile?

[CCV]

That sounds like "trigger bounce" to me. Correcting this probably would be best left for a pro.

[JesS2K]

He may have problems with sear... If that's the case,


;m"STOP USING YOUR PISTOL!!!";m


You were about that close fired in full auto. If being reported, you may be held responsible for own and operating unsafe firarm. Plus, you are endanger yourself and everybody else around you.

Have your gun check by pistolsmith near you, or call them up and send it back for further evaluation. MAKE SURE they pick up the tap both way! ;f

I'm serious.

[1911Tuner]

Remove the sear spring, bend the center and left side leaves forward a bit. Be sure to grasp the one that you're bending just above the junction of the leaf and the main body or it'll snap off. If that corrects the problem, order a new sear spring from Brownells. I like the stock Colt sear spring...You can find'em in the back section of the catalog in the Factory Parts Section, or visit Brownells online.
The sear springs are about 5 bucks plus shipping.

[HI5-O]

Is your trigger equipped with an overtravel screw? If it is, unscrew it about 1 turn (give it more overtravel) or little more.

barry

[wonderwolf]

Does anybody in here agree with JesS2K? I dont think its that serious and I have never heard of anybody being turned in because of a firearm hazard or whatnot, Now if was going full auto I would understand. But I wouldnt consider it being "unsafe" and a danger to others unless they decided to shoot it and did'nt expect it

[ILikeFtLbs]

You should buy a new trigger disconnect, sear spring, and sear.

[CCV]

Have a pro take a look at it.

[johnniekirk]

Wonderwolf- if the hammer is "following", it is indeed serious. The pistol could go full-auto. Not saying that it would, but it could. The responsible thing for you to do as the gun's owner,is to take it to a competent gunsmith and have him check it out.

[1911Tuner]

..and panic reigns...

If it catches on the half-cock, it can't go full auto. If it doesn't fall to half-cock WITH the trigger held to the rear, it ain't the sear to hook engagement. Increase tension on the center leaf to keep the trigger from nudging the sear. (Actually, it nudges the disconnect, but I don't wanna get too technical here.)

Inertia is the mechanism. If the mainspring is weak or below spec, the hammer could be bouncing a little, and adding to the problem...but the trigger is standing still while the gun jerks forward and drops the hammer. The gun's sudden movement is causing the trigger to pull itself...just enough to get away from the hammer hooks, but not enough to get past the half-cock. Try bending the middle leg of the sear spring toward the trigger, and a little on the left leg to keep the sear nailed into the bottoms of the hooks too...also forward. Just a little goes a long way.

Bet it cures the problem... If it does, get another sear spring.

[johnniekirk]

1911 Tuner- Sir, I apologize, if I upset,ofended, or questioned your gunsmithing skills. Your troubleshooting, along with the rest of your post is spot on.
My main concern is we're dealing with a firearm made overseas,which in the past has had problems. We have a weapon here that has a sear spring that does'nt work,and needs tuning. What else might be wrong with it? How do we know that the parts are even spec? That is why I recommended that wonderwolf take it to a competent gun smith to have him look at it.
Again, in no way did my post mean to upset offend,or question your gunsmithing skills. J.Kirk

[1911Tuner]

Awwww...No offense taken Johnnie.:cool: I just hate to see a workin' stiff throw money and time at a problem that can probably be fixed in 10 minutes for about 5 bucks. It'll only take him a few minutes to find out...but lets go at the malfunction in a progression and eliminate a few things.

If it was a sear/hammer hook engagement problem, it would follow with the trigger pulled...but it doesn't. That indicates that the trigger
doesn't have enough forward tension from the sear spring and is nudging the disconnector hard enough to partially trip the sear.
Not far enough to let the half-cock get past it, but far enough to escape the hammer hooks. The Colt Gold Cup, with its wide, heavy trigger has a tiny spring imposed between the sear and the trigger for just that reason. The heavier the trigger, the more prone it is to bump the disconnect and rotate the sear. (This is one of the main reasons that custom smiths use lightweight aluminum triggers whenever they do a match-grade trigger job. Less inertia means less chance of a bump-off, and easier/faster resetting of the trigger with a tweaked sear spring.)

If it was, in fact, a sear/hammer problem, it would probably follow WITH the trigger pulled...and it likely wouldn't stop on the half-cock because it would jar off just as the slide returned to battery...and it would follow down all the way to the slide. He would have likely already had a burst-fire or full-auto event.

OR...It would follow down due to the disconnect not camming down into the frame far enough to escape the sear legs...in which event it would do it far more often...again with the high liklihood of burst-fire already noted. Most complete followdowns are disconnector related. If the disconnect was the problem, it wouldn't let the sear reset, and the half-cock wouldn't grab it.

Even with a hammer hook to sear problem, You'd be surprised at how
seldom they will disengage on slide drop if all else is good to go.
There are very few factory guns with ideal sear to hammer hook geometry. Production guns aren't built...They're assembled from (sometimes)selective-fit drop-in parts. Not a whole lotta precision
in that.

I whacked .125 inch off a sear nose with a file once to demonstrate it to somebody who was under the impression that the angles had to be just perfect. Just filed it straight across...square...so that only a tiny corner caught the hooks at the very ends. The pistol not only remained cocked, it actually functioned perfectly for over a hundred rounds...and when the hammer started following...about once every 10 rounds... the half-cock caught it every time. Note that this wouldn't have worked so well with a quarter-cock shelf, such as on the Colt Series 80 and recent Springfield hammers. It requires a full half-cock notch.


So...If he bends the sear spring leaves forward and stops the followdown...the problem is identified, and can be fixed with a new sear spring...which may also require a little forward bend, but not highly likely. I like the factory Colt springs. They usually fall in and go without further attention. Available from Brownells for about 5 bucks plus shipping.