[TEX]

What advantage does an extra long hammer strut offer on a 1911

[The Lone Haranguer]

What is a hammer strut?

Hammer spur, perhaps? (This is the part protruding from the slide.) Like this one?

http://www.m1911.org/images/welcome.jpg

Or this one?

http://www.proguns.com/images/kimber-warrior-45.jpg

The long hammer spur on the top gun is easier to manually cock or uncock, especially with one hand, but if you subscribe to the "cocked and locked" doctrine, there is little reason to do this. If it were made any longer, it would come back and bite your hand.

[AlexanderA]

The hammer strut is the part that connects the hammer to the mainspring (underneath the grip safety). The tail of the hammer strut fits into a cup at the top of the mainspring plunger. If the strut was made longer, the mainspring would be under greater tension. Perhaps -- I don't know -- more power would be transmitted to the hammer. Personally, I wouldn't mess with the original design here.

[blackguns]

There is a hammer strut. Connects the hammer to the main spring. I can't think of an advantage to having a longer one. I'm no 1911 guru but of all the parts in a 1911 the strut seems like it would be the least effected by a dimensional change.

[EddieNFL]

Maybe a little more "omfp" to the firing pin? I've never had a need for one.

[Jolly Rogers]

There are cases of tolerance stack ups that cause a hammer to have no pressure on the firing pin stop when uncocked. This is usually after a mainspring housing swap. A longer strut can fix this. The other fix is reworking the mainspring cap or leaving out the cap pin and inserting a takedown pin into the mainspring housing after cocking the hammer when the mainspring housing has to be removed.
Joe

[Red Cent]

I would think a stronger mainspring would be a much cheaper fix if that is where you're going. The factory mainspring is a little overkill. Can't imagine putting in a stronger one.

[Skylerbone]

Jolly Rogers has it right. If The strut is too short and the main spring cap hits its retainer pin before the hammer strikes the firing pin momentum is lost. The American Pistolsmiths Guild actually specifies that with the slide removed the hammer must remain under tension while in the decocked position.

A stronger hammer spring can alleviate light primer strikes but the correct solution is having the right length strut.

[1911Tuner]

There are cases of tolerance stack ups that cause a hammer to have no pressure on the firing pin stop when uncocked.

Oddly enough, I ran into that on a new Series 80 Colt LW Commander once. The strut was to spec. The hole for the cap pin was mislocated.
I chucked the cap in the lathe and faced off .010 inch for the fix. A couple years later, I swapped out the mainspring housing.