1911Tuner
Moderator Emeritus
Stand Down
Bill, I understand what you're saying. I'm not challenging your work and certainly not disregarding your skills as a pistolsmith. My only point is...
and always has been...that in-spec parts(48-52 Rc) have always been perfectly suitable for a stock, lightly tuned trigger set-up. I don't do sub-4 pound, glass rod triggers on 1911s because I believe that their proper place is on a bullseye course...and I don't build bullseye guns. You do them because that's what your customers demand in a high-end gun...and your job as a custom smith is to deliver what the customer wants. CAN I do a trigger job like that? Of course I can. I'm a toolmaker.
Over the last 5-6 years, I've been the man to bring a problematical 1911 to
in this area...maybe a 60-75 mile radius...not for custom work, but for the ones that don't work right, or for periodic detail-stripping, cleaning and inspection. I've seen a lot of Norincos, because there were a buttload of'em sold around here before they dried up. I've never seen one that has had the small parts peened into unserviceability with normal use, as per Tam's description. Since we don't know if someone has abused a gun
by letting the slide slam on an empty chamber or dropping it on the cocked hammer spur, when I do see things like that, I have to assume abuse.
Peening indicates impact, and when I see impact damage, I figure that was what happened, whether the owner will admit to it or not. I have known
people to deny abusing a gun when they bring it back to a store in an attempt to get it repaired or replaced for free. I worked in a gun store too. I was their gunsmith, and I knew the difference between normal wear and abuse at a glance. Sometimes I fixed the problem and sometimes I called BS...depending on how good a customer I was dealing with.
Neither have I seen any undue wear on the parts, and nothing that would send them to the junk bin.
I have also had occasion to address several hammer followdown issues that resulted from trigger jobs with "known quality" parts...from several different pistolsmiths. The jobs were all pretty much the standard fare, and were all nicely done, with one exception...and the smith has since moved on. The short hooks and narrowed sear primary angles don't provide as much wear allowance, relying on the hardness of the parts to offset it. The problem is that, when two parts aren't of equal hardness, the harder one wears the softer one, and the only way to know if they'll compliment each other is to test the interfacing parts. When you know, you know. When you guess, you have to hope to get lucky, because
that nice, crisp new trigger job is a different animal after 10 or 12 thousand rounds on it. Things wear and change. Springs get tired. The slide and frame get slicker and recoil speed is faster. All these things add up.
Browning provided long, undersquare hammer hooks and a wide sear tip to
compensate for that wear. I learned a long time ago that the man really did know his stuff, and stopped arguing with him.
And yes..if you have any good unaltered Norinco hammer/sear/disconnector
sets laying around...I'll take'em off your hands. PM me with a price and we'll make the deal.
Bill, I understand what you're saying. I'm not challenging your work and certainly not disregarding your skills as a pistolsmith. My only point is...
and always has been...that in-spec parts(48-52 Rc) have always been perfectly suitable for a stock, lightly tuned trigger set-up. I don't do sub-4 pound, glass rod triggers on 1911s because I believe that their proper place is on a bullseye course...and I don't build bullseye guns. You do them because that's what your customers demand in a high-end gun...and your job as a custom smith is to deliver what the customer wants. CAN I do a trigger job like that? Of course I can. I'm a toolmaker.
Over the last 5-6 years, I've been the man to bring a problematical 1911 to
in this area...maybe a 60-75 mile radius...not for custom work, but for the ones that don't work right, or for periodic detail-stripping, cleaning and inspection. I've seen a lot of Norincos, because there were a buttload of'em sold around here before they dried up. I've never seen one that has had the small parts peened into unserviceability with normal use, as per Tam's description. Since we don't know if someone has abused a gun
by letting the slide slam on an empty chamber or dropping it on the cocked hammer spur, when I do see things like that, I have to assume abuse.
Peening indicates impact, and when I see impact damage, I figure that was what happened, whether the owner will admit to it or not. I have known
people to deny abusing a gun when they bring it back to a store in an attempt to get it repaired or replaced for free. I worked in a gun store too. I was their gunsmith, and I knew the difference between normal wear and abuse at a glance. Sometimes I fixed the problem and sometimes I called BS...depending on how good a customer I was dealing with.
Neither have I seen any undue wear on the parts, and nothing that would send them to the junk bin.
I have also had occasion to address several hammer followdown issues that resulted from trigger jobs with "known quality" parts...from several different pistolsmiths. The jobs were all pretty much the standard fare, and were all nicely done, with one exception...and the smith has since moved on. The short hooks and narrowed sear primary angles don't provide as much wear allowance, relying on the hardness of the parts to offset it. The problem is that, when two parts aren't of equal hardness, the harder one wears the softer one, and the only way to know if they'll compliment each other is to test the interfacing parts. When you know, you know. When you guess, you have to hope to get lucky, because
that nice, crisp new trigger job is a different animal after 10 or 12 thousand rounds on it. Things wear and change. Springs get tired. The slide and frame get slicker and recoil speed is faster. All these things add up.
Browning provided long, undersquare hammer hooks and a wide sear tip to
compensate for that wear. I learned a long time ago that the man really did know his stuff, and stopped arguing with him.
And yes..if you have any good unaltered Norinco hammer/sear/disconnector
sets laying around...I'll take'em off your hands. PM me with a price and we'll make the deal.
