Firing Pin Safety on 1911??

[GLOOB]

** whoops, I guess this should be in autoloaders...

I was wondering what other people opinions were on firing pin safeties on a 1911 style pistol.

The pre-series 80 Colts, for example, do not have any firing pin safety, and this thread got me thinking on it.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=477306

To be fair, I know that the situation is different. For a gun that has a floating firing pin, dropping it on the hammer would not cause an AD.

BUT! What if the gun in this article were a 1911 without a firing pin safety. It falls out of the car muzzle down on hard pavement, causing it to fire via firing pin inertia. Shot goes into the ground, but this sends the gun spinning upwards while cycling the action. Then it lands pointing up. The gun gets jarred hard enough to loose the sear, and it fires a second time, pointing upwards. Theoretically, I don't see how it could be impossible. But does anyone know of any documented cases of a gun firing TWICE when dropped?

I heard that in government testing, it was found that a 1911 without a firing pin safety could fire when dropped from a height as little as 3 feet! I am curious if this distance is the height that can cause an uncocked gun to fire due to firing pin inertia, or whether it's the height that can cause the sear to trip on a cocked gun?

 

[Jim K]

I read six feet if dropped on a steel plate. But the situation is that of an uncocked pistol being dropped on the muzzle and firing from firing pin inertia. One reason for the uptick in that type of accident report (aside from some nutcase hysteria by the anti-gun gang) is that many new pistols use full length recoil spring guide rods which do not absorb the muzzle blow as the original short guide rod does.

Jim

 

[Cloudpeak]

One reason for the uptick in that type of accident report (aside from some nutcase hysteria by the anti-gun gang) is that many new pistols use full length recoil spring guide rods which do not absorb the muzzle blow as the original short guide rod does. Jim

Jim, I never gave this a thought. Sure something to think about. Thanks.

 

[railroader]

Here in california they do do drop tests and there are 1911s that have passed without firing pin safeties. Springfield, Dan Wesson and armscor to name a few. Mark

 

[Control]

​

"Then it lands pointing up. The gun gets jarred hard enough to loose the sear, and it fires a second time, pointing upwards."

The 1911 series 70 is pretty well set up for rear impacts in my opinion. First, the trigger's rearward inertia is blocked by the grip safety so it cannot disengage the sear. Secondly, the sear nose points rearward so the impact actually drives the sear into the hammer hooks due to the sears inertia. Finally, any type of quick "jarring" type impluse force would cause the sear to bounce and a bounced sear usually gets quickly shoved into the half cock notch by the sear spring even if it manages to clear the hammer hooks.

I should note that the above is only my personal theory. Also, I have never heard of a 1911 going off due to a rear impact.

If anyone has evidence that an impact to the rear of the 1911 can cause a discharge by some means please try to provide a reference if you can. I would love to hear other theories as well.

 

[Quack]

no need for a FPS, a lighter firing pin and heavier firing pin spring works.

 

[rbernie]

A FPS is a useful thing to have as a backup IF you decock on a loaded chamber. It's not mandatory, but useful. The 1911s in my current carry rotation all have them.