ambi safety 1911 my boy is left handed

Whether or not you need a new sear pin depends on the design of the right sided lever on the ambi safety. Something needs to hold the right side of the safety lever against the frame of the pistol. In some designs there is a tab projecting from the right sided lever that fits into a recess on the underside of the right grip panel. With this design, you need to be sure your right grip panel has an appropriate recess, or relieve the underside of the grip panel to make one. But you use the normal sear pin and the right side of the safety lever rides over it.

With the other common design, the right side of the safety lever has no such tab but is contained by an extended sear pin that has a little notch on the part that projects from the right side of the pistol frame. A portion of the right side of the safety lever is shaped to ride in this notch as the thumb safety pivots and the sear pin holds the right sided lever in place.

Your post does not say much about your experience with gunsmithing on 1911's, so I will offer some generic advice about fitting 1911 thumb safeties.

I highly recommend having a gunsmith fit a 1911 thumb safety. To do this job correctly, you need to be quite experienced with hand fitting parts and with doing the full safety checks on a 1911. The thumb safety needs to be fitted so that the sear has absolutely no movement when the safety is engaged, and this is easier said than done. I am not aware of any jigs which really help with fitting a thumb safety, so it really takes some practice and experience.

Thumb safeties do not "drop in" and work correctly. Some fitting is expected. You will occasionally hear from someone who bought a safety, and had it drop in perfectly, but this is the rare exception.

Regarding which safety to buy, a qualified 1911 gunsmith can help with this choice. There are several different designs for thumb safeties. Many safeties have the right side safety retained by the right grip panel, but this method requires a cutout in the grip. Some safeties are retained in other ways and can work with any grip. A gunsmith can help you understand these choices.

If you do want to attempt this job yourself, my suggestion is to buy one or two cheap safeties in addition to the one you want to use. You can practice fitting with the cheap ones before you start filing on the quality parts.

I have installed a total of one ambi safety in a 1911. It dropped in with no fitting and works perfectly.
Sounds like I was lucky.

Find a 1911 gunsmith, tell him/her you want an ambidextrous thumb safety installed, and let him pick the one that he/she thinks works best for your gun and your shooter.

Being left handed myself and a fan of 1911 pattern pistols I have installed Ed Brown narrow extended safeties on all of my 1911's. All of them have required fitting,some more than others.

For a good quality part, look at Ed Brown, Wilson Combat, or EGW. As far as the fitting, find a good gunsmith that can fit the part. Fitting a thumb safety to a 1911 is not a simple drop in operation no matter what anyone on the interwebs would tell you.

Related:

I might be going this route someday soon, too, as I am left-handed and have an R1 stainless Commander. But, I'd rather not have an "ambi", just a left-handed-only lever. If I find such a creature and have it fitted, would the original still just "drop in" should I choose to sell the gun later?

The original will still drop in because there’s no alteration to the seat or frame.

I’m not sure anybody makes a “left-handed” thumb safety. I’ve never seen a listing for one in the Brownells catalog.

Since your R1 is stainless, why not just grind off the RH thumb safety paddle and file/buff the finish to match the gun? That would get you to a “left-handed” safety and do no damage to your pistol.

As a lefty, I have had several different designs of ambi safeties. None of them have ever just dropped in without fitting, but all of them have done the job.

The nice thing about the 1911 is that this is all that is needed for the left handed user. All of the rest of the controls can be manipulated easily using the left hand.

The top of the line ambi safeties are the Wilson Bulletproof and the EGW.

Both are machined from bar stock, not cast like most all others.

Both are retained by a longer hammer pin. This is the most secure retention method of them all.
The type most seen around are copies of the original Armand Swenson type that has a paddle on the right half that fits under the grip to retain it in place.
These often fail to stay put and the rear of the right side safety moves up out of the frame and disengages from the left side.

Both Wilson and EGW use greatly improved methods of joining the two sides together. Most other brands are joined by a simple tongue and groove joint that tends to loosen or even break with use, and they tend to disengage easily.
Some of the better brands of the Swenson design are durable, but not nearly as secure as the Wilson or EGW.
Both are expensive, but are the best on the market.

The Wilson Bulletproof is available in blued or stainless, and in standard or wide paddle:
http://shopwilsoncombat.com/Ambidex...-Levers-Bullet-Proof-Blue/productinfo/192BBP/

The EGW is also available in blue or stainless.
http://www.egwguns.com/1911-parts/egw-hd-ambi-thumb-safety-machined-from-barstock-blue/

Long paddles can be shortened to be similar to the old Colt type ambi safety.

drband writes:

The original will still drop in because there’s no alteration to the seat or frame.

I’m not sure anybody makes a “left-handed” thumb safety. I’ve never seen a listing for one in the Brownells catalog.

Since your R1 is stainless, why not just grind off the RH thumb safety paddle and file/buff the finish to match the gun? That would get you to a “left-handed” safety and do no damage to your pistol.

Click to expand...

That's certainly a possible action. I might be "pre-thinking" this ahead, anyway, as I haven't even shot the gun yet, despite having had it since last July. I would only worry about the safety lever if I was going to carry it, and it doesn't seem I'm in a hurry to do that. Besides, I'd also have to have the trigger "weighted", as it's too light for my comfort as a carry gun (as a range gun, it's fine.)

"I’m not sure anybody makes a “left-handed” thumb safety."

Making a left hand safety is pretty easy. I demel off the majority of the left paddle and then file, stone and emery paper the rest until smooth and polished. Leave a small nub at the front to engage the safety stop. The finished product looks somewhat like an old GI safety thumb piece on the left side except with a bit smaller nub.

Easy peasy.

JTQ said:

Find a 1911 gunsmith, tell him/her you want an ambidextrous thumb safety installed, and let him pick the one that he/she thinks works best for your gun and your shooter.

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Get a gunsmith. My experience was with Para, their much touted "ambidextrous " safety was too loose to be safe, and tended to break. It caused more problems than it was worth.
See if the gunsmith can put a safety on the other side of the gun, for left handers, and eliminate the right-handed safety. I remedied the safety
issue with the Para by eliminating the ambi (left side) safety, (I'm right handed) and installing a stronger spring.

drband said:

The original will still drop in because there’s no alteration to the seat or frame.

I’m not sure anybody makes a “left-handed” thumb safety. I’ve never seen a listing for one in the Brownells catalog.

Since your R1 is stainless, why not just grind off the RH thumb safety paddle and file/buff the finish to match the gun? That would get you to a “left-handed” safety and do no damage to your pistol.

Click to expand...

IIRC, Wilson's new EDC double stack can be ordered with a strong side only safety for either R or L ; might be worth a call to find out for sure.

A southpaw needs a GOOD ambi safety, the Swenson type is ok for an occasional weak hand drill for the righthanded shooter but will not hold up when operated from the add on right side/left thumb lever all the time. The King's with headed hammer pin retention was better, but still had the center joint and did not hold up in regular use by a southpaw here. I don't know if the Kimber and Brown safeties of the type are a lot better.
As said, the EGW and Wilson are built different and would probably hold up better.
STI and SVI are Swenson types, although I thought one of them was different.
The Novak NXT is their own design, but I don't know anybody using one.

The Colt ambi safety I added to my Springfield 1911 required minimal fitting, and no grip modification.