.45 1911 trouble

[sprice]

I bought a used Dan wesson pm7 1911 the other day and I don't know what's wrong with it.

When the slide goes down sometimes the hammer does too. Letting down the slide after a fresh magazine is inserted, racking the slide, ect. The hammer will go down to "half cock" and it's bugging me.

What's wrong with my gun? Can I just replace a part to fix it? If you have any ideas for me that would be great. Thanks again!

 

[Quack]

Did you detail strip it or remove the mainspring housing?

 

[sprice]

No I don't consider myself qualified enough. Eversince I took apart my dad's 1894 winchester....

 

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

Sounds like a trip to the gunsmith if you aren't comfortable taking a 1911 down. I'm thinking its the sear thats causing the problem.

 

[Quack]

oops, i missed the "used" part in your original post.

i'm guessing that the original owner monkey'd with the sear spring, which is causing what you are seeing.

 

[glassman]

Give DW a call or E-mail them. Keith is their master gun smith and will be able to answer your question.

 

[DasFriek]

Have a gunsmith inspect the sear and replace the sear spring with a factory weight replacement.
Its a very common issue of just fine tuning the gun so don't get down on your new purchase, This is a very normal issue that happens alot.

Being how well made the gun is you may ask him to install a good Cylinder and slide sear spring and hand adjust it and also fine tune it with files to get the smoothest operation possible.

 

[earlthegoat2]

Could be the sear angle and or hammer notch have been goofified by a similar goof.

Replacement of both along with the sear spring may be in order. Best to send it out to get it looked at. Not a terrible fix for most gunsmiths will cost a bit though.

 

[Zerodefect]

Sounds like a spring or sear.

If someone goofed up your sear and hammer, now would be a good time to upgrade to Wilson parts. It's fairly inexpensive, and easy for any competant smith to do.

Can anyone recommend any smiths? I do trigger jobs myself with the Ed Brown sear tool. Maybe Keith at DW can check it out for you.

 

[The Wiry Irishman]

Either botched engagement angles on the sear/hammer from a trigger job, or the far left leg of the sear spring needs to be bent forward ever so slightly.

 

[jr_roosa]

Blessing in disguise. It's called hammer follow if you want to google it to get more info.

I think it's a blessing because it gives you an excuse to get a good trigger job done.

Be careful though, it's potentially a step away from doubling or going full auto.

-J.