The Lighter Side
T'was noted:
The same can be said for skeletonized triggers. With only so much power available in the spring that pushes the trigger back into its starting position, a lighter trigger will move faster and with greater sureity than a heavy trigger.
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True enough when dealing with reciprocating parts in general, but in gunspeak, there's a different reason for lightened triggers, hammers, and sears. That reason is to reduce bounce and the tendency of the part in question to obey Newton's Laws of Motion.
Lightened trigger group parts are about enabling a lighter, crisper trigger
pull while reducing the chances of hammer follow and burst-fire. The Colt
Gold Cup has a wider trigger than the other 1911-pattern pistols. When
the GC triggers were made of steel, the pistols had a tiny preload spring
that kept a little extra tension on that wide, heavy trigger to help keep
it forward. The newer Gold Cups are using a lighter, aluminum trigger,
and it's my understanding that the preload spring has been dropped.
(I HATE those little bastids, and the clips they ride in...)
A lighter hammer does speed up lock time...but its purpose is to reduce the inertial response of the hammer to stand still when the gun jerks suddenly forward during a slidelock reload. When the hammer stands still, it has the same effect of overcocking...or bouncing off the sear. Match-tuned hammers have very short hooks, and if the contact between sear and hammer is broken, the hooks sometimes barely grab the sear as it comes to rest...or miss it altogether. Followdown to half-cock results. Sear damage occurs either way. The lighter the mainspring, the more likely this is to occur...and since trigger jobs sometimes entail using a lighter mainspring, a lightened hammer helps to prevent this.
A lighter trigger does reset easier and faster with the available spring tension, but the main reason for its existence is to prevent followdown to
half-cock or slam-firing during a slidelock reload with finger off trigger.
When the pistol jerks forward during a reload, the trigger obeys Newton's
dictum that states: "Objects at rest tend to remain at rest"...so the trigger
stand still while the rest of the pistol moves forward. The trigger stirrup
nudges the sear, and sometimes rotates it enough to break contact with the hammer hooks. (Actually, the sear nudges the trigger stirrup, but the result is the same. Thought I'd put that in before some Simple nit-picker
that's lurking around uses it to hijack the thread) Followdown to half-cock results. If the pre-travel...or take-up...is at a bare minimum, and the hammer hooks are very short, the sear can slip past the half-cock and result in a slam fire. If the pistol is correctly set up, the half-cock will catch it. If the half-cock has been altered, all bets are off.
Likewse, a lightened sear responds more readily to spring tension, and
will tend to reset into the hammer hooks faster in the event of a hammer
bounce. The deeper into the hooks, the less chance of the hooks getting
past the sear and following the slide.
The difference in weight/mass of these tiny parts is miniscule, but during the violent cycle of a .45 caliber 1911 pistol, a few grains difference can make the difference between a shooter-induced bang and an uncontrolled
full-auto affair. Unnerving at best, and very dangerous in any event.
...And BluesBear nailed it. The standard Rowell hammer is heavier than the
narrow spur type. The slotted McCormick-style hammer, which has become pretty much the standard in aftermarket/custom hammers, brings the weight back in line.
Cheers!
Tuner
A lighter trigger does reset easier, but it reduces the inertial response of the trigger to stand still when the gun jerks forward during a slidelock reload. When the
