Odd 1911 failure...Tuner?

[jr_roosa]

I was shooting my Colt at the range yesterday. It's a Rail Gun with about 700 rounds. It has an S&A replacement grip safety (I don't like the memory bump) and an aftermarket stainless MSH, each have been on it for about 300 rnds. Grip safety was fitted by me and seemed to work properly.

So, slide is back, insert loaded mag, rack slide, go to fire, and nothing happens. I bring the pistol down and try to put the thumb safety back on and it doesn't want to go up. Hammer is still back. I wiggle the thumb safety up and down a couple of times and then the hammer falls to half cock...thank god for trigger and barrel discipline.

It did it once more after that, and trying to dry fire it about 100 times to reproduce the problem I got it to do it again.

I detail stripped it and the sear, disconnector, hammer, etc all looked grossly OK.

I took it to the smith at the range and he messed with it and adjusted the grip safety a little and thought that the hammer strut might have been hanging up on the channel in the grip safety or that the hammer was bumping the sear when it fell, but that was with the half cock notch when it was nearly all the way down.

So...any ideas? I'm planning on it making a trip home to Colt for some custom work, but I wanted to put that off for a few months.

-J.

 

[1911Tuner]

Sounds like a failure of the sear and disconnect to completely reset.

Sometimes the disconnect drags on the bottoms of the sear feet, causing it and the sear to hang up. The sear moves just enough to catch the hammer hooks at the tips, which is why your jiggling dropped the hammer to half-cock...which suggests that the sear was at least partly reset.

It could be a small clearance issue between the sear and disconnect, and it may be something as simple as a piece of dirt or grit. Possibly a small burr on the sear feet. With only 700 rounds down the pipe, it's unlikely just a need to clean problem. Cleaning and oiling may get it working again, but if it's a clearance problem, it'll just come back.

 

[jr_roosa]

Would that lock up the thumb safety?

Could I have caused the clearance issue with the new grip safety?

Thanks for the quick reply!

J.

 

[1911Tuner]

It could have blocked the thumb safety's travel...yes.

Could I have caused the clearance issue with the new grip safety?

Yep...if the lug that blocks the trigger is making contact with the sear and dragging on it....the sear can fail to properly reset. Check it to see if it's straight or cattywampus.