deadeye dick
Member
What's the difference between a series 80 and 70
The 70's dont have the plunger or linkage. They dont have the plastic parts either, trigger, MSH.
You can misname a lot of stuff, but there are no Kimber's with a Series 80 firing pin safety. Taurus, does use a Series 80 firing pin safety as does SIG. Kimber and S&W no.One could also say that the Taurus, some Kimber, some S&W 1911s, etc are "series 80" to also note that they have a firing pin safety even though they aren't from the Colt Series 80 line and also their firing pin safety may or may not operate the same way as Colt's. The Kimber and S&W safeties I've seen have deactivated based on grip safety pressure, whereas Colt's deactivate based on pulling the trigger. This far history has proven Colt's design to be better.
WilsonCQB1911, good posts in general. However...
You can misname a lot of stuff, but there are no Kimber's with a Series 80 firing pin safety. Taurus, does use a Series 80 firing pin safety as does SIG. Kimber and S&W no.
Kimber uses the Swartz style firing pin safety, also a Colt design, while S&W uses a Mochack firing pin safety developed at S&W.
Sure, there are a lot of liberties taken with the 1911/1911A1 terminologies, but calling a Kimber Series II a Series 80 is just wrong. Likewise calling an S&W 1911 with a firing pin safety a Series 80 is also wrong. I will correct those errors every time.I think if you re read my post you'll see that I noted the distinction. Many use "series 80" to refer to a 1911 with a firing pin safety regardless of how it works.
Calling a 1911 without a firing pin safety, that doesn't have a collet style bushing a Series 70, is also wrong, but I almost always let that go since it doesn't really matter since nobody makes a 1911 with a collet style bushing any more. It's bad terminology, but in the last 50 years, we've learned to identify 1911 type pistols without a firing pin safety as Series 70 guns.
As mentioned, series 80 1911s use a firing pin block similar to a lot of striker fired handguns. The most notable part difference is they use a 4 tine leaf spring instead of 3 tines found in the series 70.
Again. A Series 70 much less drama.
One drop away from a controversial situation.I would say a Series 70 could be MUCH MORE drama if a situation occurs where the firing pin safety was needed.