Ban the Bite
Oh yeah.
True hammer bite is pretty rare since the long safety tang of the 1911-A1
came along. The shorter tangs of the older pistols were brutal because the hammer could hit your hand and pinch the skin between hammer and safety, but with the A1s,the hammer can't actually reach the web of your hand unless you foul a draw and get some skin on top of the tang, or you have really meaty hands...
It's usually the safety tang itself that does the damage. Under recoil, the
pistol torques upward, and pounds the underside of the tang into the
web. The recoil also pushes the pistol back into the palm, and the tang raises a blister. The cure is to recontour the underside of the tang a little, and melt the corners a bit. It doesn't eliminate it completely, but it does
delay the blister long enough to get in a good range session before the pain and blood flow start. Eventually, a callus will form on the web of your hand, which delays it further.
Modifying the tang is a simple matter of using a Dremel with a sanding drum
to give the tang a little upsweep on the underside. Use light pressure and keep the drum moving smoothly. It it stands still for a fraction of a second,
you'll dig a ditch in the steel. Increasing pressure slightly toward the end of the tang provides the upswept shape. Polish by hand with 600-grit
paper and touch up with cold blue.
Luck!
Tuner
