taurus 1911 question

[jhco]

If you want to skip straight to the question and save your self from the small talk then scroll down.



Bought one about a week ago im not a big taurus fan but im not a taurus hater either. I mostly bought it to carry in the woods and in the boat so that if it gets dropped or scratched i wont freak out as most of my other 1911s are safe queens that only go to the range.

I am try to make the gun a little warmer looking and feeling since every time i pick it up I feel like im doing somthing wrong, like im cheating on my colts and kimber with a foreign little floosie. What i've done so far is but on a nice set of non-taurus medium grade rosewood grips with wilson combat hex screws (since the stock ones are to wide headed to fit most other grips flush) and got rid of the tacky looking bumper plate mags and put in the same ed brown bumperless mags i use in my other 45s
but i do have a question about one thing.

The question: since taurus uses the key lock saftey system on the hammer can the stock hammer be replaced with a better looking one or will the removing of the "saftey hammer" cause the gun not to function properly.

I do appreciate your time and answers. jh

 

[jhco]

If I can get my camera working i will post some pictures

 

[Japle]

I worked on one that a buddy owned. I have 30+ years experience with 1911s and have never seen anything like what I found with the Taurus.

The Taurus hammer, sear and safety won't work with any aftermarket parts. If you replace any of them, you'll have to replace them all. Trying to make - just as an example - the sear work with a Wilson safety is much more trouble than it's worth. The Taurus trigger isn't designed the same as a standard 1911, either.

My buddy wanted a better looking trigger and hammer. I installed a nice aftermarket trigger and found that it fit badly. The trigger rested too far foward and looked bad. It turns out, the Taurus trigger has a bend in the top of the trigger bow right at the front to move it back. I fit a shim on the front of the aftermarket trigger so it would fit properly.

When I tried to install a Wilson hammer, I couldn't get it in the gun. The Taurus sear is cut longer and you'd have to recut the sear nose, removing the hardened surface. And you'd better know what you're doing if you hope to get the angle right!

I installed a Wilson sear, then found I couldn't get the Taurus safety back in! The pad on the safety is 'way too thick to fit with anything other than a Taurus sear.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Stick with Taurus parts. They never designed the gun to allow aftermarket 1911 parts to be used.

John
Cape Canaveral

 

[jhco]

thanks for the answer, maybe i sould have gone with the rock island tactical?

 

[JP from Phoenix]

That was a nice piece of info, thanks. I guess that taurus is a gun you get if you don't really plan to mod it.

 

[MrTuffPaws]

Isn't Kimber made out of foreign parts as well? I thought there wasn't a current 1911 on the market that did not at least have some foreign parts used.

 

[Siderite]

It can be replaced. There's a thread here: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=288728
where someone describes it. Although I haven't tried it personally, it appears that you just need to punch out the rotating pin in the hammer, not replace the hammer entirely.

 

[jhco]

i mostly just wanted to get a commander style "better looking" hammer not just get rid of the lock.
also on that note almost every thing we buy comes at least in part from a foreign market ,but i think you already knew what i ment, but if i were that against doing buisness with foreign countries then i would drive a car powered by good ol american electricity

 

[Josh Aston]

Why not just get a fitted sear and hammer and a new safety for it?

 

[firinginfenton]

Why mess with the hammer? You're using it as a cheap "run about" so why invest any money into the internals? IMHO the trigger, sear, hammer was been "fitted" to work perfectly "as is". To change one you'll have to refit the entire package. I never even "see" the lock on my trigger, I guess I'm too old to care.

 

[Japle]

I agree that there's no reason other than taste to swap parts in the Taurus. I had no trouble getting a clean, 3 1/2 lb trigger pull on my buddy's gun before we tried the aftermarket parts.

The fact that it's possible to install an aftermarket hammer, sear and safety combo means they retained the industry standard positions for the pins. They decided, for whatever reason, to use non-standard engagement surfaces on their parts. That's pretty odd, but the Taurus parts worked just fine as long as you don't mix them with non-Taurus parts.

I found the gun accurate. On a 10 yd indoor range, 1 1/2 inch groups were the norm. The front sight is considerably wider than what you normally find on a factory 1911. The rear sight is wider, too and it's no problem getting a good sight picture.

My budy would have kept the gun, except that it had feeding problems. When seating a fresh mag, the first round would hang. Tapping the bottom of the mag would usually send the slide foward and everything would work from then on. I tried every 1911 mag I own (2-3 dozen) and replaced the mag catch. I also polished the breech face and dehorned the extractor and used all the other tricks I've picked up over the years. Nothing worked. I never solved the problem. He traded it for a Sig P220.

John

 

[Caimlas]

I've read a couple accounts of people simply "dropping parts in" - or, at least, that's the impression I've gotten. Have a thread around here somewhere on my forums...

http://forums.boiledfrog.us/index.php?topic=125.0

IE it's a pain, but not nearly as much of a pain as Japle seems to make it out to be.

 

[Japle]

Interesting link to the boildfrog thread. It sounds like the poster swapped the Series 80 parts and slides and barrels with Norinco, Springfield and Auto Ord guns without trouble, although he doesn't seem to have fired them. He says, "I like the gun, it works fine, and is actually very accurate. It strikes me as truely milspec in dimentions, as it will swap out with old colts and WWII guns as well as the Norinco. This means that most aftermarket parts should fit using this as a baseline".
As I mentioned, if you swap the sear, hammer and safety as a group, it'll work. It's when you try installing just one or two that you'll run into trouble.

Anyhow, I'd like to hear from someone else who's tried it.

John