1911 Grip Safety Inconsistency

[DMFSchnarr]

Good Morning All,

I sent a note to a knowledgeable member here already, but thought I would post this to the group just in case someone can help.

I have a Norinco NP29 9mm 1911. I have done some basic trigger work on the pistol, and with the grip safety depressed moderately, the trigger breaks consistently at 3lbs.

However, I have been trying to tighten up my groups somewhat and as such, I have been squeezing the pistol tighter with both hands. When I do this, the grip safety is being compressed more. When I do it, the trigger pull can rise to as much as 5lbs, and is somewhat inconsistent.

It's a little bit hard to see how the grip safety and sear/hammer might be interacting. I have taken the grip safety out of the pistol and the trigger breaks very consistently without it. I am very sure that the issue lies with the grip safety.

Any thoughts? Let me know what you think.

Darryl

 

[madcow]

The sear spring is what is causing your problem.

it is the part that connects the trigger, to disconnect and bevertail.

a triggerjob is done by adjusting the angles on the hammer and sear contact points, not by adjusting the tension of the sear sprring, which i am guessing you did. As you mentioned you can't see all those components are related to each other.

you can try a 4 prong sear spring that may help a bit, also your grip may be a problem, as your trigger hand should be lightly holding the gun with the other grioing the gun.

 

[DMFSchnarr]

If it was the sear spring, or the "trigger job" which there is no mention of, then why would the trigger pull change when I press the grip safety (beavertail) down harder? Makes very little sense.

With the beavertail removed completely, there is zero inconsistency and the trigger breaks clean.

When I use my off hand to grip the gun hard, the trigger hand is pulled into the pistol, causing the grip safety (beavertail) to be pushed in further, thus the problem.

DS

 

[OkayShooter]

I just remove the beavertail safety.

 

[MartyK2500]

It's worth mentionning that you replaced the chinese trigger bow with an STI trigger bow.

Madcow, i hardly see how the sear spring might be in play here. The grip safety only touches the rear of trigger bow (or anyways is supposed to), and sear spring right prong tension dictates how hard the safety must be squeezed to clear rear of trigger bow.
By replacing trigger bow though, the geometry is likely different, and when grip safety is fully squeezed now, there is some safety metal that interferes with rear of trigger bow.

I just remove the beavertail safety.

+1, unless competing in IDPA, there is little need for a beavertail safety. When you have a gun in your hands and finger on the trigger, expect it to go band wheter you squeeze it or not. And does not prevent discharge from dropping on the ground, a firing pin block does that (firing pin block is 80s series and unrelated to beavertail grip)

 

[BCRider]

....The grip safety only touches the rear of trigger bow (or anyways is supposed to)

The bolded part is the operative phrase here. If operating and fitted correctly the grip safety should not alter the trigger at all. But something is out of spec and it is. And that means some careful examination to see if the grip safety is over traveling or wider than it should be and pushing against something it should not push against. Sorry but other than this I wouldn't know what to suggest because it's hard to say what is wrong. And not having run into that in my own 1911 experience, which in no way matches what a proper smith would have seen in their time, I've not had to figure it out. So all I can offer is to find out how the stuff is SUPPOSED to fit and operate and then examine your own NP29 with an open mind that trusts nothing and looks at everything.

A good place to start is with where during the travel of the grip safety you notice that it runs afoul of the trigger. As in if you hold the grip safety in firmly with one finger and pull the trigger do you feel the trigger bow pushing back through the grip safety? If so then you need to fix that issue and either limit the grip safety travel or find out why the grip safety finger is running into the trigger bow and fix that. But that's only one example of how to examine things looking for what is happening when such things are not listed in "how a proper 1911 operates".