1911 not firing!! help please!

Power Pill

Power Pill

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I took my two of my friends to the range the other day.
when we starting shooting my 1911 and my friends tried to shoot it, they pulled the trigger and the hammer was released, but the round didn't go off.

when the gun was cleared, i took a look and the primer on the round hadn't been struck. so i tried it and had no problems with it.

when booth my friends tried it again they kept having the same problem. I finally discovered that the hammer was going down all the way, it was almost releasing into a half ####.

At first I thought it was their grip, but i check it out and their grip seemed fine... so i really dont know what was going on. I fired fine when i had it, but my friends couldnt get it to go off.


Any one have any idea what was going on?

thanks
 
It sounds like your friends aren't fully squeezing the trigger. If the hammer is dropping into the safety notch, it's because the trigger isn't fully back. See if it will shoot with one of them holding the gun and you putting your hand over his/hers, and you squeezing the trigger.
 
Sounds like the grip safety isn't clearing the trigger stirrup to me. This is pretty common in 1911's. To test it, put an elastic band around the grip to make sure the grip safety is always activated, then let your friends try it again to see if the problem can be replicated. If the problem goes away the grip safety is the culprit. You can have it either pinned or fitted to release with minimal movement.
 
relliott said:
Sounds like the grip safety isn't clearing the trigger stirrup to me. This is pretty common in 1911's. To test it, put an elastic band around the grip to make sure the grip safety is always activated, then let your friends try it again to see if the problem can be replicated. If the problem goes away the grip safety is the culprit. You can have it either pinned or fitted to release with minimal movement.
Click to expand...

What exactly do you mean by "pinned"
 
Power Pill said:
What exactly do you mean by "pinned"
Click to expand...
Deactivated. Pinned so in the "fire" position so that it cannot interrupt the path of the trigger stirrup. Usually a mall hole is drilled in the main spring housing into which a short piece of drill shank is inserted. This fits up under the tang of the grip safety and prevents it from moving.

If you are uncomfortable with this, just have it tuned a little and you should be fine.
 
Is it a Kimber? The firing pin safety on those can be an issue. It works off of the grip safety and the grip safety can be depressed enough to let the hammer fall without releasing the firing pin.
 
This sounds like what my 1911 was doing on me. (It is an old GI Issue referb that is well worn). Even after replacing some springs I would still get a fail to fire, maybe 1 out if 5-10 rounds. It seemed like the hammer would only fall to the half #### position and not strike the primer, I often could recock the hammer and it would fire then. That sound at all like what you were experiencing????

After a complete stripping and cleaning it went through half a box without a hitch last time. I suspect that "guck" in the chamber and slide prevented the action from traveling all the way forward and allowing it to fire.


I am no pistol smith but only respond cause this sound very much like what my 1911 was doing. Soak and scrub the chamber so the cartridge has no resistance when being chambered and use a small flat screwdriver wrapped in a rag to clean all the machined groves the slide travels on.

Just telling what worked for me.:)
 
relliott said:
Sounds like the grip safety isn't clearing the trigger stirrup to me. This is pretty common in 1911's. To test it, put an elastic band around the grip to make sure the grip safety is always activated, then let your friends try it again to see if the problem can be replicated. If the problem goes away the grip safety is the culprit. You can have it either pinned or fitted to release with minimal movement.
Click to expand...

Will give this a try.
 
TGC said:
Better tell him what turned is and me too at the same time lol.
Click to expand...
The grip safety blocks the trigger from moving rearward and firing the gun unless it is deliberately depressed. If you take the grip safety out of the gun you will see that it has a bar that protrudes internally into the frame, and it is this bar that blocks the rearward travel of the trigger stirrup. When the grip safety is depressed, this bar pivots up out of the path of the trigger and there is some room here to "tune" or adjust how far the safety has to pivot before the trigger will be permitted to move fully to the rear without interference. If it is improperly or merely "factory" fitted, there may still be partial contact or the trigger may even drag on the underside of this bar when the gun is held in the firing position...especially if the high-thumb grip technique is used. The result of this is that the sear can sometimes just barely nudge out of the hammer hooks, but not quite far enough to clear the half-#### notch. Thus the hammer falls but the gun does not fire.

A knowledgeable gun smith can tune this release point so that the gun will not fire without pressing the grip safety, but so that as soon as it moves even a little, it clears the stirrup. It's a fine balance however, and if you are competing in one of the sports that involves a speed draw from the holster (or whatever), you have to assume that sooner or later you will end up with an imperfect grip and have to go ahead and shoot anyway, or give away too much clock time while re-adjusting. But a functioning grip safety may prevent the shooter from doing this, so most competitive shooters simply deactivate the grip safety. It is pretty redundant on a competition gun anyway.

I hope this helps.
 
surfclod said:
This sounds like what my 1911 was doing on me. (It is an old GI Issue referb that is well worn).

After a complete stripping and cleaning it went through half a box without a hitch last time. I suspect that "guck" in the chamber and slide prevented the action from traveling all the way forward and allowing it to fire.


I am no pistol smith but only respond cause this sound very much like what my 1911 was doing. Soak and scrub the chamber so the cartridge has no resistance when being chambered and use a small flat screwdriver wrapped in a rag to clean all the machined groves the slide travels on.

Just telling what worked for me.:)
Click to expand...

Actually it's unlikely to be related to dirt in the chamber. If the chamber is so dirty as to not fully chamber the round, the disconnector disengages the sear and will simply not permit the hammer to fall at all. The gun is designed to not fire if held out of battery for any reason, as this can lead to a pretty dangerous situation. You can prove this by gently moving the slide back a little bit and holding it there while dry-firing the gun. At a certain point you see that the sear is "disconnected" and the hammer just won't fall.

More likely the cause is fouling inside the trigger channel, or behind the trigger itself ...especially if there is an over-travel screw installed. If the over-travel is adjusted for a very small reset, or has worked its way out a bit, a small amount of dirt can prevent the trigger from pulling fully through its stroke. This means that in the last few remaining thousandths of sear engagement, the hammer essentially just pushes its way past the sear and falls to the half-#### notch. In a 1911 pistol, the sear has to pivot all the way out past the half-#### notch or the gun won't fire reliably.

When you stripped and cleaned the gun completely you probably got the offending debris without realizing it, and cured the problem.
 
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