1911 Thumb safety not working

lister

lister

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A question for the 1911 Gurus here---
A friend of mine has a 1911 that when the thumb safety is engaged, the trigger can still be pulled and the hammer drops. IMO it's not the safety itself but the sear. Before I order him a sear I wanted some opinions about whether I'm right about the cause of this.
Thanks in advance!
 
Had one like that come into the shop a long time ago. The spacing between the pin and the blocking stub was compressed. Little delicatebending to open the gap and function was restored. Your case may be different. Highly unlikely to be the sear if it operates normally otherwise.
 
It's a Norinco Commander. Basically new. No work done on it.
I'll pass on the spacing issue so he can check it out. Thanks for the info, I figured I better ask here before ordering!

What is hammer follow?
 
When the slide drives forward and goes into battery, the hammer follows. Meaning hammer drops into half ####. If disconnector is functioning, it’s a worn out sear or sear with not enough engagement surface with the hammer notch. Sometimes caused by over zealous stoning of the hammer notch and or sear “tip”.
Sometimes it’s a weak or overtweaked sear or 3-finger spring.

I’ve seen 1911s go full auto, or do double or triple taps, as well.
 
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Ah, I see. No, it functions properly other than the thumb safety, no hammer follow. So you're saying if there's no hammer follow that it could be the sear?

The 'burst' shots must be a little disconcerting,lol
 
Doubt it's the sear. Most likely the Safety.

All the other noise aside, if the gun is functioning normally but the hammer drops when it's cocked with the frame safety on it's probably the safety, not the sear.
 
lister said:
Ah, I see. No, it functions properly other than the thumb safety, no hammer follow. So you're saying if there's no hammer follow that it could be the sear?

The 'burst' shots must be a little disconcerting,lol
Click to expand...

If the hammer doesn't drop to half #### when the slide is dropped then the sear and spring are in good shape and doing their job. So if there is no follow,the sear is ok. The thumb saftey when rotated rides up against the sear to keep it from moving,if the sear releases the trigger when the saftey is on then it's not close enough to the sear. I agree a little spread on the pins would most likely bring them back into correct position to limit the sear from moving.

Corey
 
I’m not a smith nor am I familiar with all the names of the parts.

But back when I fooled around with 1911s, I saw the thumb safety has a boss that blocks the sear, ie, preventing it from moving (either by trigger movement or jarring) and releasing the hammer. This “boss” had to be fitted properly or the safety won’t even engage, or would be over filed resulting the sear not being blocked at all therefore allowing the trigger to push the sear, even with the safety engaged.

If the pins are straight, I would not bend them. Maybe you need to get a new safety and fit it properly.
 
A new sear May fix this, depending on what is wrong, but I don't think so, a spare sear is O.K. to have on hand, but I will go with the rest when they say safety.
New untouched guns usally work fine, but a bit rough.
Get someone that knows 1911's and have him look at it, should not be a hard fix. If he does buy stuff, get a new spring set, and don't mess with the sear /hammer, unless he
knows, a little smoothing with the proper stone is O.K.
I have had one in that went FA, not good at a public range, comes from trying to get too light of a trigger pull, with out the expertise to go with it.
 
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