My 1911 2lb 10oz trigger job

[Harrylee]

Well it’ been some time now that I have been on the forum and decided to get my feet wet again.
So hear we go, now I have always love a light trigger on a 1911 and I could had have it sent out
but I prefer to do things myself. So I needed a sear jig got a Marvel and a white and brown ceramic stones from Brownells and a Lyman trigger pull gauge from Midway. The stones have very sharp edges good for doing the hammer and hooks. The sear jig works very nice, doing the sear I use a sharpie felt marker to put color on the sear tip so I can see when the whole surface is flat then reset the sear for the secondary angle. Making sure the hammer hooks are set at .020".Did clean up both sides of the disconnector just smoothed them up where the spring rides and the side where the bow hits. Also replaced the stock hammer spring with a Wolff 18lb hammer spring Now the next part is setting the sear spring. Very good write up from Brownells 2-½ lb. Trigger Pull by: Jack Weigand. This is where you need a good trigger pull gauge following his writings is to set each of the leafs adjusted equally. The trigger pull on this old Springfield breaks like a fine glass rod. With all that done I had a 2lb 10 oz pull very sweet, this is only a range gun with this trigger. Now time to safety check it for hammer follow thru with the slide release. Never never drop the slide without either snap caps but what I prefer is to load some dummy rounds of what I’m using. So with dummy rounds in I released the slide and did have hammer follow so next I tried again with the trigger pulled back no hammer follow and one more time holding the trigger forward and no follow. So what I had was trigger bounce and needed to lighten the weight of the trigger. The trigger I have is a EGW trigger I weighed on my powder scale it came in at 124 grains and worked the trigger and bow got it down to 100 grains, put it all together and tried again with dummy rounds and the hammer stayed rock solid did it several times all good. So one final test, slide locked back held the grip hanging with my finger tips and let the slide go and still good. I figured that was worst scenario for hammer follow. First time at the range loaded one round the trigger felt great but doesn’t tell you anything the slide just locks back, so the second time I loaded one live round and one dummy and that will tell you if you have follow thru and that went perfect did that few more times then two live rounds a few times and worked up to a full mag. Now I have 500 rounds thru it with perfect results. The nice thing is if you have a few sear springs you can have them set up for different pull weights and I do have a least one more spring that I’ll set up for maybe 4lbs. But with this setup at the 50 foot line one handed and old eyes I can put one big in the center of the target

https://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=12535/GunTechdetail/2-lb-Trigger-Pull


http://www.kahrtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13959&stc=1http://www.kahrtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13960&stc=1http://www.kahrtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13961&stc=1http://www.kahrtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13962&stc=1http://www.kahrtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13963&stc=1

[kenemoore]

Don't let anyone else shoot it.
I have one of my "range" 1911's down to a 3.5 lb trigger, let a friend try it, he is a Glock guy, he could not stop doing unintentional double taps. Scared him and me. My carry is a DW CCO, came from the factory with an outstanding 4.5 lb trigger, never touched it, I think that is a light as I would want to go in a carry rig. The specs on a lot of the Sig DA/SA pistols have a 4.5 SA trigger.

[CJB]

Sear angle (I prefer a radius actually), hammer notch angle and depth, length of the hammer strut, top of the disconnector (important), length of the sear (VERY important), mass of the trigger itself, just exactly what sear spring you got - and its shape, shape of hammer strut, and ... the little 2-56x 1/16 setscrew you add to the front of the trigger bow to limit take up... And then, there is the recoil spring and what its doing to the jiggle factor.

A hammer on a 1911 "follows" when the slide is closed, the trigger is not pulled, and the weight of the slide moves the frame forward (or trigger backward by relation), and... its literally pulling the trigger on its own. Not too dissimilar from a bump fire, except the half cock notch catches things.

A CLARK trigger trigger is set for 3.5 lbs, which is the "legal minimum" for .45 pistol in Bullseye competition. Those pistols have very light recoil springs and are fit and adjusted so that they'll run 200g cast bullets with something like 2.4g (or so) of Bullseye powder. That, is a light load, very very light. If you put a full power spring in those guns, and try to run full power ammo, you may have hammer follow problems under the above "how it follows" scenario. The hammer on a 1911 will (almost) never follow when the trigger is pulled, as in firing.

Bob Day, and Jim Clark both recommended that the hammer be held with the thumb as the slide was dropped on the first round, to prevent following (and the hammer's half cock notch from buggering up the sear).

Colt sort of got around it by adding a little flipper and spring as well as an altered sear, on Gold Cup pistols, which were a "shock absorber" for the trigger, preventing it from striking the sear with enough force to dislodge it.

[downtownv]

Wow, Harry you're entering The Greg zone of illustrations, photos and explanations!
I'm impressed!

[Harrylee]

Don't let anyone else shoot it.
I have one of my "range" 1911's down to a 3.5 lb trigger, let a friend try it, he is a Glock guy, he could not stop doing unintentional double taps. Scared him and me. My carry is a DW CCO, came from the factory with an outstanding 4.5 lb trigger, never touched it, I think that is a light as I would want to go in a carry rig. The specs on a lot of the Sig DA/SA pistols have a 4.5 SA trigger.

At what part of me saying this is only a range gun didn’t you get. I did this just to have a sweet range gun. As far as the glock guy and his double taps you don’t slap the trigger with a light trigger, this is not a glock! with a loose finger in the trigger guard you can have double or even triple taps. This is a machine and you have to understand the machine in order to use it. And yes my buddy was at the range with me shooting his 1911 and tried it knowing to hold the trigger when the shot was fired, dead center on the 10 ring at the 50 foot line and ran the rest of the mag fine. No hard feelings here, this is a safe range gun with a very light trigger that is totally reversible with a sear spring swap out set at what ever poundage I want

[b4uqzme]

Pretty cool work IMHO. Thanks for all the detail. I got an education = thanks.

[Bawanna]

Wow, Harry you're entering The Greg zone of illustrations, photos and explanations!
I'm impressed!

I agree. Excellent photo's and narrative. I love the can do attitude very much.
I have the attitude, sadly my hands and non fully functioning braining usually don't yield such happy and successful results.

Actually Greg has plucked me out of hot water more than once when I got in a little too deep.

That's why demolition was my specialty in construction. Great at taking stuff apart (one way or another), going back together sometimes, not so much.

[Harrylee]

Thanks guys I really like doing things myself just to understand what goes into it. Some folks just send things out and that’s fine but you don’t learn from that. It was interesting to learn that setting the 2 leafs at equal pressure is very important. And most important is to get a good sear and hammer if not for better terms lock up or mesh, real good to have a Magnifier 10X and some heavy reading glasses and of coarse patience. Like I said you could set up a few sear springs for different trigger pulls. We are never to old to learn :)
And PS this is what happens to my 1911 every time I shoot it http://www.kahrtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13967&stc=1

[Bawanna]

Mine get that every 4 or 5 years maybe. I get a lot of spare parts that way.

[yqtszhj]

Wow, Harry you're entering The Greg zone of illustrations, photos and explanations!
I'm impressed!

If you can figure out how (I can't ) go back through past harrylee post and look for the "Whats really happening inside a kahr magazine during feeding" post and check that one out.

[SaltyNC]

If you can figure out how (I can't ) go back through past harrylee post and look for the "Whats really happening inside a kahr magazine during feeding" post and check that one out.

I think this is the one you're talking about:
http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?17326-Inside-of-8-round-magazine

Salty

[Barth]

Don't let anyone else shoot it.
I have one of my "range" 1911's down to a 3.5 lb trigger, let a friend try it, he is a Glock guy, he could not stop doing unintentional double taps. Scared him and me. My carry is a DW CCO, came from the factory with an outstanding 4.5 lb trigger, never touched it, I think that is a light as I would want to go in a carry rig. The specs on a lot of the Sig DA/SA pistols have a 4.5 SA trigger.

+1
Actually like light triggers.
But the lightest I carry are ~4 lbs (HK45c Light LEM 3.9 lbs).
Don't know what the SA is on my tuned S&W 629 44.
But if you touch the trigger? It will fire :2eek:
I don't let anyone shoot that monster.

[CJB]

I've relegated my Walther PPQ-45 to "fun gun" status. The trigger is just too damn light. Four pounds, its supposed to be 5, and feels like 3.

Since its range use, not carry, I've decided to put in the factory omitted engagement and take up screws. They have the spots for 'em, just missing the screws.

But, since I don't have metric taps, instead of 2.5mm x .6 I'll be putting in 2-56 set screws, which means I'll have to tap the holes, which are now untapped. Shouldn't be too big of a deal. The Walther shoots better than a Gold Cup or HK P9s.

[Barth]

I've relegated my Walther PPQ-45 to "fun gun" status. The trigger is just too damn light. Four pounds, its supposed to be 5, and feels like 3.


Yup, Yup, My NIB Hk USP Elite Long Slide SA is crazy light.
No way I'm carrying that thing...