I'm really pleased with the way my "Brand X" 1911 is coming along. I bought it years ago with the intent of "doing something" with it, but I shot it a few times and set it aside.
But recently I've been reenergized about 1911's, so I pulled it out of the safe and threw some money at it. In another post I talked about replacing the GI sights with Truglo's. That issue is now sorted out, and it's WAY better than original.
I've never "worked on" a 1911 because it seemed intimidating. But the Brand X needed an ambidextrous safety, so it only made sense to work on the trigger, as well.
The safety was an eBay special, and is pretty simple. It needed a little filing and cold-blue, but now it's working as intended. For me, a 1911 requires a high grip with the thumb over the safety. That's fine, but this safety has a sharp corner. It might be an irritant. Only extensive shooting will tell. That's ok; the UPS dude dropped off a thousand rounds of .45 on the front porch today.
The trigger on this gun was originally about 6 pounds 5 ounces. That's just not right. So I took everything apart and polished everything that needed polishing, including the sear and the hammer. That got me a pound. But I wanted more.
So I started playing with the spring, according to recommendations I found on the interweb. Specifically, the bloke recommended a trigger pull of 8 ounces for the disconnector, and a total of 16 ounces for the disconnector and sear. I went a bit heavier, because his goal was a little lower than my own. The result was a trigger pull of 4 pounds 5 ounces. That's what I was shooting for.
There is about 0.040" of take-up, a clean break, and a maybe 0.050" over travel. This is just my guess, as I'm not measuring it. The trigger has some up/down movement that you wouldn't expect in a high-zoot gun, but it's not terrible.
So the bottom line is that the gun now meets my expectations. Maybe I'd like a different safety, and it could really benefit from a different grip safety, maybe with some extra beavertail.
But this is just a "play" gun. It's better now that it ever was, so I'll shoot it for now, and maybe someday in the future throw some more money at it.
But recently I've been reenergized about 1911's, so I pulled it out of the safe and threw some money at it. In another post I talked about replacing the GI sights with Truglo's. That issue is now sorted out, and it's WAY better than original.
I've never "worked on" a 1911 because it seemed intimidating. But the Brand X needed an ambidextrous safety, so it only made sense to work on the trigger, as well.
The safety was an eBay special, and is pretty simple. It needed a little filing and cold-blue, but now it's working as intended. For me, a 1911 requires a high grip with the thumb over the safety. That's fine, but this safety has a sharp corner. It might be an irritant. Only extensive shooting will tell. That's ok; the UPS dude dropped off a thousand rounds of .45 on the front porch today.
The trigger on this gun was originally about 6 pounds 5 ounces. That's just not right. So I took everything apart and polished everything that needed polishing, including the sear and the hammer. That got me a pound. But I wanted more.
So I started playing with the spring, according to recommendations I found on the interweb. Specifically, the bloke recommended a trigger pull of 8 ounces for the disconnector, and a total of 16 ounces for the disconnector and sear. I went a bit heavier, because his goal was a little lower than my own. The result was a trigger pull of 4 pounds 5 ounces. That's what I was shooting for.
There is about 0.040" of take-up, a clean break, and a maybe 0.050" over travel. This is just my guess, as I'm not measuring it. The trigger has some up/down movement that you wouldn't expect in a high-zoot gun, but it's not terrible.
So the bottom line is that the gun now meets my expectations. Maybe I'd like a different safety, and it could really benefit from a different grip safety, maybe with some extra beavertail.
But this is just a "play" gun. It's better now that it ever was, so I'll shoot it for now, and maybe someday in the future throw some more money at it.