Reinstalling the sear depressor in a Colt Gold Cup National Match

[Hunter]

I have a few Colt Gold Cup National Matches and I dread a detail strip reassembly because of getting the sear depressor lined up in the sear along with the disconnecter (along with the trigger bar lever in a Series 80). Tom Beliveau in Wendell N.C. (excellent gunsmith) showed me a great trick today on getting all that back together much easier. The trick is get a Q Tip (plastic stem) and cut the stem the width of the sear. I used the point of a small pocket knife to push the sear depressor spring flush with the sear then installed the sear depressor and disconnecter and used that part of the Q Tip as a slave pin. I pushed the slave pin where the sear pin indexes. On the Series 80 I use tip of an AR 15 firing pin (thanks Tuner) to hold the trigger bar lever in place in the frame. Installed the sear and disconnecter (with the slave pin holding all together) and the pushed the sear pin in place. The sear pin pushed the slave pin out along with the AR 15 firing pin and it all went together pretty easy (much easier than my last method which included swear words and throwing tools :D ). I imagine some of yall know this trick but I figured I would share it with the rest of us and hopefully make the Colt Gold Cup National Match reassembly from detail strip easier. Thank you Mr. Beliveau.

[wichaka]

Yep, that's the same method I use.

Except I use a small dia. punch to get everything lined up..........

Thanks for the post Hunter!

[Joni Lynn]

I chose the easy way out. My gun has an after-market/lighter weight trigger, so I left all that stuff out of it. It's a range gun, I'll never carry it and I never had much faith in the firing pin block anyway since it took a chunk of metal off the plunger often anyway. I am glad to hear however that it's not really magic getting all that stuff back in there in such a fashion it will work.
Glad to hear of it!!! ;)

[Hunter]

Joni it was suggested to me to go with the Gold Cup Trophy aluminum trigger and I could do away with the sear depressor and sear depressor spring and would not risk sear bounce with the lighter trigger but I like to keep my Colts factory so I went the hard way. I lost one of those sear depressor springs and they are around $5 a piece from Brownells (the only folks I know of who even have them) so I am more careful now, though I did have the foresight to order several just in case. Something about those Colt Gold Cups that really trip my trigger.

[Joni Lynn]

I'm down to 6 Gold Cups.........probably stay at that for awhile.
When I lose a small part, I always order three more, one to lose or break, one to hopefully install correctly without damage and one for a spare.

[Hunter]

I am up to 5 Gold Cups now and have my eye on another which I hope to make it mine soon. Your idea on ordering parts is exactly how I see it too. Might as well get what you can you still got to pay shipping. Where are all the women in North Carolina who don't hate guns? Most the women I have been off with cannot understand why I could possibly carry a gun.

[Joni Lynn]

I'm down to one series 80, one series 70, 2 of the 38MR models and 2 of the older pre 70 series models, a 1957 and a 1962. The old ones are put together quite well compared to most others.

[Hunter]

I have 1 Series 80 Gold Cup National Match and 1 Series 80 Delta Gold Cup National Match. 2 Series 70 Gold Cups (1 of which is a bi tone nickle slide and blued frame) and and a Series 80 Gold Cup Trophy. My favorite to shoot is the Trophy because it is still available and the others I shoot on occasion. I might be going Colt shopping today, a friend of mine needs help setting up his reloading rig so we will be visiting a few gun shops in the area.

[Joni Lynn]

My series 80 was my first 1911 and it was totally unusable from the factory, since then it was turned into a fine firearm. Barrel/bushing, trigger/hammer were the big things. It shoots very well now.
The series 70 shot ok, but nothing special so I had Krieger Accu-Rails installed, new barrel/bushing, trigger, hammer/sear/etc....and a Wilson rear sight/Dovetail front sight.
The older ones I leave alone.

[Hunter]

I have been well pleased with how all my Gold Cups have shot right out the box. My latest Gold Cup kept me smiling 3 days after the first range trip.

[Gammon]

Under some circumstances removing the sear depressor and spring can cause problems. At one time, I was using GCs for IPSC competition and found that both of them would hammer follow if I removed these parts. I guess you can get away with removing these parts sometimes, but my experience was the opposite. I learned early on to make a slave pin just the width of the sear out of drill rod. This made the operation rather easy, as long as you didn't drop one of those ****** little parts.