Firing pin safety

[emptyhead]

I was wondering what is invovled in removing the firing pin safety in the slide of my colt gold cup series 80. The gun will not be used for carry. I am just getting started in bulleye shooting.Why I ask is because the other day I tried out my friend's kimber 22 coversion and the trigger was so much better and I was thinking because the plunger from the framedoesn't have to push up on the firing pin safety. Do I need to put any other parts in. Any imput would be great.

[brickeyee]

Brownells has the filler pieces required if the firing pin block components are removed fromthe frame.

[emptyhead]

I ordered the frame filler piece is there any thing else that in need to order.I just have to pull the plunger and spring out of the slide?

[OD*]

<I just have to pull the plunger and spring out of the slide?>

That's it.

[Hawkmoon]

The firing pin safety in a Colt doesn't affect the trigger much at all. Before you remove the firing pin sfaty, I think you should just do (or have done) a normal trigger job and see what effect that has.

[1911Tuner]

I ordered the frame filler piece is there any thing else that in need to order.I just have to pull the plunger and spring out of the slide?

Nope. The two frame parts...trigger bar lever and plunger lever...have to be removed too, and replaced by the spacer.

Understand that removing, altering, or disabling any designed safety function of a firearm makes the gun a very real liability should someone accidentally shoot themselves or somebody else while handling your gun. Doesn't matter if
the modification didn't have anything to do with the AD, nor does it matter that earlier and some contemporary 1911s don't have it.

Just something to be aware of. And Hawk's spot on. The added parts have almost no practical effect on the trigger pull in a Series 80 pistol.

[Tom T Bosee]

While we are on this subject, does anyone have any record, anecdotal or otherwise, of a 1911 without a firingpin safety ever going off when dropped? Starting with my father, who served in both theaters of WWII, I never heard a vet that carried one say it was a problem. I guess you can over-come a weak inertia firingpin spring if you fling the gun just right!

[emptyhead]

Thanks guys for the information. The gun is strictly a bulleye gun, not carry.

[John]

Answering the original question first:

Remove the upper lever from the frame, the lower one can stay in, or you can remove both and use the Brownells spacer instead. Then remove the plunger and spring from your slide. That's it.

Second, I have indeed find no difference in trigger pull weight with or without the Series 80 parts. Negligible, is the correct term. I am sure you will not notice the difference in your trigger finger.

As for the 1911 firing if dropped and if it is not equipped with a firing pin safety, there is an article on that in the Technical Issues forum. Only if you fabricate a special fixture, which will assure that the pistol is dropped straight on its muzzle (100% straight), from a height of more than 15 feet, it is possible for the pistol to fire.

[Tom T Bosee]

Thanks John, for the info; I doubt any reader of this post is in the habit of dropping their 1911. When I read the accounts of what the Army put this pistol through when testing it, I'm sure if it needed a firing pin safety, JMB would have designed one!

[John]

Very correct, JMB didn't include anything useless in his pistol. He would rather withdraw it from the Army tests than do it. I do not know what Samuel Colt would have done, but....

[brickeyee]

JMB did not include a grip safety either. That was added at the behest of the military.

[OD*]

JMB did not include a grip safety either. That was added at the behest of the military.
No, that was the thumb safety, look at the M1907, M1909 and the M1910.

[1911Tuner]

No, that was the thumb safety, look at the M1907, M1909 and the M1910.

Bingo. The first military contract pistol with the grip safety was the Model 1907. Credit or blame Georg Luger's little beauty. When the M1910 was submitted, the grip safety that we know and love was already there...and Army Ordnance asked that the thumb safety be added before the trials began.

[RickB]

The whole gun was designed at the behest of the military. There seems to be an impression that the M1911 sprung, whole, from JMB's mind, in a fit of brilliance. The design is brilliant, but it was designed over a period of years, and could not have been as successful without input from the army, and the not inconsiderable engineering and production expertise of Colt. A lot of Browning's earlier designs had both grip and thumb safeties, and some had neither. The 1911 has the combination that the intended customer wanted.

[OD*]

Johnny,

Do you know when Luger first used a grip safety?
JMB filed a patent for a ".38 Caliber Semi-Auto Pistol" on 31 Oct. 1896 and this design incorporated a grip safety.

[1911Tuner]

Johnny,

Do you know when Luger first used a grip safety?
JMB filed a patent for a ".38 Caliber Semi-Auto Pistol" on 31 Oct. 1896 and this design incorporated a grip safety.

Not sure...but I remember reading that it was the Army Ordnance department that looked at the early Lugers and decided on the safety.

RickB nailed the issue pretty well smack on the hittin' spot. The 1911 as we know it wasn't solely Browning's design, but was developed as part of a joint effort with the Ordnance Department and a team of engineers at Colt with whom Browning worked hand-in-hand during all stages of that development.

The final result was the 1911 pistol. It would probably be safe to say that Browning borrowed a part of this design and a part of that...and not all his own designs. The credit must go to many rather than one, although the accolades for the main meat of the gun goes to John Browning.