1911 not functioning correctly

Hello All, 

Have a small problem with one of my 1911's. The gun fails a safety check. It can be fired without engaging the Grip Safety. How/what do I do to get the safety working again? 

Brian

does it still fire if you pull or push the safety all the way back  ? if not then you simply need more tension on the leg to push it further back

the grip safety basically locks against the bow of the trigger to stop it from moving rearward. Did the safety ever work?

I've seen them swaged and welded to build up the area that contacts the trigger bow..

worse case a new grip safety..

easy fix for most any 1911 smith

Yes, the hammer still falls if I push the grip safety all the way up.

if the grip safety is high rise beavertail fitted to the pistol I'd get it welded and re-cut to function correctly


did you change anything on the pistol? grip safeties generally don't wear out..

if you remove the grips you can see how it works.. the safety has a little arm that rotates up out of the way of the trigger bow when the safety is depressed.. in it's normal position it should swing down and block the rear of the bow


if you aren't familiar with the 1911 any smith should be able to fix it pretty quickly.

Just like JGlen said. If you take the mainspring housing, leaf spring, and the left grip panel you should see how it works.

The camp perry trick is to use a pointed punch on the grip safety lever to spread the metal farther into the trigger bow's path.

Often the grip safety is set so it requires very little movement to deactivate the safety. I usually check them by holding the complete gun in my left hand on the muzzle end of the slide with my thumb in the trigger guard, the hammer down (not cocked) With my right hand push in the grip safety then push the trigger all the way back with my left hand thumb then release the safety. It should stay down, slowly release the trigger and see how the grip safety pops out. If it don't stay in, it is probably too short to peen as Rob suggested. If it does stay down until the trigger is released then peening it as per Rob is possible. If it only requires a little stretch of metal it can be done without the center punch. Just lay the end on something hard and peed with a hammer. If nothing has been done to the gun like changing the trigger or stoning the sear then your hammer hook or the sear may be wearing round  and most likely the combination of both. You should have it looked at because you might soon be doubling.
 However there is a wear factor, as stated it usually does not wear much, but I have seen on some guns the shooter didn't hold the grip safety all the way in (easy to do and why it's usually adjusted with very little travel and after market safeties have that bump) Shooting the gun with the safety not all the way in and on the very edge of release increases trigger pull quite a bit but after a while it will wear a groove in the trigger bow and round the edge of the safety. This can be seen if as mentioned above the trigger is pushed with the thumb but the safety not pushed in. When the trigger is pushed the safety goes in a slight bit.
 If you grip is such that the grip safety is not completely depressed (like mine) you may consider getting a safety with that raised bump.

Thank you everyone for the input. I better understand how the grip safety works. 

Brian