1911 Grip Safety

by estuck 1/13/2023, 9:58 am

I am trying to tune the grip safety on my 1911 ball gun. It has the extended/beavertail safety. The trigger will not release until the safety is almost bottomed out. Not a problem unless my grip is less than perfect. So far I have polished the nose, and filed and polished the underside of the nose. Has made some slight improvement. Any other suggestions?

by Jon Eulette 1/13/2023, 10:48 am

Underside of the nose can be filed. Keep doing it a little at a time until just right. Leave the tip alone.
Jon

by mikemyers 1/15/2023, 5:17 am

I have the same problem - my hands are too skinny, and won't reliably keep my grip safety all the way in. I added some "foam" tape to the end to stick out further, which is a miserable solution but it does help.

Jon, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the "nose" and the "tip".

by STEVE SAMELAK 1/15/2023, 6:27 am

the nose is the part of the grip safety that makes contact with the back of the trigger bow.
if it's too long it will jam
if it's too short it will allow the gun to fire even when you are not gripping the gun

by NukeMMC 1/15/2023, 6:43 am

STEVE SAMELAK wrote:the nose is the part of the grip safety that makes contact with the back of the trigger bow.
if it's too long it will jam
if it's too short it will allow the gun to fire even when you are not gripping the gun

I agree, and disagree. The nose (yellow arrow) has to be long enough to prevent the trigger bow from coming back far enough to release the sear. The relief cut on the bottom of the nose has to be high enough to allow consistently unimpeded travel of the trigger bow when the pistol is gripped. (File/stone in the red area only)

by STEVE SAMELAK 1/15/2023, 7:04 am

I was only commenting on one part of the equation,,,having the attention span of a heavily coffeed squirrel I have to keep a tight leash

That being said, I worry about people tinkering with the fire control system before they have an adequate understanding of how all the parts interact,

by NukeMMC 1/15/2023, 7:12 am

I agree. Those who don't have the mechanical aptitude to do so should not tinker with safety devices.

On the other hand, this is one of those parts, though, that can be VERY personal. The position and firmness of your grip can make or break whether or not the grip safety disengages. Unless you are there with the 'smith when he is adjusting it, you should know how it works, how much and where to trim to make it fit your grip, while remaining functional.

by shanneba 1/15/2023, 8:00 am

I found this article on fitting the Grip safety useful-

It mentions the grip safety possibly having interference with the frame.

1911 Final Grip Safety Fitting | An Official Journal Of The NRA (shootingillustrated.com)

by mikemyers 1/15/2023, 8:07 am

NukeMMC wrote:I agree. Those who don't have the mechanical aptitude to do so should not tinker with safety devices.............Unless you are there with the 'smith when he is adjusting it, you should know how it works, how much and where to trim to make it fit your grip, while remaining functional.

I completely agree, and since this happens with both my 1911 guns that I shoot, the REAL problem me ME and MY GRIP. The first round always fires. By the time I get to the third or fourth round, the gun may not fire - which is why I put the piece of foam rubber on the outside of the grip safety.

Having watched the videos on GRIP, I am pretty sure I start out right, but my hand either loosens up, or shifts. My solution has been a LOT of dry-fire, which has helped.

Why do ONLY the 1911 style guns have a grip safety? If it is so important, why is it missing on my other guns?
The best solution I can think of is to grip the gun even harder, so my hand can't/won't change its position on the gun.
....and also to use the foam tape on the back of the grip safety, which is mostly worn away in my photo above.

by Tripscape 1/15/2023, 8:13 am

Another, a more bold move, is to file down the vertical shelf of the mainspring housing that keeps the safety in. What you will be doing is allowing the safety to stick out more from the pistol and therefore easier to engage. That, along with proper nose filing, will give you a more positive engagement.

Else if your safety is operational and you are seeking to add engagement, then just stick on a felt pad. I find that furniture leg sticky felt pads work great for that purpose. 1 minute job.

by mikemyers 1/15/2023, 8:19 am

shanneba wrote:I found this article on fitting the Grip safety useful-

1911 Final Grip Safety Fitting | An Official Journal Of The NRA (shootingillustrated.com)

I read the article, but I think the real problem is ME, not the grip safety. If my right hand holds the grip safety in, all is well.
If my hand relaxes, and allows the grip safety to move out, the gun does the right thing, and fails to fire.
This is shooting two-handed. My hands are rather skinny. There isn't much "meat" there. That's why using the foam tape works.

This video is what I have learned to do, wrapping both hands around the gun as shown in the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXbqwx5UGx8

Again, I'm 99% sure that the problem is ME, not the gun. The problem doesn't happen very often, but I don't want it to ever happen.

by mikemyers 1/15/2023, 8:21 am

Tripscape wrote:........Else if your safety is operational and you are seeking to add engagement, then just stick on a felt pad. I find that furniture leg sticky felt pads work great for that purpose. 1 minute job.

Thank You!!

I will try this instead of what I've been doing.

by CR10X 1/15/2023, 9:13 am

1911's are not the only pistols with grip safeties.

by STEVE SAMELAK 1/15/2023, 9:50 am

both my xd-tacticals have grip safetys

by estuck 1/15/2023, 11:13 am

I believe I am getting it to where it needs to be. It is a tedious process. File a little, polish reassemble dry fire, repeat. Interestingly if I take a one handed bullseye grip there are no issues. However if a take a two handed thumb stack grip(I am left handed using slabs) my shooting hand moves off the grip safety just enough that the safety occasionally does not release the sear. I now have it where the trigger will release when the safety is about half way depressed. It really is a personal fitting. No real shortcuts here.

by Tripscape 1/15/2023, 1:26 pm

mikemyers wrote:
Tripscape wrote:........Else if your safety is operational and you are seeking to add engagement, then just stick on a felt pad. I find that furniture leg sticky felt pads work great for that purpose. 1 minute job.
Thank You!!

I will try this instead of what I've been doing.

by Slamfire 1/18/2023, 9:56 am

take a look at this video and see how the grip safety works at the third minute and 10 seconds.

I want to make the point about the danger of relying on the grip safety and the thumb safety as safeties. These are not hammer blocking safeties. They are trigger bow blocking safeties, that is, sear blocking safeties.

If the hammer notch, or trigger sear fails, neither the thumb or grip safety will block the fall of the hammer. The safety of your 1911 depends on the mechanical integrity of the engagement between the sear and hammer. If the hammer slips, if the sear breaks, the hammer will fall.

1911 Grip Safety YqKnXc8

There are actions with firing pin blocks, and due to malfunctions with Colt series 80 firing pin blocks, I don't trust them.

by mikemyers 1/18/2023, 2:37 pm

Slamfire wrote:take a look at this video and see how the grip safety works at the third minute and 10 seconds.

.......

I've watched many animation videos of a 1911. This is by far the best. I've bookmarked it, so it doesn't get lost.
Thank you for posting!

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