Hammer following the slide on my 2011!

[Ssanders224]

Guys,

I was practicing yesterday with my Limited gun (Custom built 2011), and 2 or 3 times out of about 300 rounds, the hammer followed the slide down.

It did not set off the next round, but it was all the way down.

I fired about another 150 rounds, and could not make it happen again?

The sear is new (EGW), with less than 1000 rounds on it, and the angles were checked in a jig.

What could be the problem? Trigger is not super light, breaks clean at about 2.5-3lbs. If I cant re-create it, and all the parts look fine, what should I do?

Thanks for the info.

[Scott Steele]

Let a competent 2011 gun smith take care of it. Your hammer follow isn't going to fix itself.

Good luck.

[R-Bros_JLR]

I seem to recall having this happen with one of mine and it turned out there was something haywire with the sear spring. Just a thought, good luck!

[JaeOne3345]

1. What hammer?

2. Tighten all grip screws.

3. Make sure the bend in your sear spring is not making contact with the hammer strut! I had my smith shave my strut a bit.

4. Make sure the left and middle sear spring fingers are adjusted properly.

Edited September 27, 2012 by JaeOne3345

[Ssanders224]

Koenig hammer.

I'll check my grip screws, but I usually keep them tight.

I'll take a look at the seat spring, but there shouldn't be a problem with it? The gun is not new, it has run reliably for 2 seasons of shooting.

[oak hill]

Try putting a little more tension on the left tab of the sear spring

[45 Raven]

+1 on the sear spring suggestions.

[Action Pistolero]

Sounds to me like you have a reset problem. With an unloaded gun, rack the slide and pull the trigger. Hold the trigger back and rack the gun again. Release the trigger slowly. You should hear a distinctive click. If you don't, put some more pressure on the trigger bow and disconnector by bending the middle finger of the sear spring inward. You can further test it by locking the slide open, hold the trigger back and drop the slide on an empty chamber. The hammer shouldn't follow. I don't recommend doing this often as it is an unnatural act and beats up the breechface and barrel hood.

[Tohya]

Check the over travel screw, make sure you don't have too much or too little over travel.

[Ssanders224]

Sounds to me like you have a reset problem. With an unloaded gun, rack the slide and pull the trigger. Hold the trigger back and rack the gun again. Release the trigger slowly. You should hear a distinctive click. If you don't, put some more pressure on the trigger bow and disconnector by bending the middle finger of the sear spring inward. You can further test it by locking the slide open, hold the trigger back and drop the slide on an empty chamber. The hammer shouldn't follow. I don't recommend doing this often as it is an unnatural act and beats up the breechface and barrel hood.

Reset feels great, thats the first thing I checked. Nice positive click.

I cannot make the hammer follow dry no matter what I do. Drop the slide, thumb the cocked hammer, engage/disengage thumb safety, everything seems solid.

Check the over travel screw, make sure you don't have too much or too little over travel.

Over travel is where is should be as far as I know. Just a little movment after the sear trips.

Enough so that it comfortably clears the half hooks.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Any other ideas?

[Tohya]

Over travel should be set at 1/2 to 1 turn out from when the sear stops dragging on the hammer.

Too little over travel and the gun can bump fire, try backing the screw out a 1/4 turn.

[Ssanders224]

It seems that I'm not the only one with this problem!

Just found this thread.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=118214&pid=1787921&st=25entry1787921

[yoshidaex]

Do you have a loupe to inspect your hammer hooks?

[Ssanders224]

Do you have a loupe to inspect your hammer hooks?

Yep.

Should I look for anything in particular? The look nice and uniform.

[yoshidaex]

Are they perfectly at an 90deg angle and not laid back?

[Action Pistolero]

It sounds like your pistol checks out the way it should. Next we have to look at the operator.

You didn't specify this but, did the hammer follow after a draw or the first shot after the thumb safety had been engaged prior to the shot? If this is the case, you may be pulling the trigger and then disengaging the thumb safety. When a shooter does this it slows down the hammer enough to not set off the primer. Make sure the thumb safety is disengaged before you touch the trigger.

[Tohya]

What trigger do you have? It could be trigger bounce, could try increasing the tension on the center leg of the sear spring.

[Ssanders224]

Thanks for the replies guys!

The follow happened each time in the middle of a stage, or string of fire. I think during very fast splits each time. Not related to engaging/disengaging the thumb safety.

It is an STI short curved trigger. The center and left leg have as much or more tension on them as any of my pistols.

Explain trigger bounce if you can, because to be clear, the hammer is NOT stopping at half cock, and is NOT setting off the next round. The malfunction leaves me with a dead trigger, and completely de-cocked hammer.

[pmd]

Ssanders224,

Your not alone.

My backup STI 38 sc Open pistol has been doing this in practice for a while too.

I can seem to get mine to reproduce hammer follow dry and can only reproduce hammer follow with fast splits ..like in a Bill Drill.

I looked at everything, similar to advice above but I'm no gunsmith and plan to ship my pistol to my gunsmith next week.

I'll let you know what he says.

[juan]

I had a pistol that was doing something simialr the smith moved the hooks back on my hammer.

[entropic]

Try putting a little more tension on the left tab of the sear spring

That could fix it, but it may just mask the real problem for a while. Find someone who know's what they are doing, have them look at it, and try to get as much knowledge out of him as you can.

Edited September 30, 2012 by entropic

[entropic]

It sounds like your pistol checks out the way it should. Next we have to look at the operator.

You didn't specify this but, did the hammer follow after a draw or the first shot after the thumb safety had been engaged prior to the shot? If this is the case, you may be pulling the trigger and then disengaging the thumb safety. When a shooter does this it slows down the hammer enough to not set off the primer. Make sure the thumb safety is disengaged before you touch the trigger.

I'm interested how this could happen unless you have no half-cock notch...

Edited September 30, 2012 by entropic

[Action Pistolero]

It sounds like your pistol checks out the way it should. Next we have to look at the operator.

You didn't specify this but, did the hammer follow after a draw or the first shot after the thumb safety had been engaged prior to the shot? If this is the case, you may be pulling the trigger and then disengaging the thumb safety. When a shooter does this it slows down the hammer enough to not set off the primer. Make sure the thumb safety is disengaged before you touch the trigger.

I'm interested how this could happen unless you have no half-cock notch...

Half cock worked. When the trigger is pulled the sear is out of the way of the half cock notch. I have only seen this happen to one shooter. Once he disengaged the safety before he went for the trigger the problem went away.

[Tohya]

Explain trigger bounce if you can, because to be clear, the hammer is NOT stopping at half cock, and is NOT setting off the next round. The malfunction leaves me with a dead trigger, and completely de-cocked hammer.

Trigger bounce is unlikely with a light weight trigger. With a solid trigger, low hammer hooks and light sear spring, when the slide closes the inertia of the trigger trips the sear.

Does your slide overcock the hammer? Pull the slide all the back so that the disconnector pops up, pull and hold the trigger while letting the slide close.

[Ssanders224]

Explain trigger bounce if you can, because to be clear, the hammer is NOT stopping at half cock, and is NOT setting off the next round. The malfunction leaves me with a dead trigger, and completely de-cocked hammer.

Trigger bounce is unlikely with a light weight trigger. With a solid trigger, low hammer hooks and light sear spring, when the slide closes the inertia of the trigger trips the sear.

Does your slide overcock the hammer? Pull the slide all the back so that the disconnector pops up, pull and hold the trigger while letting the slide close.

I'll check this after work.

I'm sure my slide pushes down on the hammer slightly. It does on my 1911s.

But I'm not sure how this could cause the problem? Can you explain?

If I pull the trigger (drop the hammer) and hold the trigger back, the dissconector should not pop up when the slide is pulled all the way back? It is trapped under the legs of the sear until I release the trigger...