Fitting New Grip Safety: Springfield Range Officer

[cohland]

How difficult is it to fit a replacement grip safety to the Springfield Range Officer? If you have done this, please let me know.

My Range Officer came with the ILS in a flat MSH. I changed it to an arched standard MSH and the Grip Safety stopped working. My guess is that it was fitted very precisely originally.

In an effort to get the Grip Safety to function, I attempted to stretch it by peening (Kuhnhausen, Volume 1, page 95), but the effort failed and I managed to break the part. I have a replacement part on order, but I understand it needs fitting, and that's the part I'm trying to learn about.

[38superfan]

Did you check your mainspring tension before you fiddled with the saferty?

[cohland]

Did you check your mainspring tension before you fiddled with the saferty?

Yes, I replaced the entire Springfield MSH and safety with a new standard MSH, with a new mainspring. Everything works fine.

But the question isn't about that, it's about fitting a new Grip Safety, since I broke the one in the gun.

[knedrgr]

The reason your old BTGS wasn't working with the new MSH is that the new MSH was too thick, thus changing the angle that it engages the trigger bow. If you notice there's a stop tab at the bottom of the BTGS. This tab makes contact with the back of the MSH. If one of the two parts are too thick, you can file down either part to elongate the engagement point, thus swinging the BTGS's blocking arm down to make contact with the back of the trigger bow.

Yes, the new GS will need to be fitted.

To help fit the new BTGS, take off your grip panel and you can look inside to see the engagement and disengagement points.

Just remember, file a little will go along way. It's easier to remove metal than to put it back on.

This picture shows the BTGS disengaged (pressed) and the trigger pressed back.

[cohland]

The reason your old BTGS wasn't working with the new MSH is that the new MSH was too thick, thus changing the angle that it engages the trigger bow. If you notice there's a stop tab at the bottom of the BTGS. This tab makes contact with the back of the MSH. If one of the two parts are too thick, you can file down either part to elongate the engagement point, thus swinging the BTGS's blocking arm down to make contact with the back of the trigger bow.

Yes, the new GS will need to be fitted.

To help fit the new BTGS, take off your grip panel and you can look inside to see the engagement and disengagement points.

Just remember, file a little will go along way. It's easier to remove metal than to put it back on.

This picture shows the BTGS disengaged (pressed) and the trigger pressed back.

VERY helpful post and photo, thank you!

Chris

[cohland]

Closure is a good thing.

The part (10710 EGW .220 Beavertail Grip Safety Blue) from Brownells arrived. It is a drop-in fit! There was a tiny, tiny bit of friction between the sides of the part and the frame, but after cycling it a few times I think it is serviceable enough to take to the range for testing. If I need to relieve it a little bit later on, I will do that, but for now it's good to go. The Grip Safety functions perfectly with no fitting needed at all, and everything else still passes the safety tests. I not only fixed something, but I managed to avoid breaking anything else in the process.

Every once in a while, as I continue to learn about the 1911, I have a bit of what I can only call Good Luck, and this was one of those times.

Whew.

Chris

[knedrgr]

Good to hear. Glad it worked out for you. EGW makes some truly awesome parts. My picture is of a EGW BTGS that I was fitting for that custom build.

For future reference, EGW doesn't make a lot of parts that are drop-in for the 1911. Especially, their BTGS. It's meant to be over size in every aspect for a true GS fit. I've used two of their BTGS on my builds, and will be using another on an up coming build. So, it goes to show that the Range Officer was a little out of spec.