Thumb position for 1911

[jhgtyre]

George D,

I put a little piece of shock buff that I trimmed into a rough U shape between my grip safety and the main spring housing.  This holds the grip safety down and it is easy to take out if it is no longer wanted.  I got that tip here or at the range, I can't remember which, and it helped me a lot.

-jhgtyre

[Duane Thomas]

George,

Yes, it's legal in both IPSC and IPDA. But it's not your problem. The grip safety has no effect on the firing pin. All it does is block the trigger from being pulled to the rear until it's been depressed. You might want to stop listening to the "experts" at your range. I'd look for either crud in the firing pin channel or a weak hammer spring.

The way I check the hammer spring - admittedly this is non-scientific - is to MAKE SURE THE GUN IS UNLOADED, point the cocked gun straight up, drop a pencil down the barrel and pull the trigger. Watch how high the pencil flies into the air. If the pencil pops off the ceiling you're okay. If it even flies up a significant amount, you're okay. If it barely clears the barrel, or just moves up slightly and then falls back in, there's something wrong.

It's also worth noting, because the 945 has no firing pin lock and Smith was worried about dropped gun inertial firing pin discharges, the 945 has a titanium firing pin instead of steel. Maybe the light firing pin might be a contributing factor. Personally I'd go for a steel firing pin for more inertia to pop primers, and install a heavy duty firing pin spring to guard against inertial fire, but that's just me.

Your problem is puzzling. The S&W 945 I had for test and eval worked great. Still, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out and get working again. You might want to call the Smith & Wesson Performance Center and tell them your problem.

[lynn jones]

maybe you thumb is dragging on the slide?

[George D]

Thanks for the tips Duane. Problems that occur only intermittently usually prove tricky to solve, and the gun functions perfectly most of the time with strong primer indents.

What did you think of the 945 in areas other than reliability?

(Edited by George D at 8:00 am on Oct. 31, 2002)

[Duane Thomas]

I thought it was great. Most 1911 .45s don't feed perfectly out of the box (sacrilege, I know). But if you can say one thing about the Smith .45s, they tend to be very feed reliable, in large part because of a barrel to magazine relationship granting a near straight-line feed into the chamber. Combining a Smith top end with a 1911 control layout is the best of both worlds. I really, REALLY hated to send this gun back to Smith.