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Proper adjustment of over-travel and pre-travel screw


UW Mitch

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In another thread Dave (Krautwagen) started talking about the over-travel and pre-travel screw adjustments. It's important to have them properly adjusted for reliable function of the pistol.

Overtravel screw

The over-travel screw limits how far the trigger moves after the sear clears the hammer. You need a little over-travel, or the sear may not completely clear the hammer. From Henning in response to a friend who is having ignition issues

Another issue can be that if the over-travel screw has been screwed inn too long and the sear doesn't clear the hammer completely as it falls to ignite. That'll easily give you misfires since the hammer speed is being slowed down upon release.

Pre-travel screw

The pre-travel screw adjust how far forward the trigger travels when not depressed. It takes the "slack" (distance the trigger moves before you start moving the sear) out of the trigger. Too little slack and the trigger might not be let out enough to allow the sear to reset.

Please add thoughts or technical corrections.

Aloha!

Mitch

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That's a pretty good summation of what I was thinking Mitch.

If the pros could chime in and let us know of a proper way to get them dialed in as tight as possible while still maintaining reliability and ensuring no damage, it'd be much appreciated. :cheers:

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Hey Mitch,

Thanks for bringing this up. After your buddy had problems it dawned on me that this should be covered on my Tech forum. Okay, so here's the deal. Once I make it to Phoenix and am finished shooting the Area 2 - Desert Classic I'm going to be spending a week at Brian's house to chill out. Well, that'll give me lots of free time and I'm going to be writing up articles, especially 6-7 match articles that I've got pictures and videos from and now finally can relax to write about. It's been a great year full of good matches, but also busy with my online shop. So... look for match articles in the week after Area 2, I'll be keyboarding.. ;-)

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I'll give you one perspective, anyhow... Once you insure that the trigger can reset, and that the sear clears the hammer, its personal taste. That goes for any gun, not just CZs or 1911s, really... As long as the mechanisms work properly anything else is generally fine.

I prefer some takeup in the trigger, so that I can feel where the sear engagement begins, and I prefer a good amount of overtravel for a couple of reasons - primarily because I follow through better when the trigger doesn't hit a hard stop right after the sear releases... ;)

As AlamoShooter says, though... I may not know nuthin'... ;)

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Hey Mitch,

Thanks for bringing this up. After your buddy had problems it dawned on me that this should be covered on my Tech forum. Okay, so here's the deal. Once I make it to Phoenix and am finished shooting the Area 2 - Desert Classic I'm going to be spending a week at Brian's house to chill out. Well, that'll give me lots of free time and I'm going to be writing up articles, especially 6-7 match articles that I've got pictures and videos from and now finally can relax to write about. It's been a great year full of good matches, but also busy with my online shop. So... look for match articles in the week after Area 2, I'll be keyboarding.. ;-)

Ya! Get to writing you name droppn beyatch! :P hahahaah

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I'll give you one perspective, anyhow... Once you insure that the trigger can reset, and that the sear clears the hammer, its personal taste.

My ponderance deals with setting it up so that you are ensured that the sear will reset and just how much clearance is required to prevent sear damage from the hammer. Not sure if testing during dryfire under 'static' conditions translates properly to live fire...

If anybody has experimented with setting theirs up really tight for a decent amount of time, results or input would be greatly appreciated.

FWIW, I tend to run mine loose, but I'd like to know just where the limit is...

Edited by Krautwagen
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In light of my posting this thread and my 1 out 15-ish fail-to-ignite (FTI?) I thought I'd check mine. Making sure the gun is cleared, no ammo around, I rack the slide, and pull the trigger. With the trigger still all the way down, I manually started to pull the hammer back with my support thumb and noticed that as it was reseting the hammer slightly was dragging on the sear. I went to adjust the over-travel screw and noticed it was pretty easy to move. I backed it out, cleaned it, and put a little blue loctite. Then screwed it in, and adjusted it so that when I repeat my test, the hammer doesn't drag on the sear. It feels like there's a little more over-travel, but I think I'll be okay with it. Put a little nail polish on the back side of the screw/trigger to make sure it won't move again.

I suspect it was adjusted just absolutely perfect from Rich, but during shooting vibrated "in" causing it to stop the trigger too soon in its travel. I'll try it out tonight with Winchester primers, but I'll take some loaded w/ Feds just in case :D

~Mitch

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