While I had my 1911 apart today to install my DIY light pipe front sight (see previous post) I decided I might as well detail strip it and see if I could make the trigger pull any better.
It wasn’t too bad to begin with, but it was a little stiff and gritty. I had already done a little work to it, but I thought I’d take another stab.
The things I ended up doing were:
- Polishing the sides and back of the trigger bow – I had already done this a little, but I made it even smoother.
- Polishing the face of the sear – I used 1500 grit paper with a hard backing and some oil and only polished it until the bluing was gone and it was smooth. I did not mess with the size or angle.
- Polished the sear hooks on the hammer. Again, same thing as the sear. Just enough to make them shiny and smooth.
- Polished the feet of the sear that sit on the disconnect – these were really rough, so I smoothed them out a little.
- Polished the back of the disconnect where it sits on the trigger bow. Again, just a light polish to smooth it out.
- As I was fitting the trigger back into the frame I notice that it was hanging up a little. There was a little rough spot where the machining for the bow slot ended. So I smoothed that out. I think this made a big difference.
As long as I had it apart, I did some cosmetic polishing too. I had seen another 1911 where the owner had polished the sides (just the sides) of the hammer. I thought that looked pretty slick, so I did that.
I also polished the sides of the trigger. But I was getting tired of polishing at that point, so I didn’t do a stellar job. I wanted to get the pistol back together to test the trigger pull so I’ll have to go back and polish the trigger some more later.
The trigger pull feels much smoother and possibly lighter – wish I had a gauge.
And yes, the pistol passed all safety checks. Now I need to go shoot it and see if the mods make any difference.
