Re: Softer-recoiling 1911
Retmsgt
I also use the Wilson Combat hammers and sear, though there are others that are also good. While there is nothing wrong with the MIM parts, most of the ones I have messed with are VERY hard, making them a pain to work with when it is needed.
Regarding the dialog on the 2.5 pound trigger pull being more or less guaranteed to go full auto in a 45 ACP. I, and others, have played with properly set up triggers in this weight range and none of us, "as of yet", has experienced this. The fail would require that the sear did not return to the hammer hooks, at least sufficiently so as to not slip off the hooks. I hear this fail attributed to "sear bounce". There is always some degree of bounce between two objects that collide, but sear bounce is a constant based on the speed of the sear, dictated by the sear leaf spring, hitting the hammer hook notch face. In brain storming sessions between myself and other mechanical system designers about the interactions here, there are variables that can cause this full auto occurrence. The cause here is indeed related to the lack of sufficient sear return spring leaf tension, which determine how quickly the sear can accelerate into the hammer hooks as the hammer follows the slide in its returning to battery. The variable though, is the relative speed of the slide as at is coming forward, which is faster with hot loads, due to slide to frame impact...or "bounce"...that imparts additional acceleration to the slide ...which is why the 1911 can function without a recoil spring, other than the obvious need to manually operate the slide to chamber the first round. The result is that the hammer is attempt to following the slide at this faster rate, and there does indeed come a point where the sear spring tension is insufficient to accelerate the sear fast enough to engage into the hammer hooks at all, or at least sufficiently so as to stop the hammer and then slide into full engagement under sear spring tension.
As I mentioned, I would NOT set up a gun for a client with a trigger less than 3.5 pounds...nor am I personally inclined to habitually shoot really hot loads with a trigger less than 3.5 pounds, as I want the trigger pull with those loads to be representative of what I would use in a social encounter gun. Plus there are the litigation reasons...the courts and expert witnesses seem to have concluded that 3.5 pounds and above is good, and that anything less is then referred to as a "hair trigger" and bad, at least in the 1911. For the cast bullet loads I am running in the dedicated Caspian, the 2.5 pounds is safe. That said, I have fired some 500 plus rounds of full power loads in this gun, as much as anything, to see what would happen, plus the fact that I enjoy shooting the thing. I have examined guns belonging to other folks who have fired thousands of rounds in 1911's with triggers this light, some intentionally set that way by the owner, and others that where that way for unknown reasons, without the owner realizing just how light the trigger was.
One other factor that might play a part, at least in my own guns, is that I run a 20 pound hammer spring for the softer pull it affords me, but which could "maybe" contribute the hammer not actually following the faster moving slide, i.e., the forward hammer acceleration and speed is never fast enough to over run the sear. Of course, maybe I and others have just been lucky so far.
There is also the possibly that a proper 2.5 pound trigger is just not light enough to cause the full auto phenomenon with full power loads in a 1911. It is sort of academic really...I will NEVER set up a gun for a client with a trigger less than 3.5 pounds.
In passing, regarding the 20 pound hammer spring, I have tested this on every primer I could lay hands on, GI issue and otherwise, and a weak hammer/firing pin strikes is absolutely NOT an issue, even with the heavier firing pin return springs I run in all my guns.
