1911 Grip Safety Improvement

[RJ]

I'd mess around in dry fire with different compromised grips. Get the worst grip on it you can where you would still want the gun to go off if that's the grip you had and you decided to pull the trigger. Work strong hand and weak hand, rotate the grip in your hand, etc. Doing this I've found issues with grip safeties that never gave me problems at the range because I never tried to shoot them with a compromised grip, but just because my grip isn't perfect doesn't mean I don't want the gun to go off when I pull the trigger. These are carry guns in my case but this could be equally applicable to competition.

I set mine to get out of the way of the trigger in the first quarter of travel.

Thanks. Did some more research into how the bottom surface of the ‘beak’ (?) of the GS affects engagement. I think I understand the mechanics involved. I’d like to say I’ll leave it as is, but I’d be lying. My OCD would drive me nuts if I didn’t fiddle with it.

Appreciate the info.

[Elwin]

Thanks. Did some more research into how the bottom surface of the ‘beak’ (?) of the GS affects engagement. I think I understand the mechanics involved. I’d like to say I’ll leave it as is, but I’d be lying. My OCD would drive me nuts if I didn’t fiddle with it.

Appreciate the info.

I'm absolutely positive that you do understand it - it's not complicated and you're obviously mechanically savvy. I'm not a gunsmith of any description and I've done this successfully twice, once by filing on the grip safety arm and the other time by doing the filing on the trigger bar ("risk ruining the cheapest part" theory). I've worked on a third, a tertiary gun in this house, that's almost there but needs just a bit more relief when I get around to it.

[RevolverJIM]

I fitted a "memory bump" GS to one of my Kimbers and after getting it to disengage early enough to suit me
(about 30% depressed), I found that the Swartz drop safety kept the firing pin locked so the cartridge wouldn't fire.

So if you are working with a 1911 with the Swartz drop safety you may have a decision to make about what to do with the drop safety.

[Elwin]

I fitted a "memory bump" GS to one of my Kimbers and after getting it to disengage early enough to suit me
(about 30% depressed), I found that the Swartz drop safety kept the firing pin locked so the cartridge wouldn't fire.

So if you are working with a 1911 with the Swartz drop safety you may have a decision to make about what to do with the drop safety.

Been there. Had to tune the Swartz safeties on two Kimbers. It was a pain in the ass but doable. A chainsaw file fits the half moon cut of that firing pin block, it's just a pain to get to it because it's under the rear sight and then it's a lot of file-test-file-test-repeat to do the job.

It's one of those things that makes a Kimber a Kimber - all of that should have been done when the gun was put together, but that's hard to do when you don't employ any gunsmiths at your 1911 factory...

[JonInWA]

It's actually quite easy to do a non-mechanically altering grip safety tune simply by judiciously bending the appropriate tine on the sear spring. I'll recommend starting with whatever you've got, but Colt and Wilson Bullet Proofs are the ones I recommend if you want to switch.

Best, Jon

[SW CQB 45]

Being large handed and with modern high grip 1911s and utilizing a thumb over the thumb safety... I can grip hard and have a pocket.

Rob tuned both my ACWs at 50 %.

My current duty issue Green MCOP... I have tested sloppy fast gripping out of a Level III duty holster and I never had an issue.

I would almost venture to say if you grip under the thumb safety it would never been an issue as the higher the thumb, the more it reduces your meaty portion of the palm on the grip safety.

I prefer thumb over the safety but I also don't have a choice due to hand size.



this is what I mean by raising your thumb, to me it moves palm meat away from the grip safety.

[Robinson]

Thanks. Did some more research into how the bottom surface of the ‘beak’ (?) of the GS affects engagement. I think I understand the mechanics involved. I’d like to say I’ll leave it as is, but I’d be lying. My OCD would drive me nuts if I didn’t fiddle with it.

Appreciate the info.

If you do decide to tune your grip safety, a few things to keep in mind.

Go slow. Remove a little material, reassemble and assess. Then do a little more if needed. Remove too much and the grip safety is ruined.

Only remove material from the underside of the grip safety tang. Not the tip of the tang.

Keep the edge of the tang straight, do not introduce a slant to the tang edge.

After filing to the right dimensions, I like to go over mine with a stone for a bit to make sure it is nice and smooth.

Since yours is a blued gun, touch up with Cold Blue.

[RJ]

If you do decide to tune your grip safety, a few things to keep in mind.

Go slow. Remove a little material, reassemble and assess. Then do a little more if needed. Remove too much and the grip safety is ruined.

Only remove material from the underside of the grip safety tang. Not the tip of the tang.

Keep the edge of the tang straight, do not introduce a slant to the tang edge.

After filing to the right dimensions, I like to go over mine with a stone for a bit to make sure it is nice and smooth.

Since yours is a blued gun, touch up with Cold Blue.

Excellent, thanks for writing that up. May give this a shot soon.

[RJ]

Thanks again all. I think I got this knocked out this morning. I was surprised how very little it takes to affect percent of engagement. For a reference, I measured from the rear of the TS, at the very bottom, to where the caliper depth probe bottomed out on the MSH. I mean this wasn't terribly precise, but at least it gave me a repeatable test I could do to see if I was making any progress.

After taking the gun mostly apart, I started with a light polish, since I was kinda skeered to fit on it too much. I ended up with a total of three swipes of the file. I started at 73%, and am now at 44%, so I will call that "close enough". I'm sure most of ya'll have done this a lot, but in case anyone else like me is new to this, pictured below is what I used.




I also found it helpful to put the numbers in a spreadsheet to make the computations a bit less of a headache.

[HeavyDuty]

Thanks again all. I think I got this knocked out this morning. I was surprised how very little it takes to affect percent of engagement. For a reference, I measured from the rear of the TS, at the very bottom, to where the caliper depth probe bottomed out on the MSH. I mean this wasn't terribly precise, but at least it gave me a repeatable test I could do to see if I was making any progress.

After taking the gun mostly apart, I started with a light polish, since I was kinda skeered to fit on it too much. I ended up with a total of three swipes of the file. I started at 73%, and am now at 44%, so I will call that "close enough". I'm sure most of ya'll have done this a lot, but in case anyone else like me is new to this, pictured below is what I used.




I also found it helpful to put the numbers in a spreadsheet to make the computations a bit less of a headache.

I love data.