1911 grip safety issue

[Hstanton1]

I used to do this, and there was a thread where I described in detail why. I’ve since modified my grip to have my right thumb riding on top of the safety, and the modifications have actually improved my grip with all autos (it works just fine for striker guns, etc.).

Obviously moving one thumb down required the other accommodating. What I do now is have my support thumb riding along the frame, and that for me naturally resulted in my left forefinger slipping past my strong hand fingers and making direct contact with the grip panel on the right side. End result is the weak hand thumb and forefinger are creating a vice effect. I’ve had good luck with that helping with recoil. It also if anything helps with grip safety deactivation.

This is hard to describe in text and I’m not near a gun right now. Al to day some experimentation may not be bad.

I’ve been experimenting with keeping my thumb on the safety. It does force my left hand down a bit, and if I put too much tension into the thumb on the safety I begin to slow the slide down in a way I don’t like, but it’s something I’ve only been messing with for a few weeks on and off.

As I said, with the particular grip I had in the photo it didn’t matter whether my thumb was on the safety or not for GS activation, but in other instances it has.

[P30]

A few month ago, I bought my first 1911 (Ed Brown KC9). I sometimes had problems when I wanted to deactivate the grip safety (I don't have much flesh on my hands).

What helped me:

1. Going to a good gunsmith and let him file on the grip safety (on the area shown above). Just enough so that I naturally deactivate the grip safety automatically when gripping the gun (without thinking about the grip safety).
2. Tip #2 from this video (0:47 - 2:17):



A person's hand has two points of leverage: The thumb and the pinky. Before I've seen the video, I put force on the grip mainly with thumb and middle finger, not with the pinky and ring finger. Now, I also press with the pinky and ring finger. This helps with recoil control and deactivating the grip safety.

[RevolverRob]

So I managed to get a picture of what my grip looks like on a draw that doesn’t activate the GS. My strong hand thumb is about in the position that it was in when I tried to press the trigger, maybe a bit higher. On this particular draw, the heel of my support had was a little bit higher than the thumb safety is in the picture.

Also of note, the narrow band of finish wear on the grip safety shows how far it needs to be depressed to deactivate.

Your thumb is too high when indexing on your drawstroke and it's driving the web of your hand too far up. A larger memory bump won't solve this issue, because you're not making firm contact with the bottom of the grip safety (where all the leverage is to deactivate it).

I dug out my 1911 airsoft trainer. Which, unfortunately doesn't have a functional grip safety, but I'll show you what I mean.

If you start with the thumb high on the back of the gun like this during the drawstroke:



You can end up without engagement of the grip safety if you curl the thumb down to hit the thumb safety (see the gap between my palm and grip here):



Try it a few times and you'll see how positioning the thumb that high on the draw stroke more often than not ends up with less grip safety engagement.

Instead, try starting your thumb a bit lower, along side the hammer:



Then as your draw clear from the holster, you just slide your thumb onto the top of the thumb safety:



Which will give you full engagement of the grip safety and position you onto the thumb safety nicely:

[Chuck Whitlock]

This was the other half of my question on beaver tails. If there is one (and I’m sure there is) with a larger than average memory bump, I’d like to know about it. I don’t think this is a particularly common issue with 1911s but I can’t be the only one to have run into it.

You may want to move to this type of prip safety:

https://www.shootersconnectionstore....Wilson-Contour

Your thumb is too high when indexing on your drawstroke and it's driving the web of your hand too far up. A larger memory bump won't solve this issue, because you're not making firm contact with the bottom of the grip safety (where all the leverage is to deactivate it).

I dug out my 1911 airsoft trainer. Which, unfortunately doesn't have a functional grip safety, but I'll show you what I mean.

If you start with the thumb high on the back of the gun like this during the drawstroke:



You can end up without engagement of the grip safety if you curl the thumb down to hit the thumb safety (see the gap between my palm and grip here):



Try it a few times and you'll see how positioning the thumb that high on the draw stroke more often than not ends up with less grip safety engagement.

Instead, try starting your thumb a bit lower, along side the hammer:



Then as your draw clear from the holster, you just slide your thumb onto the top of the thumb safety:



Which will give you full engagement of the grip safety and position you onto the thumb safety nicely:

Another way (I think) to say what Rob is saying: Instead of sweeping your thumb down and deactivating the thumb safety with the side of the pad of your thumb....as you grip the pistol, move your thumb forward (towards target) and as it straightens it will lower, and the side of the thumb knuckle should disengage the safety.

In other words, try to make your thumb parallel to your trigger finger in register.

As to accommodating the support thumb, I believe Ayoob's video that I posted describes it as straight thumb.

I hope that that makes sense.


p.s.-
I recall that some time back, somewhere here on PF, DB stated that early on he was on a range and the instructor admonished him, saying, "That Glock isn't a 1911....quit trying to shoot it like one." The reverse can be true as well.

[RevolverRob]

p.s.-
I recall that some time back, somewhere here on PF, DB stated that early on he was on a range and the instructor admonished him, saying, "That Glock isn't a 1911....quit trying to shoot it like one." The reverse can be true as well.

While true, I also want to support @Hstanton1 on this. After all, he has seen the light and goodness of JMB and has purchased a quality 1911. No need to remind him of his youthful indiscretions with those plastic Austrian guns, nor point out that if he'd embraced the Truth sooner he wouldn't have these bad habits.

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I like the imagery/wording of pushing the thumb safety forward as opposed to down. It makes a lot of sense and is exactly what I was suggesting! Solid commentary on that Chuck!

[BN]

The original beavertail grip safeties that were made, kept the hand lower on the gun. The fulcrum point was lower and the grip safety was easier to disengage. When they started making the recess for the hammer, that made the fulcrum point higher and the hand was higher up on the grip.

[Hstanton1]

Your thumb is too high when indexing on your drawstroke and it's driving the web of your hand too far up. A larger memory bump won't solve this issue, because you're not making firm contact with the bottom of the grip safety (where all the leverage is to deactivate it).

I dug out my 1911 airsoft trainer. Which, unfortunately doesn't have a functional grip safety, but I'll show you what I mean.

If you start with the thumb high on the back of the gun like this during the drawstroke:



You can end up without engagement of the grip safety if you curl the thumb down to hit the thumb safety (see the gap between my palm and grip here):



Try it a few times and you'll see how positioning the thumb that high on the draw stroke more often than not ends up with less grip safety engagement.

Instead, try starting your thumb a bit lower, along side the hammer:



Then as your draw clear from the holster, you just slide your thumb onto the top of the thumb safety:



Which will give you full engagement of the grip safety and position you onto the thumb safety nicely:

Thank you, this is really informative. I’ve been working with this for the past few hours, and while the advice you and Chuck give about pushing forward rather than down, or hitting the safety with the joint of my thumb rather than the tip is helpful, but I’m noticing that I can still catch the web of my hand far out enough on the beaver tail to foul the grip safety if my thumb is low and alongside the hammer as you show.

What seems to be helping is jamming the web of my hand into the grip safety pretty forcefully on the draw, and then consciously pushing forward as you suggest instead of curling my thumb down.

I still like the idea of a grip safety with a large enough memory bump to deactivate no matter how I’m holding the gun, but this seems to be helping quite a bit.

[Hstanton1]

You may want to move to this type of prip safety:

https://www.shootersconnectionstore....Wilson-Contour




Another way (I think) to say what Rob is saying: Instead of sweeping your thumb down and deactivating the thumb safety with the side of the pad of your thumb....as you grip the pistol, move your thumb forward (towards target) and as it straightens it will lower, and the side of the thumb knuckle should disengage the safety.

In other words, try to make your thumb parallel to your trigger finger in register.

As to accommodating the support thumb, I believe Ayoob's video that I posted describes it as straight thumb.

I hope that that makes sense.


p.s.-
I recall that some time back, somewhere here on PF, DB stated that early on he was on a range and the instructor admonished him, saying, "That Glock isn't a 1911....quit trying to shoot it like one." The reverse can be true as well.

I read that post from DB as well, and have tried to keep that in mind as I work with the 1911. The thing is, I’ve been able to shoot glocks and sig/beretta TDA virtually the same way, barring the particularities of the decocker on either. So maybe my expectations for what would and wouldn’t need to change for the 1911 weren’t as balanced as I thought they were.

[Hstanton1]

While true, I also want to support @Hstanton1 on this. After all, he has seen the light and goodness of JMB and has purchased a quality 1911. No need to remind him of his youthful indiscretions with those plastic Austrian guns, nor point out that if he'd embraced the Truth sooner he wouldn't have these bad habits.

---

I like the imagery/wording of pushing the thumb safety forward as opposed to down. It makes a lot of sense and is exactly what I was suggesting! Solid commentary on that Chuck!

What can I say, I’m a young millennial/elder zoomer. I began on a gen 5 glock, and despite some trists with a few PF Approved™️ TDA and LEM guns, I just can’t quit glocks. There’s no accounting for taste I suppose.

Though I must say, I’m really starting to get all the hype behind these short slidey trigger/barrel bushing thingies now.

[DamonL]

Sure, here’s one. The beaver tail wasn’t depressed at all in the previous picture I posted. I think about all of my grip pressure was going straight up into the beaver tail as opposed to into the backstrap and grip safety, if that makes sense.
Attachment 111481

There has been really good advice so far. You can work on adjusting how you grip the gun or you can have a gunsmith modify the grip safety itself.

Looking at the picture in your post, it looks like the grip safety memory bump may have been modified. It looks like it has been flattened. If that's the case you may need to replace the grip safety. Otherwise, with your existing grip safety you would need a gunsmith to modify it per Dan Lehr's post. I wish you had another 1911 to compare it to, or if you have a friend with with a 1911 that you can use for comparasion.

I have a gun with a beavertail without a memory bump and I had a gunsmith modify it so less travel was required to deactivate it. I had the same problem of not being able to consistently deactivate the grip safety. Post mod, I never had a problem. I have no problems with grip safeties with a memory bump.