Posted by R. Minshall on April 1, 2012, 1:47 pm 76.18.200.217
The safety doesn't keep the front trigger from pushing the sear enough to release the hammer on the right lock. There is some amount of play, i.e. you can move the front trigger back a little when the safety is on and this is enough to release the hammer even though the safety is to the rear. (not a 3 position safety) My first inclination is to bend the sear so that the trigger doesn't contact it immediately. I would rather not take the trigger plate down, but am very capable of doing this and replacing the top lever screw as I have done the many times. Any suggestions from someone who has experienced this problem and fixed it would be appreciated. The guns is a 1912/13 Specialty grade in almost perfect condition. and the less that I have to do the more thatI like it. Please help.
Try tightening the top tang screw to trigger plate housing one full turn (it has to be one full turn as this screw has a slope slide to it to match the taper of the tang)
Your sentence here "My first inclination is to bend the sear so that the trigger doesn't contact it immediately". Sounds to me reading this that the top tang screw is too tight and should be backed off one turn.
On this year gun, the safety should have the ladder type latch that has a bar that goes across both trigger plates and rests on them until the safety is moved releasing it. Since the sear is below the trigger plates, and the safety bar is holding it in place, pulling on the trigger should not effect anything, but it should not have a lot of play in that trigger.
I am not sure at this time period if your gun is using the piano wire type spring or the flat type that is held in by a small screw in the trigger plate housing. If it is the later, is the right arm of the spring in the hole of the trigger plate? The piano wire spring could also not be in place and cause this movement.
Really hard to tell without having gun in hand, but a few things to try.
I had one gun where someone (not me) had apparently tried to tighten the screws holding the lock on with the sear pushed against the trigger plate. This bent the trigger inboard, and it wold only trip the sear by draggin along the side, not actually contacting it on the bottom. This may also cause a safety issue, and should be easy to see with the sideplate off.
Further examination showed that the front end of the sear had been worked on to reduce the trigger pull. This drops the rear end of the sear so that it engages with the trigger blade sooner than it should and in this case before it (the trigger) was being blocked by the safety. I am sure that a new sear is the correct fix, but I don't have one yet (I will get one). I bent the rear part of the sear up about .020 so that the trigger blade engaged the safety first and now it works just fine. Thanks again to David Williamson as I can reassemble the lock easily using his fixture for doing that. Now there is no play in the trigger when the safety is on and you can't release the hammer with the safety on. I.E. it now works perfectly. this gun was made as one of the first Specialty grades (1912) and is in beautiful condition. I undertand that it was refinished by Buck Hamlin.
Incidentally, bending the sear lever is no easy job as it is tempered steel and pretty thick and strong. I did this with great care as I didn't want to overdo it. I put the short end of the sear in a vise and then using a Crescent wrench on the long end pulled it to the point where I felt it would take some bend.It took me 4 tries to get it to .020 which was about what I had determined it would take.
I don't know how to post a picture on this website and if you tell me how I would appreciate that. How about the GunBroker listing? I think it will still work 278184603.
