—original thread—
I mentioned that last summer an old flying buddy of mine gave my son gift certificates for two week-long training courses at Front Site Academy in Pahrump, NV as a HS graduation gift. Well, we’re finally using them next month over Spring Break for a defensive handgun course.
Decided we’ll both carry .45s for this class, and while my G21 is pretty well tuned to my liking, my son’s Sig Sauer 1911 was basically bone stock except for thinner grips (and slim line screws/bushings of course) and a good lapping in of the slide, etc. While the stock trigger is quite good, and I already had it set for almost zero overtravel, there’s a bit of slop and a noticeable amount of vertical play. Decided to replace the trigger, and since I’m doing the trigger, changed the main spring as well to tune it for a bit better feel.
I’m a big big fan of Wilson Combat parts for 1911s; not cheap, but not expensive either. There’s some nice race gun stuff out there that’s really sweet, but WC parts are really good value for the money...their 1911s not so much; very nice, but very spendy.
No pics of the dissasembly, but figure there’s already tons of 1911 walkthroughs out there:
In retrospect, I could have passed on the $7 spring...the factory spring is quite nice. But since I was in there, bent the WC to match:
Didn’t take a pic of the factory trigger height for the aluminum WC (steel bows), but it was .920”. Oversized to be custom fit vs. the stock Sig trigger height of .860”
Took a tiny bit off both top and bottom with a belt sander (barely touched it to the belt), then began the laborious task of hitting the trigger with a small flat diamond file, then measureing, hit it with a file, then measure...repeat ad naseum. When I had it close, started to test fit:
Sooooo close! Took a tiny bit more off and then just marked it up with a blue sharpie. Works just like Prussian blue but a lot cheaper...and what I had in the house! This is after several (several!) tests and retest fittings:
Once I got it to where is was barely marking the surface, I sanded it with super fine sandpaper (one of my wife’s old emory boards for her nails) and when smooth to the touch, used my blueing pen to put a protective layer on the aluminum surface:
...and almost two and a half hours later (including dissasembly), success:
Final height for zero slop/vertical movement while still maintaining a smooth pull was .868”
...though it was clear there was a high spot or burr on the (inside) left side of the frame just under the channel where the trigger bow rides that was scratching the trigger itself. A few more minutes with a variety of small round, flat and triangular diamond files fixed it up. Also polished the sides of the bows. Or I should say took the black overspray off of whatever the trigger coating was...they were already polished smooth, I just cleaned ‘em up.
Took my time with the reassembly checking edges, etc. for the sear, etc. and touching them up as required. Action’s like buttah now, and I really didn’t have to do much work aside from sizing the trigger. Sig actually does a pretty nice job on parts and finishes for a sub $1K 1911.
Ready to go...
And with his new RDR belt rig (minus the spare mag holder I haven’t put on yet):
Inner belt with velcro buckle that goes through his belt loots as well as velcro “loop” material on the outside. It’s paired with a nice stiff 1.75” rigger style outer belt with molle/pals loops and a heavy duty cobra style (metal push tabs top and bottom) buckle. The outer belt goes on like a true gunbelt, separate from the belt holding up your trousers; the velcro “hook” material on the inside of the outer belt matches the inner belt to help keep it in place.
Looking forward to him trying it out...
