I am in the middle of doing the first detail strip on my Springer Loaded. There's about 3000 rounds through it that I know of because I did buy it used. It looked so new and had so few wear marks I believe it had less, perhaps considerably less, than 100 rounds through it when I bought it. I had no previous experience with 1911s.
I was inspecting all the parts and found a burr running the length of what some call the quarter cock notch on the hammer. This is the best picture I can come up with so I hope it helps. There appears to be no damage to the sear at all and the other two hammer hooks look fine. Is this something that needs attention and if so what do I do about it?
This burr may be from the original build by Springfield. Evidently the burr is away from the working surfaces because its still there. Typically hammer hooks round off here and render the hammer useless.
If the trigger passes all the safety checks and feels good to you then I would leave it alone.
That burr on the quarter-cock is probably the result of an improperly adjusted trigger overtavel screw. Improper in the sense that it was turned in too far and thus limited the aft travel of the trigger bow and the forward arc of the sear nose.
If it was mine, I'd dress the burr down with a stone and then insure that the overtravel screw was backed out enough to insure the sear nose not only clears the hooks when the trigger is pulled but that the sear nose also clears both the half and quarter cock notches/shelves.
With the hammer down, pull and hold the trigger all the way back, slowly cock the hammer and then slowly ease it back down. Turn the overtravel screw in a little bit at a time until you can feel some part of the hammer contact the sear nose when cycling the hammer. Then back the overtravel screw out you can't feel it rub - then back it out another 1/4 turn. If it's a carry gun, many recommend removing the overtravel screw entirely.
Wouldn't an over adjusted over-travel screw limit the hammer/sear's rear movement thus not providing enough clearance for the sear resulting in a rounded hammer hook?
If it was adjusted to just baaaarely get the sear nose to release the hooks, the hooks would squirt the sear nose forward (via the sear's secondary angle) and clear of the hooks. Maybe that rubbing action of the hook corners on the sear secondary angle would degrade a good trigger job. No idea how long it would take, though.
Edit: The overtravel screw limits only the trigger. When the trigger's at the aft limit, the bottom of the sear can still move aft (away from the disconnector) and the sear nose can still move forward (away from the hammer).
My thought was that that burr looks very tall... meaning that the sear must move far enough away from the burr to clear it... otherwise the sear would hit it an round it off... both of these observations lead me to think the burr was original from the factory.
Quote:
My thought was that that burr looks very tall... meaning that the sear must
move far enough away from the burr to clear it... otherwise the sear would
hit it an round it off... both of these observations lead me to think the burr
was original from the factory.
It is indeed a splendid burr - a veritable whopper! Could be from the factory or perhaps from the previous owner. Hard to imagine the sear nose shows no damage. Wonder if the sear had been replaced?
Yep.. if the pistol passes a safety check what advantage is there to removing the burr?
Quote:
That burr on the quarter-cock is probably the result of an improperly
adjusted trigger overtavel screw. Improper in the sense that it was turned in
too far and thus limited the aft travel of the trigger bow and the forward arc
of the sear nose.
I did a little research prior to posting and I thought that might be the trouble but I just didn't know.
Quote:
If it was mine, I'd dress the burr down with a stone...
I don't currently have anything like that. What type of stone would I need?
Quote:
If it's a carry gun, many recommend removing the overtravel screw
entirely.
Actually, it is a carry gun. It's the only one I carry. I did notice when I had it apart that the screw seemed to just barely stick out past the back of the trigger. I believe I will just remove it. I have it back together now but I assumed I would be taking it back apart later anyway. I'll try to stone that hammer hook and remove the screw and see what happens.
I also replaced the ILS flat mainspring housing with a standard arched housing. I'll have to see how that works as well.
Quote:
What type of stone would I need?
Nothing fancy. A knife sharpening stone would do the trick. Even a jeweler's file. But as Eric suggested, if the burr doesn't come into contact with anything, the gun works and passes the safety checks - the burr doesn't really need to be removed. Maybe I just like tidy hammers!
I would have to go along with niemi - a tidy hammer. You don't need that burr sticking out.