New SA GI to 'smith

[1911WB]

Took my new Springer GI to a 'smith yesterday. He put in a Nowlin sear spring and polished the sear. I had already replaced the stock mainspring with a 20#. The result was that the trigger pull went from a crisp 5 1/2 lbs. to a very nice 4 lbs. We both shook our heads over the titanium FP. I've got a steel one on order from Brownell's and will replace as soon as I get it. But we did replace the extra long stock FP spring cause the pistol didn't pass the "pencil test" with the stock spring. I'm finally going to shoot the puppy today. Will let you know how it does.  :-)

[BamBams]

Who did you wind up taking to?

[twodollarpistol]

:? OK--Im a big dummy so I'll bite. Whats a pencil test? Also, whats wrong with the titanium firing pin?

[Questor]

Here's my take on it: I prefer the "does the gun detonate the primer?" test. If not, then there's a problem.  The titanium pin is for submicroincrementalteensyweensy improvements in lock time, which don't matter if you know how to shoot.  Titanium parts, if not made correctly, can also be brittle.

[1911WB]

BamBams- Tom Freeman recommended a guy in Pueblo who was super.

Pencil test- stick a pencil in the barrel of a 1911 & see how far the pencil travels. Should be at least a couple of feet or you need to look at things like the FP spring. Springfield put a super long FP spring with the Ti FP. Also, I understand the mainspring with the new system is very heavy. This is all to pass the CA "drop test". I'm getting rid of the whole silly system as soon as I get my steel FP from Brownell's.

[twodollarpistol]

Son of a Gun ! I did the pencil test and the darn thing went half way across my office. I have a new SA Ultra Compact and have only run about 200 rounds through it so far. Only one FTE with hard cast reload round ball. Other than that I have been very pleased with this one. I thought I was happy about the Ti. firing pin, now Im not sure. I found myself carrying a pistol once with a broken firing pin that I was unaware of, all the while thinking I was armed and protected. Imagine how I felt when I discovered all I had was an expensive rock for my CCW. Dont want to risk that again. Mabe I need to look into a steel FP for mine. Seems like the spring might be OK though,  ( according to the pencil ). Appreciate the info, never to old to learn new tricks.  :grin:

[Mikey]

Twodollar:  the firing pin test is to take a pencil and place it eraser first down the barrel of your peestol and drop the hammer - the pencil should fly a couple of feet at least.  Used to go to a gunsmith who always had a cup full of sharpened pencils sitting on his counter and just as many stuck in the ceiling.  You knew his pistols had a good firing pin impact.  When you examine the eraser afterward you should see a marking from the firing pin.  That's how you know it works other than firing the gun.

With a 'too long firing pin' the problem is that your pistol could detonate a cartridge upon feeding from the magazine, similar to a fixed firing pin sub machine gun.  If you take the same pistol and rack and lock the slide back, and then place the pencil eraser on the bolt face covering the firing pin hole and then release the slide, the pencil should not go very far at all and should not have a firing pin imprint, with a normal length firing pin.  If the firing pin is too long you will see the imprint and taht will tell you you need a shorter pin.  HTH.  Mikey.

[BamBams]

In my never humble opinion:  A titanium firing pin really doesn't improve anything unless a bunch of other things are also changed over to titanium as well.  Then lock time is improved.  If you're not a speed shooter, and want long term reliability, then steel is the way to go.