Commander hammer problems?

[Gary O]

The hammer on my Commander follows the slide all the way down and I have to cock it manually for every shot. What's up with that? Thanks!

[Iowegan]

Likely it's just the tension on the sear spring is too light. If someone has altered the sear or hammer by stoning it, you may need a new hammer and/or sear. If its the spring, it can be fixed easily by bending the left finger forward. This is a very common problem when someone does a trigger job and tries to get the pull too light. Has the gun had a trigger job? What model? Series 70 or 80?

This is a potentially dangerous situation. I would not fire the gun again until it is fixed. It could easily go "full auto".

[Mikey]

It's usually the sear that will need replacing.  Whenever I buggered up a trigger job in my earlier years I found that replacing the sear did the trick - didn't necessarily give me a better trigger pull but fixed the problem of the hammer following the slide back to the half cock notch.

My recommendation is to get a Chip McCormick hammer/trigger group - they come prepared to give you a nice trigger pull.  If you want it any lighter, bend back the middle lever on your hammer/sear srping, just a bit to take any extra tension off - that should smooth it right out.  HTH.  Mikey.