Safety on Model 41 unintentionally keeps the gun from firing

[mikemyers]

The only reason I have seen causing the safety to come on was the model 41 was missing the safety spring plate... The fact your safety moves easily, as that's not normally the case, is your 41 spring plate is missing or damaged?

My gunsmith removed that plate, and adjusted the plate so it would hold the safety in place more securely. Since he made that change, I haven't had the problem happen again. I'll use my 41 at a match in January, and if I have no problems with this, I'll consider it fixed.

 

[FlyFish]

My gunsmith removed that plate, and adjusted the plate so it would hold the safety in place more securely. Since he made that change, I haven't had the problem happen again. I'll use my 41 at a match in January, and if I have no problems with this, I'll consider it fixed.

That's exactly what I did with my 41 when it had the same problem, and I haven't had any issues since. I think that was about 30 years ago.

 

[NYlakesider]

My gunsmith removed the grip, and tried to loosen the screw you mention. It was extremely tight. He took the gun to the back room where his shop and tools are, and did "something" with it. The next day it did the same thing once, after he worked on it, so I'm not sure that it's "fixed".

I never use that safety. I would prefer to disable it, or move it so far that nothing can lock up the gun. It's only a Bullseye gun. It never gets used for anything else.

I took the grip off that night after I tested it at the range, moved the safety lever as far down as it would go, and re-installed the grip. I'll find out at tomorrow's match if it's really fixed. I'm not all that confident about it, but at least now I know what is causing the problem.

Not sure which gun to use at the match tomorrow, the 41 or my High Standard. I used to have problems with my High Standard, but that turned out to be that someone put the magazine spring in incorrectly. Alan pointed that out, but I couldn't figure out how to disassemble the High Standard magazine until just a few days ago. IF (and that's a big IF), the 41 is now fixed, I feel more comfortable shooting it, but for reasons I don't understand, I'm a little more accurate with the High Standard.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have a feeling there is more to the safety than just locking the slide. I suspect it does something to the firing mechanism to block it, so the gun can't fire. My gut feeling is that's where the real problem is, but I don't want to start taking things apart that I don't understand.

Not the same gun but my wife had a safety that would get in the way. We tried a few different things and she ended up using a bit of the releasable Lock Tight to keep the safety from moving. You cannot see it and so far (7 months) its working fine

 

[JohnHL]

no it does not

Sorry guys, I stand corrected.

Had a look at my M41 just now and noticed that the "safety pin" (the thin one on the left of the pic) not only physically blocks the sear from releasing, but also pushes the trigger bar out of engagement with the sear.

Sorry for any confusion

There was NO confusion on MY part.

Looking at the picture, it was EASY to see the relationship of the parts.

These are such SIMPLE machines.

It never ceases to amaze me how owner's of these pistols (and Forum "know-it-alls") are so consistently bewildered by them.

At least you were willing to admit your error.
I guess that means something...

John