Stupid on my part and theirs... All of them..

[DisVietVet]

I'll try and keep this short. I had work done on my 2003, S&W 1911. Specifically I had a new trigger and adjustable sites added by the gunsmith at Frisco Gun Club in Frisco, Tx. I was to learn later it was not done correctly and worse.

I screwed around with it for a year and finally took it to a 1911 specialists. He repaired what I wanted but then told me parts were missing, specifically those parts for the grip safety and firing pin stop. Of course after a year Frisco Gun Range told me to piss up a rope as the missing parts were not returned to me. Nothing left for me to do but look on the S&W site for part numbers and order the parts.

I sent S&W an email requesting if I could see a schematic or part number list and they sent me this:

"Unfortunately we do not send out schematics or parts list for our firearms. We do apologize for any inconvenience.
If you have any other questions please feel free to contact us
Thank you and Have a Great Day!"

Thanks for nothing S&W. Great customer service you have there. I rue the day I ever considered buying a S&W 1911. You lost a customer forever.

 

[cherrypointmarine]

We have a member that is an artist when it comes to S&Ws .Look up BMCM and send him a PM . If he can't help you , no one can . We also have a member that worked there building M52's . He might join in also .

 

[jsbethel]

S&W used to have the parts lists on the website -

 

[Borderboss]

If the "1911 specialist" could recognize that there were parts missing, why didn't he tell you what they were? You can probably get them from someplace besides S&W, such as Numrich.

Also, unless S&W managed to redesign the 1911 in a way no one has ever done since the early 1980s when Colt brought out the Series 80, I've got to imagine pretty much any schematic of a 1911 should suffice.

 

[DMcBB]

Aren't 1911s pretty standardized though? Couldn't you just determine if yours is series 70 or series 80 and then get the right parts from Brownells or Numrich or something?

 

[moralem]

The only thing the Frisco gun club is good for is the coffee bar......they have never had a full time smith on the premises. Good luck.

 

[squidsix]

Firing pin safety and grip safety sounds like someone converted it from series 80 to 70. Not a big deal and easy to fix.
Series 80 1911 schematics are easy to come by.
Numrichs has excellent ones on their website:
Colt 1911A1 Government Series 80 Parts & Schematic | Numrich Gun Parts

 

[DisVietVet]

Thank you for all your comments! They have helped me tremendously! Hopefully I can have this repaired the way I want.

 

[DisVietVet]

The guy that "did the trigger job" on mine was there only for a short period of time. Other than that I will never take a screwdriver for repair there.

I do want the beavertail safety to work because the wife kind of needs that to work.

 

[glenwolde]

One has to be really careful these days with who you allow to work on your guns. Almost impossible to find a local source in most places. In the DFW area I'd go with McClelland.

 

[mckenney99]

Doesn't S&W 1911's use the "Swartz" pattern grip safety? Little more complicated than the colt pattern grip safety.

 

[CelticSire]

In the DFW area I'd go with McClelland.

What he said.

 

[Borderboss]

Doesn't S&W 1911's use the "Swartz" pattern grip safety? Little more complicated than the colt pattern grip safety.

I didn't know about this so I looked it up. You're correct. It also looks like the Swartz pattern is a bona fide mess compared to the Colt Series 80 firing pin safety, which doesn't involve the grip safety.

Here are a couple of comments I found on different forums, if they help here. It seems that you need to find a 'smith that's not just experienced with 1911s, but with S&W/Kimber 1911s.

The Swartz type safeties are firing pin safeties that are unlocked by depressing the grip safety. Currently, the S&W 1911s and Kimber series II guns have Swartz safeties. The problem that can occur is when the timing of the grip safety releasing the firing pin lock is after the grip safety releases the trigger bar. When this happens, the hammer falls but the firing pin safety still has the firing pin locked. You get a click instead of a bang. Part of this problem is also due to tolerances and slop, you could depress the grip safety one way and the gun will go bang, then you depress it another way and it goes click.

Not all Kimbers or S&W have problems. Many if not most run perfectly well, but enough of them do have issues that problems are not uncommon.

My personal preference is I don't want to risk a carry gun going click instead of bang, I will not buy a gun with a Swartz type safety. The Colt series 80 safety is entirely different and does not suffer from these potential timing problems.

Firing pin safeties typically fall into the Colt Series 80 pattern which are actuated by the trigger (Colt Series 80, Para Ordnance, Sig GSR) and the Swartz style safety which is actuated by the grip safety (Kimber, Smith & Wesson). Of all the firing pin safety mechanisms on the market, the original Colt Series 80 - in a Colt - is the most reliable of them all. The platforms utilizing the Swartz safety are a less than ideal choice across the board due to the inherent reliability problems of the design. The Swartz safety is extremely sensitive to the fit of the grip safety to the frame and the timing of the grip safety's trigger blocking arm. Tolerance issues can also lead to a Swartz safety that will time properly when the grip safety is depressed a certain way, and time differently when depressed a different way. This will typically be a product of loose fit of the grip safety to the frame tangs and/or loose fit of the thumb safety shaft through the grip safety. It is possible to have the grip safety timed such that the trigger will be able to release the sear well before the firing pin safety plunger has been moved far enough to clear the firing pin. Problems with improper timing of the Swartz safeties can lead to a situation where you get a "click" when you wanted a "bang." That's a serious problem. Unless department policy mandates a firing pin safety, I would choose a 1911 without one. It is possible to have a drop safe 1911 without the firing pin safety, and given the potential reliability problems with a poorly executed system, the perceived risk of drop safety is outweighed by the real risk of a failure to fire.