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One of the 1911 project* guns I bought has a hammer that follows the slide in when the pistol has an empty mag inserted and the slide is closed with the slide release. The grip safety (depressed or not depressed) doesn't seem to affect it. It does not do that with no slide or a slide with a round in the magazine. Is this a hammer problem?

Both of these pistols were "fixed" so that the grip safety didn't work. The smith that sold them on consignment "unfixed" the removal of safety features with, I believe, used spare parts from his inventory. I'm planning to replace some of the internals but would like to initially target specific ones.


*project sounds much better than "I couldn't resist the price and wanted something to fiddle around with"

I very seldom work on 1911's but it sound like the disconnector is not functioning. It could also be a weak leaf spring being weak too. Bullseye's the 1911 expert, I know he will have something to say. It's kind of strange that it works with a round. I would probably replace the hammer, sear, disconnector and springs. Fitting will be required, not drop in parts. And if something was filed down to eliminate the grip safety I would replace it too. This way you would be basic NEW internals and the gun will function correctly.

This site has good info on the 1911's http://www.m1911.org/m1911dt.htm

Hammer following is a symptom of a leaf spring not tensioned properly and you're getting sear bounce. The one on the left is the leaf for the sear tension, you should bend it inward more to add more sear tension. The center leaf spring is the one for the disconnector and trigger return a little more tension here can make a difference too.

R,
Bullseye

I've bent them in a tad more than this. The hammer is still follows no mag or an empty mag when the slide release is depressed. With a round (snap cap) in the mag, the hammer stays. I've spent time bending springs and haven't removed the hammer so I don't know what it looks like.

The barrel lug is very tight, making this pistol a pain to assemble. I've launched a couple plugs.

Got more aggressive on bending left and center and the hammer doesn't follow.
Thanks for the help.

Looking at the picture, placing more of a bend on the center spring likely made the difference.

R,
Bullseye

Probably needed the center. I bent both.

I'm not sure how much a safety problem this was, since I haven't seen the hammer follow while a round was being chambered. Also, it didn't look as though the hammer went 100% forward. However, I'd feel more comfortable if the sear didn't release the hammer without benefit of the trigger.

"Hammer Follow" on an empty chamber is a fairly common condition for a improperly tuned match trigger. It can be a safety issue as over time the follow condition can wear the hammer/sear parts to eventually release while loading the first round out of a magazine. It used to be a standard practice to hold back the hammer with the thumb when loading the first round out of a match 1911 to prevent hammer follow on a match trigger job.

R,
Bullseye

I noticed the same problem on my GC when I inadvertently straightened the center leg of the spring. Bending it back corrected the problem.