[ehenz]

Here is a new one for me,

Why would my SA1911 fire from the half cock position?

When I push/pull into the half cock position the hammer moves back very little (about 20% of where my other 1911's).

What baffles me is why can I fire this gun. The grip safety must be engaged in order for it to fire.

Please note, I never tried to do this with the gun loaded, but the pin is being struck as it passes the pencil test.

 

[Jim Watson]

Because SA and Colt - I don't know about other makes - have quit putting true half cock positions on their hammers. They now have a "safety shelf" to stop the hammer fall if it should somehow get jarred off from full cock. The shelf is not notched to trap the sear, so you can get on it, pull the trigger and the hammer will fall the rest of the way. It is placed low so that even though pulling the trigger will drop the hammer the rest of the way, it will not hit the firing pin hard enough to fire a round in the chamber. I wouldn't push my luck with it. It is for emergency only. A conventional half cock is not a good position for carry, so it is probably no loss.

 

[Newton]

IF it is as you say, passing the pencil test, it's probably because the mainspring is about 3 times heavier than what is actually needed to fire the pistol. The heavier spring is used to speed up the hammer fall thereby reducing pistol movement.


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Really interesting....Don't ya think??

 

[SouthGun]

The half cock is a final chance safety catch
to prevent an AD. The effectiveness of that half-cock is dependent on the hammer's design.

I can assure you that the Kimber, EdBrown and others' hammers have a notch that is .1" deep (or about) and that once the sear has been captured, the hammer will not drop further by the trigger until the sear is reset by recocking !

This safety feature has saved me from several possible ADs during my 'trigger job' experiments which resulted in hammer follow
throughs .......

Best

"You SHOULD be able to drop the hammer from half-cock by pulling the trigger, your SA is designed to allow this. "

 

[ehenz]

That is very comforting to know.

Thank you very much.

Ehenz