View Single Post
Old May 4, 2012, 11:27 AM   #36
Unclenick
Staff
 
Join Date: March 4, 2005
Location: Ohio
Posts: 21,013
Drail,

The 1911 grip safety prevents firing if you drop the cocked and unlocked gun and it lands on the back corner of its grip frame. In that scenario, the inertia of the trigger and bow can be great enough to carry them into the sear and depress it. Pivoting triggers don't so typically cause this issue as a portion of their mass is on either side of the pivot pin, so the trigger mass on the side opposite of the pin from the stirrup tends to neutralize at least some of the stirrup's inertia.

The Glock doesn't need the grip safety because the safety in the trigger serves the same purpose in the drop scenario: like the grip safety, it isn't depressed when the gun is dropped. Besides, the Glock trigger is light (not much inertia) and pivots, so it does have of the neutralizing effect, where 100% of the 1911's inertia tends to help depress the sear and trigger return spring leaf in that drop scenario.

Note that anything that reduces the 1911 trigger mass helps fight the problem. The original 1911 trigger is steel, and is heavy for its size. The original Colt Goldcup trigger is also steel and is wider and heavier, plus it is often combined with lightened sear engagement, so the problem is even worse with it (which is one reason the little spring buffering sear depressor was added to Goldcup sears). For the average 1911 owner, therefore, the threat of inertial firing on drop may be mitigated by going to a trigger with a skeletonized aluminum stirrup and lightened bow. That takes a lot of the inertia out for both the accidental drop scenario and for when you depress the slide stop to chamber a round without depressing the trigger first (as all bullseye match shooters learned to do with the Goldcup).
__________________
Gunsite Orange Hat Family Member
CMP Certified GSM Master Instructor
NRA Certified Rifle Instructor
NRA Benefactor Member and Golden Eagle
Unclenick is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.02431 seconds with 8 queries