1911 Firing Pin Safety Plunger / Spring

[Gregory Gauvin]

I have a PT1911 (series 80 firing pin safety). I'm looking to find a reduced power firing pin plunger spring and or a light weight titanium plunger. Wolf makes both these items for the Glock series of pistols and their respective firing pin block safeties, but I can not find anything for series 80s colts. I came across S&W firing pin plunger springs and plungers, but no springs reduced power or titanium plungers.

I'm looking to fit these parts into my PT1911 because the stock plunger and spring give the trigger a crappy, gritty, and heavier break. I've also noticed wear on the face of the plunger, and upon further examination, the plunger is making contact with the extractor and I'm finding wear marks there as well. As of right now, I have removed the plunger and spring (disabling the series 80 safety) and have achieved a trigger pull a smith would be proud of. Also with the removal of this, the overtravel adjustment can be tweaked very nicely without fear of not fully having the lever make contact with the plunger.

It doesn't bother me one bit not having the series 80 enabled since I am accustomed to the series 70 guns and Springfields. However, because I have a fear of lawyers and would like to make this my primary carry rig, I would like to replace the stock parts with something that will help improve the trigger pull.

Can anyone direct me to where I may find these parts?

[Technosavant]

Brownells carries what you are needing. If you just want the series 80 parts gone, they also carry a spacer to fill the slot in the frame for the removal of the lever.

[RickB]

The plunger spring should add only four ounces to the pull weight, so it sounds like you are having issues with friction that will not be resolved by alterations to the plunger or spring. If you want to keep the S80 parts intact, I would recommend detailing all of the parts, removing any burrs, polishing the contact points, and maybe fitting an oversized firing pin stop that will positively locate the extractor in the slide (or, maybe just do a little work on the extractor, to remove areas that show the plunger is rubbing). I have four Series 80 Colts, and after doing back-to-back tests on them, after a little massaging of the bits, I can't tell if the S80 parts are installed, or not; it really shouldn't have an adverse affect on a factory trigger. I have S80 removed from three of the guns (one came that way, used), and the other, since the S80 was active when I decided I couldn't tell the difference, was left it like that.

[Gregory Gauvin]

What's the point of replacing the levers with the spacer? Couldn't the plunger and spring be removed with the levers left in place, or does the spacer just act as an anti-annoyance for putting the slide back on the gun?

[RickB]

On the used gun that I bought with the S80 disabled only by removing the slide plunger and spring, there was a heavy rub mark left in the slide by the upper lever; I didn't trust that the tip of the lever couldn't catch on the edge of the plunger hole and cause a malf. You can get away with removing only the plunger, spring and upper lever. You need some sort of spacer on the sear pin, to keep the sear from walking. Or you can grind, file or otherwise remove the tip of the upper lever, but then you still have two little levers that must be assembled onto their respective pins, and that makes reassembly pretty tedious.

[Gregory Gauvin]

Aside from the spacer, is there a plug of some type that can be inserted to block the hole where the plunger would go? Found the spacer at brownells, can't seem to find any type of replacement plug although I came across hearing about one on another forum.

[RickB]

Replacing the extractor with a non-Series 80 unit is probably the easiest way to plug it.

[Technosavant]

I'm not aware of anything that would go into the space in the slide- there isn't anything to hold it in (the plunger itself is held in by the firing pin- anything that would hold in the plunger would potentially act as a firing pin safety). I wouldn't worry about the hole in the slide- as said, swap our the extractor and call it a day as far as that's concerned.