Well, I finally did it. On the last day of the year I walked out of the Fort Worth Gun Show with the only Citadel in the whole place.
Last night I did a complete detail strip which looking back wasnt really too bad but it left me with 2 questions.
1. My 1911 is parked and EVERYTHING inside is parked as well. Would it make any noticible difference to remove the finish from the internal parts like the trigger bar, sear, disco, FP?
2. I watched a video on how to strip it all down and reassemble. One guy did what he called a "trigger group function check". In it he gripped the assembled frame with slide removed in a firing position and depressed both the grip safety and the trigger with the safety off and the hammer all the way forward. He then pushed on the disco and it gave a click. He then pulled it back to "half cock" where you could see the sear engage, and then with trigger still pulled he cocked the hammer all the way back to the rearward most position and it stayed back. When I do the same "test" the sear will engage at half cock but not at full- the hammer never gets "caught" it just falls. If im not holding down the trigger it engages in all positions normally. With the slide on and working it back and forth with the trigger depressed the hammer does NOT ride down and stays locked in the rearward most position as it should. I even hear the "click" of the reset when I let off. I tried searching everywhere for the same "trigger group function test" and could not come across anyone else who mentioned this process.
As I said, in fully reassembled mode it performs as it should- it just worries me a bit to see that his will do something mine seemingly will not. Thinking back on it, every other pistol or rifle with a hammer wont lock the trigger back either if ive got the trigger depressed and manually pull back the hammer. Am I being paranoid or do I need to tear it back down and look for something?