Good Friend (& 1911 Rookie) gets a new Stainless Ser70 for Christmas,

comes to my place this morning to shoot & learn basics.

Teaching him the function checks right out of the book, get to the half-cock

check. My 20 year old Ser70 perfect at half-cock, no hammer movement,

trigger locked.

His out of the box, unfired Ser70 pulled trigger hammer falls! Trigger still had

slack and when pulled caused hammer to fall!!

Has anyone encountered this?


I tear his gun down and look at the sear, seems very different from mine.

A sort of double crescent, very sharp point.

Thought I had seen it all.

HELP!

on 80 series guns if its at half cock and you pull the trigger the hammer will fall, original 70 series will not do this.

I think its just the way the gun is made.

Its in the hammer. If theres a half cock hook/noch the hammer will not fall when the trigger is pulled.

Could be, I couldn't begin to tell you the difference between Ser80 & Ser70.

But, this piece is marked as Ser70 and new.

Why would it have Ser80 components?

Is Colt scammming us?

The Hammer looked like mine.

Gun is no longer here, so it's kind of hard to compare.

But the hammer looked normal, the sear looked strange.

A couple of things can cause the hammer to follow. Check the tension on the sear spring. Also check the height of the hammer hook. It should be 0.019 to 0.022 high and the notch should be square.

I'll check the hammer specs, but this was a new, unfired pistol.

Surely Colt's QC would catch an out of spec gun.

Quoted: I'll check the hammer specs, but this was a new, unfired pistol. Surely Colt's QC would catch an out of spec gun.

Remember that Colt is a union shop. Quality is not at the top of their list of things to do.

Quoted: I'll check the hammer specs, but this was a new, unfired pistol. Surely Colt's QC would catch an out of spec gun.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've owned4 C olt 1911's, and something was out of spec on every one- 2 of them badly.  Love their AR's, won't buy their 1911.

Since there's no earthly reason to use half-cock you have no problem.

In an effort to discourage the unsafe use of half cock, a long time ago Colt changed the hammer's half cock notch to just a shelf. The shelf will still catch the hammer if your thumb slips and accidentally releases it while cocking.

Relax. The gun is definitely a Series 70, and you have no problems.

And Colt's current quality is as good as it ever was. Which is significantly better than most other 1911 manufacturers.

THE GUN IS 100% FINE

colt is using some 80series parts in the 70 series ... the hammer is one, so is the firing pin, and extractor, maybe even the sear and grip safety.
they do this so they wont have to go through the trouble of producing 2 SLIGHTY different parts and have to deal with making sure the 70 parts go to 70 guns.


the way to tell a 70 from an 80 hammer -- the 80 hammers half cock notch is a flat "shelf", on the 70 half cock notch shelf there is a small "hook", you can feel it with your finger nail. the hook prevents the sear from sliding off and letting the hammer pop back up. your not supposed to cock your gun to "half cock" it supposed to catch the hammer if your thumb slips, and squeezing the trigger allows you reset the hammer fully forward Safely, rather than full cock the hammer and thumb it down, which shouldnt be done.

also if you were to pull out the firing pin and extractor on the guys 70series, you will find slot cuts in both parts for the 80series firing pin block.
on the grip safety the tab that sticks out and pushs up on the sear, the 70 will be wider, the 80 narrower to allow room for the levers to push up on the firing pin block.
on the sear the 80 will have a small hole in the back from the gold cup spring which prevents the sear from bouncing while racking the slide and hurting the trigger pull (a custom target gun mod), and maybe a small square notch on the edge.

actually while colt was transitioning from the 70s to 80s, they produced a few 70 series guns with full 80 series parts and firing pin block. the 80 hammer really doesnt have anything to do with the firing pin block, its a thing they changed in the late 80s a few years after they changed to 80series guns. you can interchange the 80 and 70 hammers with no problem.