I've got a 1911 (inbound) and wonder how hard it is to change out the hammer and trigger?

For me, it's an Olympic level challenge.


















 

The triggers usually require some filing before they'll drop in.   Hammers generally will go in the gun without having to fit them, but it could throw other things out of whack like your thumb safety.

That doesn't mean you will have a functional or safe firearm afterwards, however.   If something is out of spec, you can have hammer follow or a complete full-auto experience.  

Before live fire, I suggest checking for hammer follow by dropping the slide on an empty chamber a few times.   At the range, load one or two rounds at most into the mag, for the first 4 or 5 mags.

While many owners get lucky and never have problems, there are a lot of caveats and subtleties that can bite you if you don't know what you're looking for.  The trigger bow can be too long, which can cause trigger bounce, which can cause hammer follow.   The overtravel adjustment must be properly set or the trigger can go back too far and lift the sear spring off the hammer leg, leading to hammer follow or full auto.   The hammer may not form a safe engagement angle with the sear, which may need to be altered in order to be back in spec.  

I strongly recommend doing a lot of reading and research before changing anything.   Even better, get an experienced 1911 smith to at least check the gun afterward, if not perform the work.

I can handle Glocks and ARs but was afraid the 1911 was gonna be a different experience....

Critical parts like hammers have to be fitted and checked for safe and proper operation.
This means the hammer and sear have to be fitted to each other and checked to insure proper engagement and a good trigger pull, and the safety function may change due to the different hammer's interaction with the sear.

In short, parts like hammers are not drop-in parts.
Triggers will often drop in with little problem.

Unless you know what you're doing, you'd be better having a qualified gunsmith install the parts.

If you are asking , it's too hard

1911s and the aftermarket parts are so variable it could be an easy job with some fitting, or an absolute nightmare if you have the "wrong" combination of parts .

Changing them isn't so hard (physically/mechanically); it's getting it to work correctly afterwards that can be tricky.

The trigger is easy. If you can take the gun apart and put it back together then no problem doing a trigger. If you have some basic tools like files and sand paper, and are mechanically confident go for it. In my LIMITED EXPERIENCE with 1911's everything has to be fit. Drop in in my ass.
They are easy and fun to work on kinda like a 2 stroke dirt bike.

A new 1911, not fired yet, but wanting to change parts.  Classic case of 1911 syndrome.

It's not even here yet, is that even worse?

Send it to Karl Sokol at Chestnut Mountain Sports.

Reasonable prices and turn around.

Great guy and once he does his reliability package it will feed .45 caliber rocks you find on the ground

I'm fine with the standard pistol. I just got a cdnn catalog and it had a stainless trigger and hammer for under 30.00 so I was just curious if it was an easy swap out. No biggie.

Totally different world than ar and glock. You have jumped in the very deep endoc the pool. Close to never does a1911 part go in a gun and work perfectly. Fitting will be required

This is true, but I think it's well worth it.  Bought a ragged out Norinco a while back and I swapped out a few of the simpler parts.  It's going to go to a local smith for some other stuff like lower and flare ejection port, new sights, etc...  All things that I know I don't have the wherewithal or tools to do now BUT

I've got a saved cart at Brownell's with a bunch of stuff from the tools section.  I'd like to get a GI from RIA and start there with swapping and fitting of new parts.  The tools and Kuhnhausen manuals are looking to be about 300 for the initial investment.  More on top of that for parts.  The thing that's pulling me back in is how much fun it is (well, fun in the "Is that how it?  Son of a bit!@#$!!!  No, it goes in?!  Where's my !@#$ hammer?" way).  I love my Glocks and J-Frames and Berettas.  I love my ARs and lever guns and Sig rifles.  Love all of them, but I'm starting in on an unhealthy love of the 1911.

It probably makes it worse that I'm a network engineer, so my weeks are baselined at 50 hours.  I don't have time to do stuff to my cars, so I take them to the shop, which sucks all the fun out of the problem solving and fixing.  With shade-tree gun stuff tho, I can sit in the den with a how-to on the screen, Netflix on the iPad and my girl on the couch while we nerd out at each other.  She's doing Arduino stuff and I'm dinking away on a pistol, so it counts as hobby time and family time all at once.  Very efficient.

OP, I commend you on diving into the deep end of the pool.  Check out this guy's amateur 1911 build and know you're in good company.