[Gilroy]

Well, it finally happened. While shooting IPSC at a local club, twice after reloading, my grip wasn't quite right and the trigger wouldn't pull. It cost me valuable time getting my grip right to activate the grip safety. I would like to disable it. Is there a simple process to do it?

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: You can install a pin in the mainspring housing to hold the safety down OR you can cut the tang off the grip safety. I have a couple of 1911's and 2011's I use for both games so I make the grip safety work for IDPA but it just takes a little pressure to deactivate the safety and I mean very little pressure. Hope this helps and welcome Thanks, Eric

[Steve J]

As Eric alluded to, if you ever plan to shoot IDPA having a deactivated safety with get you disqualified. Grip safeties can be tuned like Eric's, or if yours doesn't have a pad installing one with a pad will solve your problem. Personally, I've never ever had a grip safety fail to disengage while shooting.

[2MoreChains]

I had this same issue w/ one of my Kimbers. I think I caused it by switching to an arched MSH/magwell and use a high hold.

You can try taping the GS down. Electrician's tape or a strip of Gorilla tape. Leave enough so the ends go under the grips to keep it there. Easy, cheap, and nothing in the 2008 USPSA rulebook that does not allow this in SS or L-10 that I know of. Or glue on a pad to make the GS stick out a little more.

When I got my STI, I asked my gunsmith / friend to modify the GS so it barely requires any pressure to activate, kind of like what Eric is saying. That's worked, and haven't had any problems since. But to be honest, I'm not sure what it was that he did (I'm no gun smith).

Frustrating, ain't it?

[RickB]

Some grip styles result in the hands being above the grip safety pivot point, resulting in the grip safety being levered out, rather than depressed, and no manner of speed bump or "sensitizing" is going to fix it. There's a method of cutting-down a shock-buff to trap the grip safety in the depressed position, which allows it to be restored to function if necessary.

[Singlestack]

RickB, on Oct 31 2009, 12:13 AM, said:

Some grip styles result in the hands being above the grip safety pivot point, resulting in the grip safety being levered out, rather than depressed, and no manner of speed bump or "sensitizing" is going to fix it. There's a method of cutting-down a shock-buff to trap the grip safety in the depressed position, which allows it to be restored to function if necessary.

I used this method for a while. Until the shock buff worked its way around and started rubbing on the hammer strut.

I would recomend pinning it.

[chirpy]

A rubber band works too!

FWIW

Richard

[Allgoodhits]

..... add NRA Action Pistol to list of games that you can not play, if the grip or any safety device has been deactivated.

Points are one thing, safety is another. If you don't have a proper grip should one even be pulling the trigger? Believe me, all of us either have, or will at some time suffer as a result of a less than proper grip, thereby not depressing the grip safety. A similar argument can be had for not getting the thumb on the other safety too, but would you pin that one down too.

Shoot fast, shoot accurate, but most important shoot or don't shoot safe.

MJ

[Al Capizzo]

After years and years of shooting 1911's with pinned or deactivated grip safeties, I have to very consciously grip much lower than "normal" when handed a gun with a working grip safety. On guns for more than one game, I use a rubber band or hair (ponytail) band to keep the grip safety depressed.

[Duane Thomas]

Quote

Believe me, all of us either have, or will at some time suffer as a result of a less than proper grip, thereby not depressing the grip safety.

True. But in my experience, given my hand shape and grip technique, it's quite possible to sensitize a grip safety to the point that it's still completely functional but I literally can't hold the gun lightly enough, or in any other fashion, that the grip safety won't disengage.

[G-ManBart]

Allgoodhits, on Oct 31 2009, 08:09 AM, said:

Points are one thing, safety is another. If you don't have a proper grip should one even be pulling the trigger? Believe me, all of us either have, or will at some time suffer as a result of a less than proper grip, thereby not depressing the grip safety. A similar argument can be had for not getting the thumb on the other safety too, but would you pin that one down too.

I'm pretty sure I understand the proper grip fundamentals and I still get times when even a highly sensitized grip safety won't activate properly for me. All of mine are pinned and have been for years. I'd actually put the Novak Answer on my guns if it were readily available and wasn't expensive.

Grip safeties add very little, or nothing, to the overall "safety" of the gun....every 1911 has a couple of other safety devices built into it, so there isn't much, if any safety factor lost by deactivating them.

A single action pistol without an operational safety that blocks the hammer/sear wouldn't be allowed in any orgainzed form of shooting, so that line of reasoning is pretty much a dead end as a comparison to a grip safety. I'm guessing you didn't mean that literally, but I don't see the grip safety pinning issue as a slippery slope that will lead to other things. It's been common practice for a long time and hasn't seemed to lead to other similar changes.

I think the thought process is/was that the overwhelming majority of handguns (models) don't have a grip safety, so deactivating them on the few guns that do really isn't a big deal, i.e. if a Hi-Power is safe without one, why isn't a 1911 safe with one deactivated? R,

Edit to avoid sounding confrontational

This post has been edited by G-ManBart: 31 October 2009 - 02:47 PM

[Jeff686]

Al Capizzo, on Oct 31 2009, 05:35 AM, said:

After years and years of shooting 1911's with pinned or deactivated grip safeties, I have to very consciously grip much lower than "normal" when handed a gun with a working grip safety. On guns for more than one game, I use a rubber band or hair (ponytail) band to keep the grip safety depressed.

I've even used masking tape or pasters in a pinch...

[Tin Can]

Can someone describe the "pinning" process? Thanks in advance.

[Duane Thomas]

The easiest way to "pin" a grip safety doesn't actually involve a pin. Cut a small, rectangular piece out of a Shok Buff or similarly squishy piece of rubber; pull the mainspring housing off the gun; insert the rubber between the top of the mainspring housing and the bottom of the grip safety to the right of the hammer strut (you don't want it on the left side or it can affect trigger pulls); then mash the rubber between the two parts (it will take quite a bit of force) as you reinstall the mainspring housing and its pin. Voilà! You have a pinned grip safety, with very little work, and no permanent modifications to the gun.

Having said that, I greatly prefer to "sensitize" the grip safety so it's still totally functional but will disengage with very little inward movement. But that's an entirely different topic.

[safarihunter]

+1 on the rubber band. I had a top 5 gunsmith give me the rubber band advice. Easy to undo if you need to

[Erucolindon]

I use the really thin silky dental floss, mint flavored, not used of course. I take off the grips, put a few wraps around and tuck it into itself. Re-install the grips and away you go.

[G-ManBart]

Erucolindon, on Oct 31 2009, 06:22 PM, said:

I use the really thin silky dental floss, mint flavored, not used of course. I take off the grips, put a few wraps around and tuck it into itself. Re-install the grips and away you go.

And the nice thing is your gun has a minty fresh scent to it!

On a serious note, that's a pretty good trick!

[cas]

Even when I made mine SUPER light, I still had issues with it not being fully disengaged and causing erratic trigger pulls, especially on the first shot. I finally got P'd off and ground the thing down so it doesn't work.

I have fairly large ands and a really high grip, I have a S&A beavertail and I at times I still get up over the top of it with the web of my hand.

[Jadeslade]

Tin Can, on Oct 31 2009, 04:46 PM, said:

Can someone describe the "pinning" process? Thanks in advance.

How to pin Check this out. All of these grip safety threads get closed eventually. It's kind of like the puppy dog that won't come in, we still love them.

[Erucolindon]

G-ManBart, on Oct 31 2009, 07:03 PM, said:

Erucolindon, on Oct 31 2009, 06:22 PM, said:

I use the really thin silky dental floss, mint flavored, not used of course. I take off the grips, put a few wraps around and tuck it into itself. Re-install the grips and away you go.

And the nice thing is your gun has a minty fresh scent to it!

On a serious note, that's a pretty good trick!

I've found the floss to be useful on several occasions. I have a Steyr GB that is very very difficult to reassemble if you take out the last pins. I use floss to compress the springs and mechanism into position before installing then insert, pin, and cut away floss. I think the factory must have used a special jig or something to put it together.

[RickB]

Duane Thomas, on Oct 31 2009, 01:31 PM, said:

The easiest way to "pin" a grip safety doesn't actually involve a pin. Cut a small, rectangular piece out of a Shok Buff or similarly squishy piece of rubber; pull the mainspring housing off the gun; insert the rubber between the top of the mainspring housing and the bottom of the grip safety to the right of the hammer strut (you don't want it on the left side or it can affect trigger pulls); then mash the rubber between the two parts (it will take quite a bit of force) as you reinstall the mainspring housing and its pin.

That sounds like it could "work its way around", as another poster noted. It's not just the material of the buff that's good, but if you cut through the middle of the hole, the resulting "square" half is almost the perfect size and shape, needing just a little trimming for a perfect fit on top of the mainspring housing. I suppose a thick buff could alter the sear spring tension, but I've always used Wilson buffs, and have never had them interfere with the trigger. Pinning it down in that way, rather than just grinding down the business end of the grip safety so it doesn't work, gives a nice, solid feel to the gun, rather than having the grip safety rattling around in your grip. And, since some gunsmiths won't work on a gun with disabled safeties, simply removing the buff restores grip safety function.
I'm attempting my first "sensitizing", and so far it hasn't worked. In dry fire and shooting groups on an indoor range there have been no problems, but I've "missed" the grip safety about 25% of the time on match draws. Every time I have the gun apart I take a couple of file strokes off the grip safety, and it will eventually either be adequately "sensitive", or it won't work at all.

[Duane Thomas]

I started out with the approach of using a piece of rubber the full width of the mainspring housing cut in the frame, with a slot cut in the middle for the strut as you describe. I got away from that since I found the "extra" material pressed against the leftmost prong of the sear spring and upped trigger pulls. Eventually I went to a much shorter piece of rubber only on the right side of the strut, not touching the strut at all, and that worked fine for me. The key, I found, to knowing the rubber wouldn't work itself out of place was to use a thick enough piece of rubber that I pretty much had to stand on the gun to fully seat the mainspring housing. I know a lot of people use Shok Buffs for this purpose, but I always wanted something a bit softer and more compressible so I could start out with a really thick piece of rubber. Remember those soft rubber shims that Blade-Tech used to supply with their holsters before they went to the hard plastic shims? That's what I use - or used. As I said, when IDPA outlawed disabled grip safeties I went to the sensitized approach instead.

Taking metal off the underside of the grip safety tongue is only half the process for sensitization. The other half is to reshape the rightmost prong of the sear spring, the part that presses backward on the grip safety, so it will still activate the grip safety but is now "soft" enough the grip safety depresses much more easily. Getting this exactly right can require numerous "take the gun apart, tweak the spring, reinstall, nope that's not it, take the gun apart..." reps but eventually we get there. The trick is to straighten out that part of the spring so it barely touches the grip safety, then bend it backward only at the top. With the sear spring putting outward pressure on the grip safety only at the top, the grip safety is much more easily pivoted forward at the bottom, thus raising the grip safety tongue up out of engagement.