DVC
Regular Member
imported post
balackolama wrote:
The M1911 was designed to allow the hammer to be (gently) lowered on a loaded round without contacting the primer. This was done my simply making the firing pin shorter than the distance between the breech face and the face of the retainer.
You can also tell if you field-strip it -- if the only parts in the slide are the retainer, firing pin and spring, there is no block. A block is essentially a spring-loaded plunger which is pushed up to unlock the firing pin.
Blocks were added in the Colt Model 80, to prevent the "drop-fire" and "slam-fire" possibilities, in which a M1911 would discharge when dropped on the muzzle or when a strong recoil spring was combined with sensitive primer. In other words, some lawyer got a bright idea . . .
I've been around M1911s for decades. I have never seen either type of incident. They do happen, but only rarely, which is why you keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction when charging the pistol.
balackolama wrote:
The easy way is -- WITH AN EMPTY CHAMBER -- pull back the hammer then press on the firing pin. If it goes down past the retainer, there is no block. If you feel a mechanical stop while the pin is above the retainer, you have a block.
The M1911 was designed to allow the hammer to be (gently) lowered on a loaded round without contacting the primer. This was done my simply making the firing pin shorter than the distance between the breech face and the face of the retainer.
You can also tell if you field-strip it -- if the only parts in the slide are the retainer, firing pin and spring, there is no block. A block is essentially a spring-loaded plunger which is pushed up to unlock the firing pin.
Blocks were added in the Colt Model 80, to prevent the "drop-fire" and "slam-fire" possibilities, in which a M1911 would discharge when dropped on the muzzle or when a strong recoil spring was combined with sensitive primer. In other words, some lawyer got a bright idea . . .
I've been around M1911s for decades. I have never seen either type of incident. They do happen, but only rarely, which is why you keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction when charging the pistol.