I had a strange experience at the range recently. I have a Les Baer 45 Ultimate Master and have shot it for over 30 years with no issues other than extractor tuning.
I had recently taken it to a gunsmith I use for shotguns who also does pistol work but is not a 1911 specialist. He reworked the front sight and converted it to a fiber optic sight and did a great job. While he had the gun I asked if he could reduce the trigger pull from 4 lbs to 2.5 - 3.0 lbs. The trigger pull ended up being 2.2 lbs. Less than ideal but I thought I'd give it a try.
When I took the gun to the range all went well at first. I was inserting the mag and racking the slide strictly by hand. The gun shot well as usual. When I went to change the target I locked the slide back and made the gun safe. When I came back I loaded a mag and released the slide but this time using the slide lock. The slide slammed forward but so did the hammer and the gun fired.
I experimented several times with only 3 rounds loaded and the gun went full auto on several occasions. Very disturbing to say the least. I took the gun back to the gunsmith and even with 3.5lbs on the sear the hammer always fell when the slide was released with the slide lock but did not release when hand racked. He didn't have an answer for the issue. He did work on the sear so I suspect a sear issue.
The gun is now with a 1911 specialist who builds custom guns. I've learned my lesson but I guess one moral of this story, there are several, is to regularly check the fire control of your single action with no ammo.
I had recently taken it to a gunsmith I use for shotguns who also does pistol work but is not a 1911 specialist. He reworked the front sight and converted it to a fiber optic sight and did a great job. While he had the gun I asked if he could reduce the trigger pull from 4 lbs to 2.5 - 3.0 lbs. The trigger pull ended up being 2.2 lbs. Less than ideal but I thought I'd give it a try.
When I took the gun to the range all went well at first. I was inserting the mag and racking the slide strictly by hand. The gun shot well as usual. When I went to change the target I locked the slide back and made the gun safe. When I came back I loaded a mag and released the slide but this time using the slide lock. The slide slammed forward but so did the hammer and the gun fired.
I experimented several times with only 3 rounds loaded and the gun went full auto on several occasions. Very disturbing to say the least. I took the gun back to the gunsmith and even with 3.5lbs on the sear the hammer always fell when the slide was released with the slide lock but did not release when hand racked. He didn't have an answer for the issue. He did work on the sear so I suspect a sear issue.
The gun is now with a 1911 specialist who builds custom guns. I've learned my lesson but I guess one moral of this story, there are several, is to regularly check the fire control of your single action with no ammo.