On a number of occasions, discussions on this site have turned to the complexity of the old DA Colt design and the difficult of working with it.
As you may know, I don't do professional gunsmithing any more, and don't have an FFL, but once in a while a friend asks for (free) help with a problem. So I had a Colt 1917 (New Service) with a sticking trigger. The trigger pull on those guns is a bit stiff, but smooth, so the "hitch" was disconcerting.
Anyway, I found the usual suspects to be innocent. The hammer strut was fine, the trigger OK, the hand and ratchet normal. But the strut seemed to be too far back on the trigger. Finally, I had it. Someone in the past had decided to smooth up the rebound lever where it cams the hammer back, and took off too much metal. That let the top of the hammer sit forward more than it should, which put the strut back on the trigger until it was in almost a dead center position and wouldn't move on the trigger, hence the sticking trigger. For good measure, I also moved the strut engagement forward a bit.
Those rebound levers are not always available, so with the owner's permission, I stretched the old one. I thought that might mess up the position of the cylinder bolt cam, but that seems OK. Good, because that is one bad area to mess with.
So the 1917 now has a normal (awful) DA trigger pull. And I found another reason why messing with those guns is not a good idea.
Incidentally, I don't see anything on that in Kuhnhausen, but maybe I didn't look hard enough.
Jim
As you may know, I don't do professional gunsmithing any more, and don't have an FFL, but once in a while a friend asks for (free) help with a problem. So I had a Colt 1917 (New Service) with a sticking trigger. The trigger pull on those guns is a bit stiff, but smooth, so the "hitch" was disconcerting.
Anyway, I found the usual suspects to be innocent. The hammer strut was fine, the trigger OK, the hand and ratchet normal. But the strut seemed to be too far back on the trigger. Finally, I had it. Someone in the past had decided to smooth up the rebound lever where it cams the hammer back, and took off too much metal. That let the top of the hammer sit forward more than it should, which put the strut back on the trigger until it was in almost a dead center position and wouldn't move on the trigger, hence the sticking trigger. For good measure, I also moved the strut engagement forward a bit.
Those rebound levers are not always available, so with the owner's permission, I stretched the old one. I thought that might mess up the position of the cylinder bolt cam, but that seems OK. Good, because that is one bad area to mess with.
So the 1917 now has a normal (awful) DA trigger pull. And I found another reason why messing with those guns is not a good idea.
Incidentally, I don't see anything on that in Kuhnhausen, but maybe I didn't look hard enough.
Jim