Grip safety is loose. Issue or not?

[srv1]

Since new, the grip safety has always rattled. Actually, you can dry fire the gun by giving the gun a quick jerk downward without having your hand on the safety. If your just holding it in any position, it will not fire, but I do not know if this is a safety issue or not. Maybe this is normal? I'm trying to describe it the best I can. Here is a video. Sorry about the quality I normally do not do videos. ~James

http://youtu.be/G2G2_E9HuMY

[crashoverrideplik]

Try adding more tension (bending) to the sear leaf on the right side and see if it stops.

[srv1]

Originally Posted by crashoverrideplik

Try adding more tension (bending) to the sear leaf on the right side and see if it stops.

I may just do that. I think that is the problem, the leaf is just weak or bent the wrong way.

James

[crashoverrideplik]

Originally Posted by srv1

I may just do that. I think that is the problem, the leaf is just weak or bent the wrong way.

James

It's a quick fix to try out since you can remove that grip safety without taking down the gun. I've had this isue with other 1911's and this fixed it. YRMV but give it a try before sending it somewhere in a box.

[Hellsing76]

I had this issue on a used Series I Kimber Classic Custom I had picked up from an estate sale. The deceased's son had told me his father had something "strange" done to it where the grip safety became innactive, not pinned though. So I took it at the price it went for and had the same functionality issues your video shows. Upon dissasembly I noticed where someone very meticulously filed at the armature where the trigger stirrup or bow engages the grip safety and or holds it from firing. So the short story was for whatever reason, the previous owner felt that the grip safety was a hinderance, try taking that to court, lol, so I ordered a new standard grip safety, blued, from Kimber it showed up with the exact finish of the original and I dropped it in. It was slightly gritty when I first function tested it so I began fitting it in and a couple file strokes later the trigger engagements were like it was a hot knife through butter. So I guess yours is new so it may have been "over fitted" from Ruger, they are cranking these particular pistols out so darn fast, issues are sure to be abound, one of the reasons I have yet to buy one. Locally they are around $699.99 plus tax when in stock, but only the douches are acting like they are unobtainium, lol. Either take it apart (only if you are qualified, or at least know your way around the 1911 platform inside and out) to inspect the "finger" that comes off the grip safety towards the trigger, send back to Ruger, or have them send you a new grip safety that you can have a competent gunsmith fit in for you. I have a feeling since generally these are fitted parts, (most drop in but a true fit gets all the gritty feel away and sharp edging off) Ruger will have you send it back....Good luck with whatever you do and don't use this as a self defense weapon or you may be in for more of a shocker if ever needing to go to court....neglegence is a hard one to beat, and owning a weapon they figure you must be responsible enough to know your weapon and how it is to operate, as well as the laws in your area against "modified" weapons. You can tell em "Ruger did it" all day long but it is still your responsibility to ensure the pistol functions properly. And as far as the thing rattling, most do and yes tweaking only one of the springs will get some of that out as well as keep it from lifting off the trigger stirrup. As far as an issue, if it were mine, I'd say "YES".

SEE ALSO THIS THREAD WITHIN THIS FORUM FOR HOW THESE FUNCTION OR DON'T FUNCTION TOGETHER:

http://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=123244

[srv1]

Yeah it is loose and rattles. I will take it apart and see what the deal is. I do not use it as a carry and only use it for the range so I'm not concerned with it for safety reason but I do want to fix it. There is a lot of play in it like their is no spring tension on it. My XD is nice and firm and it does not rattle but I do not know how the internals of the XD safety works compared to a 1911. Other than that, I found no other defects and it has been running flawlessly. I doubt I will send it back to Ruger since it will take too long and I was thinking of changing to a stainless grip safety anyways. I will take it apart and post some pictures.

James

[loggy]

SEND IT BACK, this is a safety issue, I had a R1 that did the same thing, this is one reason that I got rid of all three sr1911's they seem to have some issues that we as a consumer should not have to worry about. Good luck

[srv1]

Roughly how long is the turn around time? I hear Ruger is swamped with work.

James

[loggy]

probably a while, RCS sucks from all that I have read on here.

[vh20]

Originally Posted by loggy

probably a while, RCS sucks from all that I have read on here.

I can't speak for the SR1911 service - it might be different since it is a whole new ball game for Ruger and the 1911 is a more precision/hand-fit platform than what Ruger usually does. However, when it comes to their other handguns like LCP and LC9 most recently, their customer service has been exemplary (check out the LCP forum) and it's one of the reasons I had no reservations about buying their 1911. Once they get a handle on things, I expect you'll see great CS on this gun too. To say RCS "sucks", even from what has been written here, is not fair in my opinion. Go look at any other manufacturer's forum on here and you'll see similar CS complaints to the ones posted here (and much worse on many of them).

[srv1]

Originally Posted by vh20

I can't speak for the SR1911 service - it might be different since it is a whole new ball game for Ruger and the 1911 is a more precision/hand-fit platform than what Ruger usually does. However, when it comes to their other handguns like LCP and LC9 most recently, their customer service has been exemplary (check out the LCP forum) and it's one of the reasons I had no reservations about buying their 1911. Once they get a handle on things, I expect you'll see great CS on this gun too. To say RCS "sucks", even from what has been written here, is not fair in my opinion. Go look at any other manufacturer's forum on here and you'll see similar CS complaints to the ones posted here (and much worse on many of them).

From what I have seen and read, Rock Island Armory goes above and beyond and those are cheaper made Philippianese 1911's so if that company has better CS, Ruger better step up. I will probably fix it myself since I do not want to wait a month or more for a simple fix. Funny how you mentioned the LCP. Mine has the pins walking out of the gun. From what I read, they do not fix them but rather tell you to put some Loctite on them? Like I said, I do not use this gun for carrying so that is why. If I carried this everyday, maybe I would send it back in. I will call next week and see what they say.

James

[Murphman]

I am new to the 1911 platform and just picked up an sr1911 and the grip safety rattles pretty good, should I look into sending it in or only under severe rattle is this an issue? or should there be zero rattle?

[srv1]

Originally Posted by Murphman

I am new to the 1911 platform and just picked up an sr1911 and the grip safety rattles pretty good, should I look into sending it in or only under severe rattle is this an issue? or should there be zero rattle?

From what I gather they all rattle and not necessarily the Ruger's. Other 1911's do the same but my issue along with the rattle is that it does not take much pressure to activate the grip safety and I was wondering if this is an issue. So far from what I read that it is.

James

[Murphman]

Originally Posted by srv1

From what I gather they all rattle and not necessarily the Ruger's. Other 1911's do the same but my issue along with the rattle is that it does not take much pressure to activate the grip safety and I was wondering if this is an issue. So far from what I read that it is.

James

ok, yeah I watched your video and that is crazy. I tried replicating what you are experiencing with mine but was unable to do so.

[srv1]

Originally Posted by Murphman

ok, yeah I watched your video and that is crazy. I tried replicating what you are experiencing with mine but was unable to do so.

All I did was a quick jerk and the centrifugal weight allowed the grip safety to activate. I do not know if I'm using the correct terminology but I think you understand what I mean, right?

James

[Murphman]

Originally Posted by srv1

All I did was a quick jerk and the centrifugal weight allowed the grip safety to activate. I do not know if I'm using the correct terminology but I think you understand what I mean, right?

James

yes I do, I even went further as to use my second hand to grab the top of the slide to get more power behind the jerk and still nothing. Let me ask you something, when you are holding down the trigger does your grip safety still rattle really really bad?

[JGus]

Originally Posted by Murphman

I am new to the 1911 platform and just picked up an sr1911 and the grip safety rattles pretty good, should I look into sending it in or only under severe rattle is this an issue? or should there be zero rattle?

There will be some rattle. I own several 1911's with many high end. Even the high end can have some "play" in the grip safety. Of all my 1911's, the loosest grip safety is on my Colt Combat Elite XSE. That thing rattles like a tamborine. But it functions perfectly so I don't worry about it.

I have an SR1911 and mine also rattles. But it also functions perfectly. If you aren't having any function issues don't worry about it.

[srv1]

Originally Posted by JGus

There will be some rattle. I own several 1911's with many high end. Even the high end can have some "play" in the grip safety. Of all my 1911's, the loosest grip safety is on my Colt Combat Elite XSE. That thing rattles like a tamborine. But it functions perfectly so I don't worry about it.

I have an SR1911 and mine also rattles. But it also functions perfectly. If you aren't having any function issues don't worry about it.

I'm going to disagree with you on this one. I too was told the same thing when I got mine and it did not have any issues. After putting some rounds through it, that is when it slowly started. Now it will fire without engaging the grip safety. I sent it out today with the label they gave me. I recommend others to do as well and not wait until you have a problem. If you carry, why would you want to take a chance? Luckily this is not my carry gun.

James

[JGus]

Originally Posted by srv1

I'm going to disagree with you on this one. I too was told the same thing when I got mine and it did not have any issues. After putting some rounds through it, that is when it slowly started. Now it will fire without engaging the grip safety. I sent it out today with the label they gave me. I recommend others to do as well and not wait until you have a problem. If you carry, why would you want to take a chance? Luckily this is not my carry gun.

James

I'm not sure what point you are disagreeing with me? If it's about most all 1911's having some play or slight "rattle" with the grip safety, I can tell you that all 31 of my 1911's I have have some play or rattle with the grip safety. Including my Les Baer, Ed Brown, etc.

But maybe you have more insight and knowledge into the workings of the multitude of 1911's than I do based on your experience with your Ruger SR1911 (which is also part of my 1911 collection).

The problem you are having is far beyond a rattling grip safety and your problem wasn't caused by a grip safety with some play or slight rattle. You have a function issue, a dangerous one at that, and you need to send it back to Ruger. What I was saying was that if the gun is functioning normal, and obviously yours is not, and it has some lateral movement/play with the grip safety that alone is not a reason to send the gun back to the manufacturer. Because it will be sent back to you in the same condition you received it. Your issue is far beyond just some slight play in the grip safety.

If you refuse to own a 1911 with no play in the grip safety, then you will be paying a tremendous amount of money for a 1911 with exacting tolerance and keep yourself from owning a lot of great 1911's. The grip safety will rarely ever be fitted to such an exacting tolerance that it has no lateral movement/play.

[srv1]

Originally Posted by JGus

I'm not sure what point you are disagreeing with me? If it's about most all 1911's having some play or slight "rattle" with the grip safety, I can tell you that all 31 of my 1911's I have have some play or rattle with the grip safety. Including my Les Baer, Ed Brown, etc.

But maybe you have more insight and knowledge into the workings of the multitude of 1911's than I do based on your experience with your Ruger SR1911 (which is also part of my 1911 collection).

The problem you are having is far beyond a rattling grip safety and your problem wasn't caused by a grip safety with some play or slight rattle. You have a function issue, a dangerous one at that, and you need to send it back to Ruger. What I was saying was that if the gun is functioning normal, and obviously yours is not, and it has some lateral movement/play with the grip safety that alone is not a reason to send the gun back to the manufacturer. Because it will be sent back to you in the same condition you received it. Your issue is far beyond just some slight play in the grip safety.

If you refuse to own a 1911 with no play in the grip safety, then you will be paying a tremendous amount of money for a 1911 with exacting tolerance and keep yourself from owning a lot of great 1911's. The grip safety will rarely ever be fitted to such an exacting tolerance that it has no lateral movement/play.

I doubt that I know more than you but this rattle I ignored because I was told it was normal but what I should have said was excessive rattle. The funny thing is, my RIA barely rattles at all. I know any gun is not supposed to be rattle free but the problem I have is the grip safety moves when lightly shaking it and the RIA does not move at all. The BEST way I can describe it is that it has very little tension. Also if you read above, I did send it back to Ruger. I know they will fix it and make it right. Other than this issue, the gun so far has been flawless.

James

[Murphman]

turned the volume up higher and i could hear it better. You can really hear a loud dink dink dink then the hammer dropped.

[srv1]

Well now I can shake it in my hand, not violently, and it will fire.

James

[JGus]

Originally Posted by srv1

Well now I can shake it in my hand, not violently, and it will fire.

James

If that is happening you really need to send it back to Ruger.

[Murphman]

yea mine is not doing any of what you are experiencing, only the grip rattle that you said is normal for the 1911. when i hold the trigger down all rattle is gone. Sounds like there is a serious safety issue with yours.

[srv1]

Well now I can pull the trigger with my hand off the grip safety and it will fire. Time to call Ruger.