# Firing PIN Stop - Did you know ?



## sniper350 (Jan 6, 2007)

Just thought I would pass on stuff I am learning, by tinkering with my Colt Commander-

Did you know you can slow down the opening [ action] of the Slide of your 1911 Acp by installing a Firing Pin Stop with a square back corner. Then you can take that same Stop and by adjusting the rear bevel, effect the speed at which the slide opens. It is a good counter balance to use if you perform a trigger job and lighten the Mainspring Housing Spring. The above method can allow a weaker Mainspring housing spring to have the same affective resistance [pressure] against the Slide from the Hammer, as the Stock spring.

If your 1911 is wearing out extractors faster than normal ..........you might try this method - giving your extractor more time to grip and pull the spent shell casing.

EGW sells a great "squared" Firing Pin stop ...that is Over-sized .....so you can fit it perfectly to your slide to hold that extractor tight in its place.

Not earth shattering .......but a tiny trick you might need to use someday ??

JF.


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## rigger (Apr 1, 2007)

*Huh?*

I must be very thick this morning. Can anyone explain to me HOW the firing pin stop will either delay opening or slow the speed of the slide? I must not have a good imagination because I can't imagine anything doing this.



sniper350 said:


> Just thought I would pass on stuff I am learning, by tinkering with my Colt Commander-
> 
> Did you know you can slow down the opening [ action] of the Slide of your 1911 Acp by installing a Firing Pin Stop with a square back corner. Then you can take that same Stop and by adjusting the rear bevel, effect the speed at which the slide opens. It is a good counter balance to use if you perform a trigger job and lighten the Mainspring Housing Spring. The above method can allow a weaker Mainspring housing spring to have the same affective resistance [pressure] against the Slide from the Hammer, as the Stock spring.
> 
> ...


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## AR1911 (Dec 24, 2007)

The slide pushes the hammer back against MS pressure by raking the lower edge of the firing pin stop up the face of the hammer. A square edge "hangs" a bit and delays full opening by that small fraction of a secornd.
At least that's what I got out of it.

Great tip, thanks!


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## Justice4all (Feb 10, 2008)

I thought the same thing when I first heard this, but after doing some research and reading "1911Tuner's" posts, it makes sense to me to a certain degree. Honestly, JMB must have been a genius and may not have even known exactly how his creations worked, but there is much, much more to how a 1911 functions than most know or suspect. I think it's part of the reason that even though 1911's have been around for a hundred years, the manufacturers can still screw them up. You'd be amazed at how, what seems to be a minor difference in spec on any one part of the pistol can adversely affect the operation. Just not a whole lot of fudge factor.

The smiths who are good at working on 1911's are more like master artists/physics professors/machinists/alchemists...


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## Jeff82 (Jun 15, 2009)

From what I've read:

The original specs had a more sharp bevel on the FPS. This reduces felt recoil and makes the gun "easier to shoot" as it causes the pistol to use more energy overcoming the hammer instead of all the energy slamming to the rear when the slide reaches full travel. But this makes it harder to manually jack the slide open. So wanting people to like how "smooth" the gun is while in the gun shop, some started putting a much more "easy" bevel on the FPS allowing the gun's slide to more easily be opened by hand. The unsuspecting now get the full smack of all the recoil energy when it abruptly stops at the full back position.

Make sense?


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## dondavis3 (Aug 2, 2009)

Good tip, thanks , I didn't know that.

:smt1099


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## Baldy (Jun 21, 2006)

I heard of this awhile back. I just haven't tried it yet. I will one day.


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## the.batman (Jan 20, 2007)

The EGW oversize pin stop will increase your lock time a millisecond or two. In my opinion, it's real advantage is the increased width holds your extractor in place so it won't rotate or "clock" taking a bit of the hook off the case rim during extraction. I've installed quite a few of them and in my experience they almost always require fitting. Be sure you get someone to install it for you if you don't understand what it going on with the fit of the extractor.


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## DoubleAction (Nov 8, 2009)

Hello, My name is DoubleAction; I'm curious about the EGW Over Sized Firing Pin Stop. I have been using these stops for about 13 years. What do these stops have anything to with "Lock Time ?"


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## MLB (Oct 4, 2006)

Not even owning a 1911, I have zero experience with the firearm. I am somewhat adept at physics however, and it seems to me that the force of the retracting slide, working against the pressure of the hammer is the issue here. 

The bevel at the base of the FPS effectively changes the point where the slide acts on the hammer. A squared stop would act closer to the hammer pin, whereas a more beveled or rounded stop would (initially) act higher on the hammer, thereby decreasing the resistance and opening marginally faster.

Please feel free to correct me if I'm way out in left field, but I can see how this might just work.


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## VAMarine (Dec 25, 2008)

DoubleAction said:


> Hello, My name is DoubleAction; I'm curious about the EGW Over Sized Firing Pin Stop. I have been using these stops for about 13 years. What do these stops have anything to with "Lock Time ?"


Absolutely nothing:



> "Lock-time" is defined as the "time interval between sear release and the firing-pin striking the primer"


_*Unless, *_there is less drag on the part of the firing pin riding though the firing pin stop with the EGW part, however a chamfered / polished opening in a standard FPS would probably do the same thing...a call to George @ EGW would probably clear all this up, but they're awfully busy...



MLB said:


> Not even owning a 1911, I have zero experience with the firearm. I am somewhat adept at physics however, and it seems to me that the force of the retracting slide, working against the pressure of the hammer is the issue here.
> 
> The bevel at the base of the FPS effectively changes the point where the slide acts on the hammer. A squared stop would act closer to the hammer pin, whereas a more beveled or rounded stop would (initially) act higher on the hammer, thereby decreasing the resistance and opening marginally faster.
> 
> Please feel free to correct me if I'm way out in left field, but I can see how this might just work.


This IS true, however that has nothing to do with lock time.

An over-sized firing pin stop will slightly reduce felt recoil, and slow affect the overall cyclic rate / timing of the gun, but that is NOT lock time.

*Edited to add*: _I fired off an email to EGW, so we'll see what they have to say on the matter..._


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## VAMarine (Dec 25, 2008)

*E-Mail from EGW*

Got this reply from Geo.



> Hi _VAMarine_
> 
> The unlock time can be longer but the Lock time would remain unchanged.
> 
> ...


If anyone wants the email, I'd be happy to forward it to them.

:smt1099


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## MLB (Oct 4, 2006)

Thanks VAMarine. My concept of "lock time" was incorrect.

As a side note, I looked at my BHP a bit closer and noted that its firing pin stop also has a rounded bottom edge.


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## VAMarine (Dec 25, 2008)

MLB said:


> Thanks VAMarine. My concept of "lock time" was incorrect.
> 
> As a side note, I looked at my BHP a bit closer and noted that its firing pin stop also has a rounded bottom edge.


You're quite welcome. And yes, the BHP's firing pin stop is very similar to the 1911.


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## DoubleAction (Nov 8, 2009)

*"Hammer Over Travel"
*​
As the center rail of the slide travels rearward, it performs several functions, one being to cock the hammer. With some hammers, they might be pulled beyond the point of locking on the Sear Nose, causing the hammer hooks to beat against the fine engagement of the sear as the hammer is released by the slide. To prevent this from occuring, many hammers come factory tuned to react with the center rail of the slide in order to minumize the hammer's overtravel during the cocking stage of the slide cycle.
The center rail to hammer cocking engagement is located at the top of the face of the hammer. Some hammers will have a smooth broken top edge on it's face to eliminate it's overtravel. If you think your hammer is being overcocked, you can manually cock it ( check to make sure the pistol is unloaded first) and while pulling the slide to the rear, over the cocked hammer, check to see if the hammer travels any further to the rear. If the hammer travels excessively, as the slide passes over it, this could tell you how much it will slam on the sear nose as the slide cycles normally.

*EGW Over Sized Firing Pin Stop
*







*If you will; Take a closer look at the bottom of the EGW Stop, and Now Take a Closer Look at the Pin Stop at the one at the bottom. EGW Stop isn't called "Over Sized" for nothing, the surface of the hammer has to be fitted to that portion of the Stop.*


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