Small amount of satisfaction with completing your own repair AFTER you have a spring jump out during disassembly. It flew across the shop and landed behind the shelving unit that would take half a day to unload to move it. So out comes the telescoping magnet. You fish around and hear the “click”. Ahhhh I sigh out loud thinking, now I can figure out how to lower the trigger pull weight on the Tisas DS1911. I retrieve the magnet and reach down to remove the cobwebs and dead pill bugs for my prize. The spring that launched itself. Only to find my magnet picked up two springs of equal length and size. Now the fun begins.
As I cuss myself for not being better organized digging through the stack of gun manuals hoping I have one for this pistol. I realize I only have a Staccato C manual and it is not descriptive enough to be 100% certain which spring is required. So I press on to Utube and 17 videos later I call it a night after putting the gun back together 3 times and nothing functioned properly.
That evening with sore fingers from fighting the “removable” safety I have a thought. I need a spare 1911 extractors anyway so why not order a spring kit at the same time. I am also certain I bent the sear spring so badly it will not seat properly again. $100 later and Bill Wilson is lighting his cigar off my incompetence.
The next morning with a fresh attitude and new vigor I give the reassembly another try with the same result. I have a list of chores to complete before the sun is down, animals to feed, a garden to tend to and family obligations that are more pressing than my spare truck gun desires. While preparing for bed I watch one more video on reassembly and this time the eccentric individual provides greater detail than the last batch of wanna be gun smiths with description of the hammer position when removing the double sided safety and the ease of effort “once” every part is properly aligned. With a smile in my heart I know I will awake and have that pistol functioning before I leave to shoot in the morning.
My night of peaceful sleep was dashed when the next morning I only accomplished removing the and reassembly of the safety with greater ease. The pistol will not fire, the trigger refuses to move. Off to tend cows and shoot a few practice rounds at 200 yards. The Tisas DS will have to wait. Then another stroke of genius hits. I locate a sear spring on Amazon with 4 hr delivery. I don’t need to wait on Mr. Wilson and the outdated pony express postal service. Jeff Bezos capitalism may save my Sunday. The part should arrive by the time I am back this evening.
Upon my return the new sear spring is on the porch. I quickly tear the overly large package open and rush to the shop. This time I am truly excited. I have a factory set to compare with. I locate the last video that included detailed instructions for the safety removal. I follow intently this time and realize. I have not destroyed the original spring, but only twisted it to the point it would fall off the sear when the main spring assembly was installed. I rebend the sear spring to match the new spring more closely. I reassemble the pistol and amazing it functions perfectly. I test the trigger pull and I am quite pleased at 3.2lbs on average.
Unfortunately I am unable to shoot tomorrow due to work commitments, so I spend the day on conference calls dry firing in my office.
Today I test fired the Tisas DS successfully burning down 4 mags. Quite happy with the result and am much more confident I won’t be calling a gun smith or cussing John Browning or the foreseeable future.
If anyone could recommend a good 1911/2011 book on disassembly and reassembly I would appreciate. The internet won’t be around forever and I don’t have consistent service at the ranch.
