Help! Hammer follow - sear/spring engagement question

Rockon71385 · Jun 13, 2015

I had 5 instances of hammer follow on the first stage at DTC today and called it quits. The match was a CF anyway due to weather, so It didn't bother me that much, but I have some training scheduled next weekend and the AR section the weekend after so I'm SOL if I can't get my gun running. When I got home, I found the left leg of my sear spring sort of stuck underneath the sear like it is here:

View attachment 9955

I completely tore down my gun and cleaned it the night before the match, and the spring was definitely resting on the sear when I installed the mainspring housing. Even when I removed the spring and put it back, I still have barely any engagement between the sear spring and sear:

View attachment 9956

I noticed the gap between my frame and grip, but my grip screws were still tight. I also took my grip off the frame and checked it carefully for cracks, but it looks fine. I feel like I used to have a little more engagement between the sear and spring, but it has never been much. It always made me a little uneasy that it was so close to slipping off. Could this be from my grip getting warped after tons or rounds, or does the end of the spring wear or something?

Any help is appreciated.

technetium-99m · Jun 13, 2015

That's not enough of the spring sitting on the sear, you sure there aren't any cracks?

You can try a few different springs or if there's enough on the tab at the bottom of your spring you can try and bend it a little to get it to sit higher in the notch. You could also try another grip.

When I installed my steel grip I had the same issue, I found an EGW spring I had in the drawer that worked.

Rockon71385 · Jun 13, 2015

I found a tiny crack in the plastic near the rear upper corners of each steel grip insert. I'm wondering if a barely long enough spring paired with a little bit of shift between the plastic and steel grip has done it over time. Does the missing plastic in the trigger channel look normal to you or has it cracked out?

View attachment 9959

chris g · Jun 13, 2015

The plastic missing looks normal all my grips have some missing

Rockon71385 · Jun 14, 2015

What about the gap between the frame and grip in the first picture? Does that look normal to you guys?

chris g · Jun 14, 2015

I tried three grips on sti frame all have a small gap

mike cyrwus · Jun 14, 2015

I dont see a crack in that plastic

mike cyrwus · Jun 14, 2015

also, thats an EGW hammer. I would take that gun back to however installed that hammer and/or whatever other parts they did

drmitchgibson · Jun 14, 2015

It's a Dawson CRP gun. Get a new sear spring.

Rockon71385 · Jun 15, 2015

mike cyrwus said:
also, thats an EGW hammer. I would take that gun back to however installed that hammer and/or whatever other parts they did

That's definitely the way I would prefer to go, but I don't really have time to ship the gun off and wait for it to come back at this point. I just ordered three different sear springs. Hopefully at least one of them will have a little bit longer sear leg and I'll be able to make it work.

If I can't get it working this week, II may have to shoot production for a while while i wait for it to get fixed.

billdozer · Jun 18, 2015

If you absolutely have to have it running, i fixed my 2011 that was doing the same thing by removing a little material from the top of the groove in the frame to allow the spring to ride higher in the grip. I then filled in the bottom with epoxy. It was originally intended as a temporary fix until my new grip cane in....my new grip is still in the package a year later, cause I'm lazy.

Rockon71385 · Jun 18, 2015

billdozer said:
If you absolutely have to have it running, i fixed my 2011 that was doing the same thing by removing a little material from the top of the groove in the frame to allow the spring to ride higher in the grip. I then filled in the bottom with epoxy. It was originally intended as a temporary fix until my new grip cane in....my new grip is still in the package a year later, cause I'm lazy.

Thanks for the suggestion bill. I haven't function tested it yet, but I think my grip is fine. I installed a new EGW sear spring last night, and while it worked, it BARELY made contact with the sear when the trigger was pulled all the way to the rear. That's exactly how my spring always was and while it would probably work it makes me nervous. I found that the sear spring I ordered from Dawson Precision was a tiny bit longer and has much more contact area on the sear. I adjusted the tension on both legs last night and I'm going to try to function check it after work today. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Rockon71385 · Jun 18, 2015

mike cyrwus said:
I dont see a crack in that plastic

You're right. I was looking at the stress marks above the metal inserts on the back corners, but I guess that's normal. I think it was the barely long enough spring. I had hammer follow issues when I first bought the gun and had the EGW ignition set installed. It ha run great until now. I'm hoping the sear and hammer geometry is all still fine and the new sear spring will take care of it.

mike cyrwus · Jun 18, 2015

had the set installed? Who did it? thats his hot potato now.

good luck hoping, if that works out for you, let me know and Ill start hoping on becoming a millionaire.

Matt1911 · Jun 18, 2015

mike cyrwus said:
Ill start hoping on becoming a millionaire.

Get in line buddy, I've been there for years.

Rockon71385 · Jun 19, 2015

mike cyrwus said:
had the set installed? Who did it? thats his hot potato now.

good luck hoping, if that works out for you, let me know and Ill start hoping on becoming a millionaire.

M2i put in the ignition set, but I don't really feel like I can blame them since I've been dicking around with the gun myself. I haven't messed with the trigger parts, but I did use my welder to add some material on the grip safety to keep it locked down, and I think that rubbed on the spring for a while before I noticed the rub mark and removed more material to keep it from touching. The weird thing to me is that tried a brand new EGW spring and it still BARELY reached the sear. I wonder if that's normal with their ignition sets or if my grip/frame is unusual in some way. The DP spring was a hundredth or two longer and made much better contact with the sear.

I put 100 rounds down the tube yesterday without a hiccup. I've got to put a new front sight on this afternoon, then I'm going to fire another hundred or two. So far so good.