• Watch Out for Scammers!

    We've now added a color code for all accounts. Orange accounts are new members, Blue are full members, and Green are Supporters. If you get a message about a sale from an orange account, make sure you pay attention before sending any money!

Sidearms & Scatterguns 1911 Trigger Reach Problem

Nosler243Shooter

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 31, 2010
432
4
39
Alabama
I currently have a Les Baer UTC with VZ thin grips and a Greider short trigger. I also have the Ed Brown flat mainspring housing and maxi-well. I still have some problems reaching the trigger. My hand are very small and I wear a small size glove. I feel that my accuracy is being affected because when I take a high tang grip my finger is not able to lay flat on the trigger. Is there anything I can do to fix my problem?
 
You might be able to have some of the material from the Grip Safety removed to make the front to back distance a bit smaller.

How far off are you from being able to reach the trigger?
 
You might be able to have some of the material from the Grip Safety removed to make the front to back distance a bit smaller.

How far off are you from being able to reach the trigger?

I'm not off by much but I can feel that my hand is in a strain trying to get to the trigger like I want. Are there different lengths of a short trigger or are they all about the same?
 
I suspect that there are different length "short" triggers. The one you have installed looks pretty short. I wonder if you could file back the face of the trigger to make it shorter? You would want to not go any deeper than where the trigger stops when you pull it back to fire the pistol. Make sure you have the grip safety pushed in when you do this measurement.

Modifying the trigger is probably a better fix than removing material from the back of the frame/grip safety. If you mess up, you can replace the trigger, plus you don't have to get the gun refinished.

Nice looking pistol, by the way!
 
If the trigger you need is not on the shelf, you might consider having a competent smith remove the bow and then make the trigger pad even smaller, then re-attach the bow.


ETA - take a good look at a Brownell's catalog - not all thin grips are equal.
 
Nice looking pistol.

You could reduce the fore-and-aft length of your Greider trigger shoe (perhaps a genuine WWII GI trigger or a short Harrison retro) and try an Ed Brown grip safety (it may be a bit shorter and flatter than the one you have on the pistol now. You may have to have the rear of the frame and grip tangs re-profiled).

MVC-872F.JPG

meusoc40.jpg
 
Last edited:
Are you sure it's not the way you are gripping the gun. I have small hands also and have been competing with a 1911 and 2011 STI for 15 years and have never had a problem with trigger reach. I've seen 13 year old girls that weigh about 75 lbs competing with 1911/2011 without problems.
You may want to take a look at your grip/hand placement .
 
Thanks for the replies and compliments. I shoot this pistol as well as any pistol I have. I tried it again just now and I guess it is a technique problem after all. I slammed the pistol into my hand like I would if I was drawing from a holster and everything lined up fine. Apparently when I pick up the pistol from a table I am not centering it in my hand the way I should. Usually at the range I am picking my pistol up off a table for each group. I need to go try this and see If my groups tighten up. I also need to work on my hand placement when doing dry fire at home to correct this issue as soon as possible.