Remington R1 Repair

I was once in the car business and repaired some very interesting vehicles. While I worked with many excellent people, I learned much from dealing with the other types. One was always in panic mode. He would bring in a vehicle with two doors knocked off and a bent support and wanted the work done quick and cheap. I once called another fly-by-night operator and told him I could not replace a cracked windshield because his support column (pillar) was bent.

He replied that was okay because the windshield was in it— yeah, that’s why it broke. So anew one went in with a pretty good gap between the roof support and the glass. And so on. Thank God it was illegal to sell a broken welded chassis or they would done that as well. I was young, needed the work, and did the impossible on the cheap. It doesn’t work out to try to please everyone. Always be thankful for the good customers! As gunsmiths we have the same type of customers.

They want the work done on the cheap but still fast and with impeccable quality. One customer simply cannot judge quality and brings in rough old guns wanting them brought up to great shooting and like-new looking condition. He purchased a worn Smith & Wesson for $500 because that model is bringing $800 but his repair bill with parts and labor will be $400 and it will still be a hard used gun.

Then there is the gun shop employee who just doesn’t realize that people take the good scopes off their rifles when traded in almost without exception and the scope will be cocked sideways and perhaps the reticle is broken. Or, one customer I had with an early Colt Double Eagle with a blown barrel. He was too cheap to order another barrel and get his money for this rarity. And so forth. People able to assay quality and who know about mechanics seldom call me.

Another takes in broken guns for a pittance and saves them for me. Even if he gave them to me I could not make money on them, even though I enjoy the work and enjoy teaching. The subject of this article is a Remington R1 that had the potential of being as dangerous as a coiled rattlesnake. I took in one of these pistols and it brought forth more than a little ire. This R1 wasn’t a bad looking gun but it had seen some use.

The shopkeep asked me about it because the hammer fell when the slide was dropped on an empty chamber and he did not catch this until the gun was already purchased and logged in. I was called in to look it over. The Remington featured a high polished stainless steel slide lock, beavertail, and hammer. The barrel bushing was well fitted. What surprised me was the barrel crown is actually very nicely done and well polished. This is all simple enough machine work. The problem was the trigger.

The RCBS registering trigger pull gauge showed the 1911’s trigger broke at 3.5 pounds. This is a very light trigger by my standards, too light for carry and too light for the average shooter. Not surprisingly, when the slide was dropped on an empty chamber the hammer flew forward and was not stopped by the half cock notch. This is a dangerous situation and did not occur in the shop when we tested the Remington with a snap cap.

I warned the shopkeep that this is an unsafe pistol and advised him to not sell it to someone unaware of

the issue and unable to fix it unless he wanted a lawsuit. He instead decided it was in his best interest to sell it to me, especially because I offered to sell it back to him for his retail after repairs. Making Repairs I tested the trigger several times but did not take the gun down. Instead, I decided to begin with a test fire. At the range, I loaded one round in the magazine, inserted it into the pistol at slide lock, and dropped the slide. Sure enough, the gun fired.

Even though I was at the range with my ear muffs on and expected this could happen, I was still startled. Why was Iso jumpy? Simply because I knew something was wrong. It is one thing to hear a train and another to hear one bearing down on you. Having the disappointing results I expected, I packed the pistol up. I had wished to check the Far feed and accuracy potential before determining how good a trigger set I would fit and hoped the followthrough failure of the hammer wasn’t too bad but that was not the case.

Given that I couldn’t sell it as-is and couldn’t initiate a test to determine how well this R1 performed, I either had to go into the repair, sell the parts, or scrap the gun entirely. Of course, this isn’t a cheap pistol. I emailed my shopkeep friend to inform him that whoever brought this pistol in sure doesn’t care about the safety of others as there is no way they could have fired it and not been aware of the problem. I take such things seriously.

If I had a problem with a Mauser rifle, my shopkeep friend is the first I would consult with as his knowledge is more vast on that subject than mine. On the 1911, he calls me. When I took the pistol apart I found the hammer hook was ground down and nearly worthless. The hammer hook should be

0.018-0.020" high. This height allows good sear engagement which is critical to function and safety. There are many tools and fixtures that allow you to perform a trigger job on the 1911. Many craftsmen have been doing such work for decades. As for myself I no longer perform such work even on my own guns. I buy trigger sets from top of the line makers such as Wilson Combat or Nighthawk and drop them in. The result is atop grade factory trigger.

Fortunately, I had on hand a trigger set from a Springfield Loaded Model. A few months ago I fitted anew Nighthawk Custom trigger to the Springfield and I saved the Springfield parts. There was nothing wrong with the parts, I simply did an upgrade. I retrieved them from the parts bin and looked them over. The rest is history as the installation was effortless. They lined up and went in without any type of problem. The trigger is smooth. While the break isn’t 3.5 pounds, it is smooth, consistent, reliable, and safe!

This brings us to another point concerning parts. It is good to keep quality parts on hand when you complete an upgrade. The Springfield 1911 parts certainly paid off and I was glad I saved them. Since my sons will inherit this mess sometime and one of them is more talented than Ion building guns I carefully dropped the unused 1911 parts from this pistol into a bin marked "JUNK." I would throw them away but this bin contains a lot of valuable photographic material.

From another save not long ago, I fitted a Wilson Combat AR-15 trigger in a Springfield Saint which resulted in a superb trigger. I saved the old parts. Sure enough, an entry-level AR came into the shop with an eight pound trigger, so the saved Springfield Saint trigger group went in. While it isn’t Wilson Combat smooth, the result is a much better trigger. It is all in a day’s work. AG