Browning Hi-Power CS285 hammer/sear installation

[TMan]

My gardening is on hiatus until after I attend a pruning class on Nov 15. Yes, I have a lot of pruning to do. Several years ago I paid, what was probably an "undocumented worker", $300 to trim my red-tip photinia in front of the house, and it still hasn't recovered. So this is a case where TMan will find out how to do it right, and do it himself no matter how laborious it becomes - like installing the sear in the Browning Hi-Power.

A long time ago, I ordered the "No Bite Commander Hammer/Sear from Cylinder-Slide, model CS285. (For more information: tinyurl.com/yzblja )

The parts looked like this:

Pay attention to the sear. It is "L" shaped and basically fits into the pistol as shown. (The hammer is backward). I want to point out two areas in particular on the sear:



Area B is actually thicker than what the original sear in the gun was. This caused area A to be further toward the rear of the gun. Because of this, the safety would not work. I had two choices, reduce the thickness of A or B or both, or I could take off on the safety. If I honked up the safety, I couldn't go back to the original sear, so I opted for the first choice.

What you are looking for is to be able to engage the safety and not be able to move the sear at all. If you take too much off, then the sear could move, and it be an unsafe condition. Therefore, the Dremel didn't enter into the operation, and I used medium stones.

After many hours of stoning and trying, I got the safety and sear perfect. I was so proud of myself, but let me back up to the original purchase: the trigger pull was 7lbs. Removing the magazine disconnect reduced it to 6.5lbs. Changing out the springs and putting in Wolff reduced power springs got me down to 4.5lbs, which isn't bad, but the hammer still was biting me.

So now my safety was working, had a new hammer that wouldn't bite me, and it was time to measure the trigger pull - 5.5lbs. No, that was not a "typo". Borrowing my wife's 16X loupe, I could see the the engagement was extremely positive. I guess ole Bill doesn't want any lawsuits. I then got out the Series I stoning fixture, the right adapter, and went to work with the stones. After getting the angle where it is just barely positive, I broke out the Dremel and polished the little sucker.

Put it all back together and the trigger pull is just under 4lbs. My goal was 3.5, but I'd rather have closer to 4 and ensure the gun was always safe.

My recommendation: don't do this unless you are prepared to take your time and carefully stone the sear in both the A and B areas. Also, Robert Dunlop could probably do it without the use of the fixture, but it isn't something that I would recommend. As they say in the instructions: these are not "drop-in" parts.

[MLB]

I haven't disassembled the fire control mechanism on mine yet. It looks like when I do, I will need to have new roll pins on hand. Did you order these too?

The pin that goes through the trigger (for the magazine safety I presume) is solid and peened on both sides to keep it in place. Looks like it would take either a press or some serious percussive maintenance to remove it. Is yours the same?

[TMan]

MLB, I thought I answered you before, but I don't see the post. Anyhow, no, I didn't need any roll pins. However, your's may be different. I have the ambidextrous safety, and it has a roll pin, but I didn't remove it all the way to remove the safety. The hammer is held by the safety's pin.

I pressed out the trigger pin the first time I removed it, but it isn't necessary. Just be sure that you remove it from right to left i.e. the rolled end of the pin is the side you hit. It is a tapered pin, and if you try to drive it out from the left side, you will screw up the frame.

[MLB]

I think I may have used the wrong term. The pin I need to remove is actually in the trigger.

Sorry about the grainy pic. It's all I have available at the moment.

I'm afraid that I'll bugger the trigger up if I knock it out. It's peened well on each end. Perhaps I should order a new trigger too...

[TMan]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I just returned from Orlando, where I was for Thanksgiving (beats Buffalo).

Just use a brass punch to drift out the pin. I drifted mine out without any problems. Also, now days I just whack the protruding trigger pin with a nylon hammer and it makes it easy to remove.

I shot the BHP again before leaving town, and I'm just amazed at how the new hammer improved accuracy. Having that hammer come back and hit me, must have really screwed up my brain and made me flinch badly. This thing could become one of my favorite shooters.

[MLB]

Thanks for the notes TMan. I'll have to find a brass punch that's small enough. Mine's about 0.500 in. That certainly won't do.

By the way, Orlando was indeed nicer than Buffalo, but not by much. It was 60 degrees here. Odd for November. That, and it snowed this week in Orlando didn't it?

[TMan]

No snow while I was there. On Thanksgiving day we were outside playing croquet. However, it was unusually cold there the whole time I was there. We went to the zoo in Tampa on Wednesday, and I was really glad that I brought a coat. Unfortunately, it was also cloudy, and I only had two lenses with me. I was shooting a 300mm lens with a 1.5x digital factor, which resulted in an effective 450mm lens. I tried using speed priority and with a F4 lens, it gave me under exposures if I tried using higher speeds to eliminate blur from camera shake.

By the way, the only reason that you have to remove the magazine safety pin is to remove the magazine safety. Rather than doing that, you can polish the magazines and the magazine safety. Then with a little good lube, you should accomplish the same thing as removing the safety, and still have the safety functional. If you are planning on ever using the gun as a defensive weapon, I would recommend leaving it intact. However, if it is only going to be for target practice...

All the guns that I carry for defensive purposes are guns that I've never touched in any way. If you modify a gun, and then shoot someone with it, the lawyers will leap at the fact you modified the gun.

[MLB]

I've polished the magazine and safety, but still getting about 8 lbs. Perhaps I could work on it a bit more, but I don't expect it to drop all that much. I don't have a sear jig like you described (do you have a link?), so I'd need to invest in one of those too.

I don't carry the BHP in general (although I did while hunting.) Compared to the 18lb DA pull on the PPK/s it feels light though ;D

[TMan]

Here is the fixture that I used: www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=9853&title=SERIES

Note that it shouldn't be done with the factory sear, but with a properly hardened replacement sear.

However, having said that, I'd recommend that you don't do it. You are way too heavy, and I expect that it is coming from the springs. I went to a reduced power Wolff #26 mainspring. www.gunsprings.com/SemiAuto/BrowningNF.html#1935Hammer

Also, I formed (bent) the sear spring to put less tension on the sear.

Hold the hammer strut in a vise and compress the spring to remove the nut on the bottom of the strut to replace the hammer spring.

Note that the sear spring is a leaf spring like the ones on 1911's.

I actually got mine too light relative to the trigger reset spring. So as I was pulling, it was acting like a 2-stage trigger and the second stage was too light and was going off before I was ready. I lightened the trigger return, and sometimes it wouldn't reset. So I had to put more tension on the sear.

It is now breaking at 3-3/4lbs, which isn't bad for a BHP.

Although I really like the design of the BHP compared to the 1911, I must admit that you will never get a trigger on a BHP to be as good as one on a 1911. There is always going to be some amount of take-up.

Speaking of 1911's - I reformed the springs (disconnecter and sear) on the Taurus to reduce the trigger from 5lbs to 4lbs. I don't know if I want it lower than that or not; the trigger is very crisp and I want it to stay that way. I've noticed at times if you lighten the trigger, it gets creepy.