There are pictures of Texas Rangers and other pistoleros who would just throw a rubber band around the grip safety to keep it engaged always, especially for carry/duty. I had a similar challenge on my TRP and tuned the GS arm so it would block the trigger but blowing on it hard would disengage it. Finally you can always just file back or cut the GS arm to the point it is non functional, will not engage. A gun smith can fit it for a really fast and light release.

 

You could always have the grip safety pinned. Now before the legal beagles and negative nancy's come out, his gun his life..

 

This is a good option . The pistol still has a manual safety and the trigger .
I've never been a big fan of the beaver tail safety . How many safety's
does one pistol really need . I've had the problem twice where I've
gripped the pistol one handed haphazardly went to engage and had
to readjust so the pistol would fire . Both were eye openers .

Honestly without seeing you hold the pistol I have know Idea what to
tell you , but I can tell you soldiers in battle have had this same problem
in fire fights and the rubber band idea was used and solved that problem .

 

Or you could do a lot of practice draws. There is no tricks to it. You need to learn a new platform and do Thousands of draws. Local PD a police shooting with a guy that already killed a cop. One of the Officers had a 1911 and got off 1 round. Luckily he had partners. They found out he didn't train enough and had a bad grip after the first recoil and didn't have the BTGS depressed.

 

I have the same problem with my custom 9mm 1911 pistol. When I shoot quickly in IDPA, I put my pistol way way out with a high hold, and sometimes the "bump" on the grip safety hides in the depression under my thumb, and I have to re-grip my pistol to get it to shoot. I have had it adjusted to where it just barely meets IDPA rules, and still, when the safety officer asks "shooter ready", I keep whispering to myself "grip the frame." As much as I love shooting my favorite gun, I have now switched to a H&K VP9 for precisely this reason.

 

I assume your TRP has a memory bump on the grip safety. This should make it easier, but not 100%. I've found that I can not grip the 1911 in any way that resembles a Glock or other common semis otherwise I will suffer the same fate. After hundreds of dry-fire holster drills I don't have this problem anymore.
Also, gripping high is great but not if it compromises reliability. Try holding a little lower and see if that helps. Thumb-under-safety works too, but it is a lower hold and follow-up shots are tougher. I shot this way for years and never once inadvertently pushed up the thumb safety (this is one of the concerns folks seem to have about a low grip).
I'm no gunsmith or legal expert, but I can't see why pinning the dang thing down would be a problem. The 1911 is over-safetied in my opinion. I wouldn't carry in public this way, too much liability. For range practice and home defense I can't see a problem. Keep trying though.
Post a pic of your grip if you can.

 

You can adjust the sensitivity of the grip safety to a degree. It will require disassembly of the main spring, thumb safety, and grip safety. You can file down the internal disconnector hump of the grip safety where it engages the trigger bow. I was having an issue with a Smith 1911 Pro Series, great shooter but occasionally during club shoots the trigger would not fall because my grip was slightly higher than normal taking my palm off the bumb of the grip safety. Problem solved 100% and the safety still works.

 

This. I have an Ed Brown Executive Elite that I had to hit with a few file strokes. Now the GS still does it's job and I can grip the gun like any of my other 20+ 1911's and it disengages like it's supposed to.

Not sure why people blame the gun. This is a training issue. He isn't use to shooting a 1911. More training with the gun is needed.

Because sometimes it IS the gun.

 

I'm wondering how stiff the leaf spring leg is or high your gripping the pistol that your missing or not getting enough contact on the grip safety that its not disengaging, even with its speed bump...

A old school trick it too stretch/peen the nose of the G/S where it meets the leaf spring and file the bottom of the G/S feet so that it rides up and back a little higher...

I assume this is a SS 1911 and adding a weld too build up the pad is out of the question, as a possibility I would look at other grip safeties with larger speed bumps or replace the flat MSH with a arched or wedge type, this would change your grip angle while lowering your hands contact point enough too get more contact on the G/S.

If this is a no go, I advocate switching back too one of your other pistols.

 

On my last outing with my MC OP my nephew had two instances where the pistol would not fire. Both times I told him to readjust his grip and he was able to continue. This was toward the end of the day (no problem beforehand). It's never been an issue for me but I know some people struggle with this problem.

 

Not sure why people blame the gun. This is a training issue. He isn't use to shooting a 1911. More training with the gun is needed.

 

I've been pinning grip safeties for almost 25 years.
Go to a USPSA match and virtually everyone has pinned or disabled their grip safety. There's no reason to wonder if your gun is going to go off when you pull the trigger.
The only gun I've ever shot that I could reliably disengage - including those belonging to friends who'd adjusted them for early disengagement - was a stock Springfield RO.
I wouldn't own a gun that had to be held in a special way just to get it to fire when I pull the trigger!

 

I've been pinning grip safeties for almost 25 years.
Go to a USPSA match and virtually everyone has pinned or disabled their grip safety. There's no reason to wonder if your gun is going to go off when you pull the trigger.
The only gun I've ever shot that I could reliably disengage - including those belonging to friends who'd adjusted them for early disengagement - was a stock Springfield RO.
I wouldn't own a gun that had to be held in a special way just to get it to fire when I pull the trigger![/QUOTE

28 years shooting USPSA with 5 different guns and every one has had the grip safety either pinned or otherwise deactivated. Can I dare say that the grip safety doesn't work on my carry 1911 either.........

 

You could also get grip panels that tend to fill you hand more. This should in essence cause you to apply more pressure to the tail end. I would suggest trying the Hogue wrap arounds with the finger grooves. I now a lot of guys don't like the looks of them but they should to two things for you. One, fill you hand more and two, place you fingers in the proper place so that you apply pressure where it needs to be. They are cheap and worth a try.

 

Go to your local gun range and shoot the crap out of it.

You're used to other guns.

Get used to that one.

The onliest way to do that is shoot it.

There is nothing wrong with the TRP.

If you can't shoot it then its on you.


Have mercy.

 

A High grip says nothing. Different guns have different angles/ pressure points, a glock high grip is not a 1911 high grip. Is pressure applied in the proper place is the real question. A glock grip/HK grip angle allows you to apply more pressure higher towards your thumb wrap. The swell lower in the grip almost forces you to squeeze more towards the top of the grip. This same grip/ pressure points will not function the 1911 BTGS and you need to focus on applying pressure mid hand. Is his hand wrapped on the 1911 the same as the others. Glocks and HK being thicker grips force the hand to the front more and the 1911 needs to be wrapped to the rear more than those. He has built muscle memory that needs to be retrained for the new gun.

I carry a Glock for work and shoot a 1911 in competition. It takes a while to get use to the different holds/ proper pressure.

 

And on some 1911's, the high grip cut causes hand to be close enough to the GS pivot point that it desensitizes the GS. So you gets your file out and you fix it. That way you don't have to change your grip to go from one 1911 to another. There was no way I was going to modify my same grip that I use on 20+ other 1911's just to shoot a particular Ed Brown I own.

As much as you wish it not to be....Sometimes, it's the gun.

 

It isn't always the shooter's failure, sometimes it is a matter of a hand's anatomy. I have big hands, and use a high hold, over the safety, party to sweep the safety off when I draw, but also to allow more of my support hand to be placed on the grip. When I put my 9mm 1911 way out to shoot, the grip bump tends to hide in the recess under my thumb, and thus sometimes fail to have sufficient pressure on the safety to push it in. I have had several of my 1911 pistol's grip safeties tuned so they just barely make the gun safe when not depressed. IDPA requires a grip safety to be functional.

For the same reason, while I greatly enjoy shooting my High Powers, I just can't get as much of my support hand on the grip as I would lilke.

 

Well spoken, TRS! A bit of tweaking - perhaps with the help of a 'smith - will give you the functional performance that you want.

 

breech,

Having the DA or Grandjury declare a shooting justified, is not all there is to it, and that's not all that matters, there is also the civil lawsuit aspect of of a shooting.

 

Why carry a gun then? Yes I do realize there's always a possibility of a civil suit. It's time and money but the main thing is that you're not in prison. That's "all that matters" is what I'm trying to relay.
Those concealed carry legal services don't look too bad these days.

 

As TRSOtto said, the emphasis on the high hand hold led to beavertail safeties which change the design of the gun to enable a VERY high hand hold. To quote a usually reliable source (ME!) the combination of the high hand hole beavertail, thumbs forward grip, and flat mainspring housing leaves a recess in the hand contour over the grip safety. This makes The Bump and now The Lump Unintended Consequences of the Ultra-Modern Technique.

A local shooter and gunsmith got together on a Maximum Memory Bump otherwise known as The Lump.
http://s334465775.onlinehome.us/forums/showthread.php?t=10616&highlight=Caspian&page=8

I did one on a loaner gun for a friend with a glued on hard rubber pad. She has since moved on to a gun without grip or thumb safety.

 

My advice - if you don't want to worry about not getting the stupid grip safety off - just pin it down. While a very high hold is a good thing the design of the grip safety is such that if your hand is applying pressure at or above the pivot point (the thumb safety pin) the grip safety is not going to rotate into the frame and release. Your hand pressure is now rotating it out away from the frame. You cannot expect the GS to rotate in if you're pressing on the top of it. You basically have two choices - use a low grip and have a functioning grip safety - or use a high grip and disable the grip safety. You will not always be able to get your perfect grip but you may desperately NEED to fire the gun. The other problem with a very high grip is you must reach down to get on the trigger which makes it more difficult to pull it straight back.