I believe I've got the hammer follow on my series 70 Combat Commander narrowed down to worn hammer hooks; I can hold the trigger, drop the slide, and it will follow about 10% of the time. Finding a new Commander hammer is not hard, nor is the teardown of this gun particularly difficult. My question is, can I get away with simply replacing the hammer in this case, or is it also strongly recommended that I replace the sear and spring as well? Are there any adjustments that must be made if just replacing the hammer?

I'm mechanically inclined but my firearm experience is thus far limited to field stripping and cleaning, so it's not like I'll be using a rock and a screwdriver to take this apart

Thanks in advance!

Bigric, the hammer drop problem you describe could be caused by the hammer, the sear or not enough spring tension on the sear. I have never seen a hammer worn out with use. A trigger job with not enough sear engagement is more likley. If your pistol has never had a trigger job done to it, look elsewhere.

Check the height of the full cock notch on the hammer. If it is less than .020-.025, replace it. Check the edge of the sear under magnification. It should be flat, not rounded, and a bevel on the edge nearest the hammer is OK provided that the hammer notch height is OK.

If all those things are OK, apply more spring tension to the sear spring. Do this by bending the left hand finger of the spring towards the sear.

If these things don't fix it, you can take it to a gunsmith or replace parts yourself. If you replace the hammer, I would buy a sear too. The sear is cheap compared to the hammer and you can buy matched sear/hammer combos. Buy a new sear spring while you're at it.

I would put good parts in as received and not "adjust" them. It's the "adjusting" that causes most 1911 malfunctions.

Great feedback; thanks a lot. The gun has never had a trigger job, so I'll strip it down and take some measurements.

If you get around to deciding you need parts check out Cylinder and Slide. They have excellent quality parts, all that you need, and they are competively priced.

They have hammer/spring kits and these are as close as your going to get to drop in. I am not a believer in drop in kits on 1911's and I feel they should a always be stoned, but they do work and there have been many happy campers going this route.

You were given good advice above though, adjusting your sear spring. If you are concerned about about the hammer, look at the hooks if its worn it is certainly suspect. I also agree that if this is the condition someone got overly agressive fitting something and stoned the surface down too much, its not a common wear area. Someone trying to adjust the trigger pull, and not doing it correctly immediatly jumps into my head. This nneds a jig, stones and a delecate touch to do properly.

Again, strip your pistol down and look for telltale signs on your hammer or sear. Anyway your drop in kit From C&S is:

https://shop.cylinder-slide.com/ccp51/cgi-bin/cp-app.pl...=43&catstr=HOME:6:43

or slightly cheaper:

https://shop.cylinder-slide.com/ccp51/cgi-bin/cp-app.pl...=43&catstr=HOME:6:43

I doubt your going to find a kit with the original style hammer, these aren't popular in a aftermarket part, and although you can find the hammer, and they are not expensive they need stoning, which defeats cheap and requirs the above jig, stones and expertise.

Not to start a flame, but this was not uncommon on target guns with a light pull. One of the things you learned and we taught in the Navy side of the house was to never release the slide without a thumb holding the hammer back (yeah I know, tactical speed reloads don't follow this practice). Point is, this is a good safety habit to develop. This doesn't fix your problem, but the advice given should have you on the right track.

Normally the hammer following the slide with the trigger pulled is a result of a bad/broken/worn disconnector.

Bigric

M Pursell is correct on all counts. He knows what he is talking about.

I would like to add my 2 cents worth after gunsmithing the 1911 for many years. Never drop the slide on an empty chamber. A safe trigger should with stand this as a one time test. I always test my trigger jobs this way ONE TIME ONLY. Afterwards if you repeatedly do this the hammer will eventually jar off and fall to the half cock notch and damage the sear. Then the problem will get much worse.

Also never drop the slide on a chambered round. The extractor will snap over the rim OK but it will stretch the extractor causing it to loose tension and you will develop ejection problems.

So the rule is when the slide is locked back drop the slide on a loaded magazine. Or if you do not want the chamber loaded, grasp the slide and gently lower it by hand.