Trigger face

carguy · Post by **carguy** » August 28th, 2007, 9:49 pm

I wonder if these...as military surplus...were ever broken down and re-assembled (due to cleaning, saftey inspection etc during their military issue days or even for export) and as with many military weapons at their armorer the parts are often placed in a pile and in this case the trigger that is the closest during assembly is grabbed and on to the next one?

Thus the non-sensical distribution of smooth and grooved triggers.

Isn't that what makes milsurps with all matching numbers so desirable, the odds that one actually made it through all the inspections, cleanings, re-arsenaling etc and stayed together?

Just a guess.

volfandan · Post by **volfandan** » October 17th, 2007, 6:47 pm

I have the answer:

I was talking to my local smith today, Shannon. We are in Knoxville, TN. I was talking about this wonderful board, and he laughed and said,

"Yeah, I've probably handled more P64's than anyone else in the US."

So I questioned why, and he told me the following:

He was called to travel to the US Customs House in Louisville, KY to perform trigger serrations on P64's. He said that laws for importation had changed, and by serrating the triggers the pistols would be considered target pistols.

He said that the other method of circumventing importation laws was by the Poles changing out the grips to a "target" or thumb rest grip. He said that this was done with electric screwdrivers, and that the Poles "really torqued down the grip screws."

This over tightening of the grip screws, he stated, can be a cause of making magazine removal kind of hard.

I asked him if it was OK to change out a triangle hammer for a round one, and he said "let a smith do it". Evidently this can cause timing problems and decocking issues.

Oh, and he said to make sure you ALL knew that the triggers weren't his best work....and sorry. He did a little over 4400 pistols in 4 days or so. He charged $1.35 per gun to serrate with trigger on the gun, or told them it would be $8.25 per gun to remove the trigger and do it "the right way". They opted for the cheap/quick way out. He really is one of the best smiths I've ever seen.

Thought you guys would find this interesting.

weetabix · Post by **weetabix** » October 17th, 2007, 7:44 pm

'69 - smooth

9x18shooter · Post by **9x18shooter** » October 17th, 2007, 7:57 pm

Dan, That info is like finding a needle in a haystack. :-*

That explains why one of mine has the same serrated mark inside the trigger guard. Oops! I guess he slipped. ;D

I guess grips must have been changed around at some time or another as all of mine are flat but I have one trigger that is not serrated.

I sure wish $1.35 would take the serration back off. ;D

anjdrifter · Post by **anjdrifter** » October 17th, 2007, 7:59 pm

I remember a thread on this and we were stymied why it was some were and some were not.. neat info .

9x18shooter · Post by **9x18shooter** » October 17th, 2007, 8:01 pm

anj, I think this is the thread.

Post by **papabear** » October 17th, 2007, 8:05 pm

volfandan,

That's very interesting, and probably true as far as your local smith goes, but over two years ago we never heard of serrated triggers, so something must have changed. I have had 5 P-64's and all different years from '68 to '76 and none of them had the serrated triggers, but you do see pics of them all the time now. We knew about the thumbrest on the left side grip being because of importation laws, and the pics I have seen on the serrated triggers they are all different it seems, so he is probably right about the cheap rush job. Thank for sharing that with us.

papabear

jdeereman · Post by **jdeereman** » October 17th, 2007, 8:38 pm

My '73 has a smooth trigger (I prefer mine that way anyhow).

carguy · Post by **carguy** » October 17th, 2007, 9:56 pm

Definitely explains why my '67 has a lousy groove job done on the trigger.

Really cool story though.

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