Witness Overtravel Stop - DIY

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As many of you know, I don't believe in paying for something unless it is really cheap.  And the EAA Witness DA trigger with OT stop is NOT cheap.  At least in my book.

So I took an hour today and put an overtravel stop in my gun DIY style.  Here is the step by step.

1.  Field strip the pistol.
2.  Remove the sear cage.  If you aren't sure how, there are some good videos on Youtube.
3.  Drift out the trigger pin, taking care to capture the trigger spring
4.  Remove the trigger spring and trigger/draw-bar assembly.

At this point you have the option to remove the additional pin that holds the draw bar onto the trigger, but I elected not to do so.

On the back of the trigger were two circles.  Most likely they are mold marks left over as I strongly suspect this is a MIM part.  I expected to just buzz through it with a #32 drill bit.  A little bit of hard with a soft middle.   That is the reputation of MIM.

Probably the hardest #32 hole I have ever drilled in my life.  It was NOT just surface hard.  It is a dang good MIM supplier that is making these parts.

Tapped they hole 6X32 and grabbed the shortest round head screw I could find.  I know that the conventional install at this point is a set screw, but I had a different idea.  First, I knew from both experience with my Match and from looking at the gun when I dry fire that I had a bunch of slop to take up.  The set screw sticks out of my Match a LONG way.  Second, I like there to be more beef back there than a rod that is .138".  A 6X32 round head screw provides lots of beef back there, and I figured I could file it down.  It isn't something you adjust alot.  Set and forget.

With the screw installed, I re-assembled the pistol.  Reverse the above steps.  I will comment that in the videos they use pliers and brute force to re-install the trigger pin.  I used a slave pin and found it much easier.  Not everyone has a slave pin laying around, so to what works for you.  This is the hardest part.

Once I had the pistol all together, I found that I could not drop the hammer in DA mode.  But it did just barely drop in SA.  I filed the screw head down just a bit, and DA worked.

I then filed down the little bit of screw that was protruding from the trigger face, and polished everything up with 120/220 and finally 400 grit sand paper.  Blew it out, lubed it up and dry fired it a bunch.  Finally I locked it in place with some CA.

Result!



I took this picture as the CA was drying.  Once it was cured I polished a bit more and then coated it up with some black acrylic paint.  When the paint cures I will take out any shine with some 600 grit.

The difference is very noticeable when dry firing the gun.  Before this upgrade my technique had to be absolutely perfect not to have the sights wobble as the trigger broke.  Now, the margin of error is much wider.  Still not a custom 1911 trigger, and it never will be, but for an hour's work and a 4¢ machine bolt, it is way better.  And way cheaper than the $62 option at EAA.