Missing part; will it hurt my pistol?

[5focus]

I lost the Magazine Safety Spring, assembled without it. It seems to work ok dry firing it with a nice light trigger pull. Now the mag flies out when I hit the release. Also, it will fire now with the mag out.

Question, will it hurt to fire it like this until I replace the spring???

[Bullseye]

5focus,

From your description, you're talking about the spring located in the red box of this picture. Right?



If this spring is not in the pistol it will not harm anything. Your magazine safety hook will continue to work via gravity. With a magazine installed the pistol will function and fire normally.

The missing part is the return spring for the magazine safety disconnector hook (the other part shown in the red box, yours may appear slightly different). Many people remove these parts and put in flat washers to keep the hammer in place, or at least from sliding around inside the frame. Doing this effectively removes the magazine safety. The benefits of which you've already noticed, smoother hammer pull and the magazines drop free when the mag release button is depressed. Even with the hook in place, like yours has, the magazines drop free because there's no tension on the safety hook to bind the magazine into the frame.

I'm not sure how one could lose this spring - I'll bet that's a story all in itself. That spring is slightly more than an inch long. Sometimes using a strong magnet to sweep the area where it was last seen, can retrieve a hidden metal part. This comes in particularly handy if one loses the little detent ball and spring out of the thumb safety lever.

Hope this helps.

R,
Bullseye

[5focus]

Next cleaning I'll remove the Mag Safety and install a washer. This forum is a great tool for learning.

Thanks again,

Don

[Bullseye]

This forum is a great tool for learning.

Thanks again,
Don

That sir, is exactly why it is here.

R,
Bullseye