Fitting a trigger so the sides of the shoe don't get scuffed in normal use.

As good a finish as DLC is, it can still be scuffed through from repeated rubbing with the shoe tracks in your frame. Here is a PRO tip to instruct you in creating very small pads on the hidden sides of your trigger to keep the exposed flats from touching.

First, file, sand, stone the inside flats where the trigger shoe live and work back and forth. Trigger shoe tracks in 1911 frames are finished by either broaching or single point shaping machines and both leave pretty rough surfaces. No need for extensive metal removal, just make it free from burrs and tool marks. Be sure you do a good job cleaning up the corners of the track and also filing a light chamfer on the trigger shoe on the matching corners.

Now the delicate part: Hold your trigger in a padded vise, stirrup up. Use an old broken 1/16" punch and grind it back until you create a chisel nose about 1/8" wide and not too sharp. Use the swaging tool you just made and a light weight hammer to raise two welts of aluminum on JUST ONE side of the trigger. Strike from the rear edge of the shoe, to make it swell on the side. Do one at the top of the shoe and one at the bottom. They only need to be .010" - .015" tall. DO NOT raise welts on both sides at once, or you will have a much harder time fitting the trigger!

Install the trigger in the frame. If it won't go into the shoe track, remove the trigger and put 1-2 layers of tape on the side of the shoe where you raised the welts, leaving only the welts exposed. Holding the shoe in a padded vise, use a fine file and take 1-2 strokes from the welts being careful to keep the file level and not cut into the tape. Obviously, if your file touches the tape, replace it. If you scratch the shoe with your file, it will look awful.

Remove the tape and reinstall the trigger and see if it goes in. Repeat until it does and each welt still stands proud of the side of the shoe. Then repeat the process on the other side of the shoe. Your goal is to have two raised welts on each side of the shoe, top and bottom which are hidden by the frame when the trigger is installed. They will take up the width of the shoe track and keep your exposed portion of the shoe from rubbing the frame.

One thing to remember concerning trigger shoe rubbing, is if you are running a trigger that is too long for you, you will have a lot more rubbing than if you get a shorter length trigger so your trigger finger pulls straight to the rear.