Series 80

NOW I now what a Series 80 is.  Besides something that can break.

Or, Now that I own one, I see what is meant by 'Series 80 1911s.'

There it this little spring loaded button underneath the back of the slide.  And a little bit of metal pop up to engage this button from the frame.  Methinks that this is some sort of firing pin block.  And it looks kinda delicate and easily broken.

The purpose of this modification is keep a sharp blow from making the gun go off.  So, I think that little pinny bit sticks up when the thumb safety is engaged, thus depressing the slide button, thus blocking the firing pin, no?   It might be up at other times, blocking the firing pin, but I haven't figured that out yet.

I don't think there is any other differences, other than the half cock hammer positioning, deep in the lockwork that I can't see.  I'm sure a commenter will correct me if I am off base. 

Well, that little lawsuit alleviator is a bit disappointing.  As something that could go wrong and lock up the whole works and make the gun fail when I kinda want it to work. 

I said 'disappointing' but I don't think it so disappointing that I necessarily need to take any action to removed the fiddly bits.  I don't know how easy it is to remove the stuff anyway and whether or not I should chuck the pin or the button or both and whether I need a gunsmith's help.  Perhaps someone can enlighten me here, too. 

I also need to figure out what else I need to do to detail strip the slide for yearly cleaning and if that Series 80 bit changes that procedure.

I called it a lawsuti alleviator, but this gun may end up being my go-to carry gun in an unsecured IWB holster, someday.  Maybe it's not such a bad thing to have this extra safety meant to help avoid discharges when a pistol falls out of a holster onto a cement mens room floor...   I'd rather read about cops getting NDs in the bathroom than having one of my own.

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Whole nother thing... If the Series 80 safety parts fail, how do they fail?  I mean if they fail and all it does is make it possible for the gun to go off if dropped off the roof onto the driveway... just don't drop it off the roof.  But if it can fail and lock up the gun thus rendering it inoperable...  That's a whole different ball of wax. 

Like a car, if the radio fails, I can still drive it.  That failure is unfortunate, but I can still go thousands of miles with that failure.  If the brakes' master cylinder fails instead, or the timing belt, or the fuel pump, or what have you, I can't drive that car 1 mile.