Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Problem with 1907 Safety "HELP"!

Hello guys i am new to the forum but not new to Savage Pistol collecting.A week ago i was able to purchases a four digit serial# 1907 first year of production pistol, along with it a very very nice original condition Portuguese contract holster both for $320. The pistol arrived and the slide had a bunch of slop in it so i dis-assembled it and soaked it in Kroil as the slide was stuck real good from decades of dirt. I ordered a new Wolff spring kit and also noticed the firing pin retainer was cracked down the middle. No big deal as i have a pristine donor breach plug i can pop that one in.Here is the problem i assembled the pistol and now when i move the slide to the rear the safety will not engage to lock the slide back so i can take the pistol apart. Keep in mind the slide moves back and forth no problem and the safety moves back and forth when the slide is not pulled back, it just wont move to the rear when the slide is pulled back. I have tried for days with no luck.....can anyone HELP ME! Thanks and sorry for the long drawn out explanation.

Marko

Is the magazine in the pistol? I think the early ones has to have the magazine installed to disassemble.

Huh, never heard that before but good to know.

Might have to remove the mag after you lock the slide back. (wrong- tried on 15xx and mag not require)

Nope -


Looking over an early safety the only thing I can think of is that part of it is broken off. The early design has the round part that goes into the frame split and this is supposed to allow the two pieces to spread to create tension to hold it's position - they almost always are loose and a suggested fix is to spread them with a screw driver, I always thought this might also be a good way to break them, maybe what happened here.

This picture shows an early and late safety but it was not taken to specifically show the detail I am trying to describe so it does not show the split very well (top)


If the safety is broken the way I described I do not think it it will not block the trigger either, check that on yours.

You can still disassemble the gun with out using the safety if you hold the slide back some other way while you remove the breach plug.

Finally found it in the 1981 Gun Digest:

It is not clear and doesn't state when the changes were made but states,
1- pull slide to rear and lock in position with safety (with mag inserted?)
2- remove the magazine
3- turn breech block 90 degree, clockwise and remove
4- depress the trigger and remove the slide
NOTE-
If the mag is left in the slide can damage the rear of the feed lips.
If the trigger is not pulled the sear trip will hang up on the breechblock securing lug in the slide, shearing it off if force used.

Then it states that by machining the slide both problems were corrected. First change removed the requirement to pull the trigger. Last change no long required the mag being removed. There is no serial range listed for these changes but sounds like they were very early.

I have pistols but little experience with what makes them tick. Comments are very welcome.

If you remember I had to learn the hard way and opened my hand up with 10 stitches to close it back up.

Did you clean all the blood off the pistol before you went the ER?

One of those days that you wish you could have skipped.

Guys

I appreciate all the insight....i tried with and without the magazine in. But the problem still remains "I Cannot lock the slide because when i pullback the slide all the way the safety will not move back?????? Any Smith work on these that someomne knows of.

Na, wasn't to worried about the gun. Although they say blood will strip bluing pretty quick.

Marko, did you try just taking the breech plug out by just holding the slide open with your other hand instead of locking it back?

Mad dog

Yes... but the dam safety wont move rear when you have the slide back. When i try and rotate the plug no go. The safety has to be in the locked rear position correct in order to remove the plug?

Marko65, I originally thought you meant that the safety just wouldn't hold the slide arm back, not that it wouldn't even engage. If the safety works correctly with the slide arm forward the only thing I can see to cause problems with the slide arm back is that the slide arm is really not all the way back.

You can remove the breach plug without engaging the safety but the slide arm still has to be all the way back to allow it to turn. I measured the travel of the slide arm and it's about 1.36" ± 0.005. If you could put some tape on the slide marked with that distance from a reference on the frame you could check to see if the slide is getting all the way back, if not that would be the reason the safety will not engage. I let the slide arm move approximately 0.031" forward and I could not get the safety to engage or get the breech block to turn, it doesn't take much.

Gene....thanks i'll do that and for good measure i am going to squirt a little more Kroil down into the plug area. The gun was filthy when i got it so a little more soaking can't hurt. I'll let you know tomorrow how i make out.

Marko

I'm thinking the new spring is to meaty and doesn't let the slide arm go back far enough to remove the plug.

My .380 1915 measures 1.5" when it's back as far as it will go before I can engage the safety.

I don't have anything close to as early as his gun and from Baileys book it seems like the early 1907's had some issues with the slide that they fixed with the next modification.

I had Baileys e addy around here somewhere and have talked with him quite a bit. He's a very friendly person and loves to talk pistols, wish he'd get on the campfire, we could learn a whole lot from him.

That had crossed my mind too, but I then realized that the slide had to move all the way back when the spring was installed.

Marko, When you put the new spring in I assume the safety engaged with the slide back? Might just be some crude built up somewhere inside that is interfering with the slide travel.

Gene.... i can't get the pistol apart to put the new spring in. When the slide is forward there is allot of slop that's why i ordered a new spring which has yet to be installed.Breech-plug soaking in Kroil as i write this.

Mad Dog & Gene

Your saying i don't have to have the safety rear when i rotate the breech plug?

No, you shouldn't have to, as long as the slide is pushed back you should be able to turn the breech plug and remove it, just be careful letting the slide return forward.

Mad Dog

I spent an hour doing just that...slide all the way back and still the breech plug will not rotate. I got frustrated and gently put it in a Vise, and tried with all my strength and the plug would not rotate?