Govt .380, hammer follows slide

[wamj2008]

Hello,

I just purchased a Colt Govt .380. I performed the safety check of bringing the slide back, holding down the trigger, and letting the slide go. I did this about 20 times. Twice, the trigger followed the slide to the quarter-cock notch. I may be asking an obvious question, but is this a safety issue for this gun?

When the hammer is cocked, the safety itself is impossible hard to flip on. It's possible with a bit of effort, but the easy way to do it is to pull the hammer down ever further, right into the beavertail, and turn the safety on.

I just bought this gun yesterday and am not familiar with detail stripping. I don't plan on carrying with one in the chamber.

Does it sound like there are some issues that need to be addressed before the gun is safe to use? Is it range safe at least for now? Thank you.

[retiredgunsmith]

Seems that your pistol has had some 'home' gunsmithing.
Suggest strongly that you have someone who is experienced with the Govt. .380 check it.
I would consider it to be dangerous at this point.
BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY!

[wamj2008]

I can NOT remove the safety spring from the frame. From what I understand this should come out quite easily, in fact you should worry about it flying out. So something is obviously not right. I don't want to wreck the spring trying to take it out. Does anyone have detail strip instructions? I've only been able to find field strip. I found a sig p238 tear down video and while the design is similar, it's not completely the same.

Has anyone worked with the Cabela's gun library? They said fire the gun and if there are issues, bring it back within 30 days. I dunno if they'll buy "Well I haven't fired it yet, but..."

Any suggestions for a gunsmith who is familiar with these? Looks like C&S does work on them. Thanks.

[ghitch75]

box it up and send it to Colt if you can't find anyone to work on it...

[SCone]

Take it back to Cabela's & let them worry about it.

[porsche]

I bought and returned a used Colt at Cabelas and they didn't fuss at all about the return which was on day 29. I had fired it and told them. I did purchase a similar but cheaper gun from them that same day and they refunded the difference. No issue at all. I emailed them and told them of my issue and they said "sure just bring it back"