De-Activating the Kimber Swartzblock

[Dave Waits]

Okay, there are two ways to go about this, the hard way and my way. Guess which one we're going to discuss?

First, the legal ramifications; None. If you defeat this the only place you might get in trouble is California. Kimber went to the Swartzblock safety to pass Calis' drop-test so they could sell guns there, we're all paying for that. All de-activating the firing-pin safety does is to revert it back to a standard Kimber or any other Series 70 type 1911.

Material needed; 1-Colt Series 70 firing-pin, do not get any other pin or a pin that can be used in both Series 70 and 80 guns. This is important. I personally recommend the Ed brown firing pin, part #087-808-101 fpr about $10.50 in your friendly Brownells Catalog.

First thing is to disassemble the gun far enough to remove the grip-safety which basically means removing the thumb-safety and pulling out carefully the grip-safety and attached plunger-rod. Remove the plunger-rod and put the grip-dafety back in. Then the Thumb-safety. Lay the frame aside,we're done there.

Now, for the slide. Look at this photo carefully, to the right of the disconnector-track you can see the plunger for the Swartzblock.
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Now, the only tools needed here are a flat,hard surface and two 1/8th" punches. Take one of the punches, hold it against the plunger with the base on the surface, slide upright and push down slightly. Next, take the other punch, push the firing-pin in and then lever the punch downward at the base. This will slide the Stop over the firing-pin and hold it in. Remove the punch,block the firing-pin with your other thumb and slide the stop off,Remove the firing-pin. Now, you can let the pressure off of the the punch that's depressing the plunger.

Take the Colt Series 70 firing-pin(Do not order any other pin, the series 80 type pins will not work), put the Spring on it, Depress the plunger and slide the pin in. Hold it in place and slide the firing-pin Stop back in making sure the pin is depressed enough to pop into the pin-hole, you're done. You just turned your II-Series Kimber into a Series 70 type 1911.

How does the Series 70 pin defeat the swartzblock? Simple, if you look at the pin beforehand you'll notice it has no notch. The Swartzblock rides harmlessly on top of it. you can now treat your Kimber like any other 1911 as far as everything is concerned.The plunger stays up and out of the way and you already removed the rod so it won't threaten your slide anymore.

The hard way to do it requires removing the rear sight(The Swartzblock sits under it with spring-pressure). Anybody who's ever tried to remove a Kimber rear sight knows it just about takes an Act of God to do. You basically need a jig to hold the slide and a press to do it correctly. Then, removing the rod from the grip-safety.

The way I described does not effect trigger-pull, function of the grip-safety, or operation.