Asa: I encountered the same problem about a month ago when I was restocking an Elsie with a three position safety. If you've seen an LC Smith action assembled without the wood, it's easy to understand how the safety works. It's basically an
H-bar that connects the safety to the lifters on the trigger. When the safety is engaged the bottom of the H-bar sits flush across the top of the lifters preventing upward movement of the lifter when you attempt to pull the trigger. Move the safety forward, the bottom portion of H-bar swings back away from the lifter allowing the lifter to engage the sear when the trigger is pulled. Pull the safety back for manual safety & the bottom of the H-bar swings forward, aqain allowing the lifter to engage the sear.

Now we come to the problem (at least this was my problem). When you push the safety forward to return the gun to safe, the process must reverse, and the bottom of the H-bar must slide rearward to once again come flush over the lifter. In my case the lifter was too high (by just a hair) to allow the H-bar to return to it's normal position. This is why, that when you pushed the triggers forward the lifter was lowered and the H-bar was allowed to move as intended.

The solution was to file down the lifter just a touch (mine was left trigger only) to allow the H-bar to move back & forth normally. I'm a stock maker, and I work on metal parts only when a gun is held to my head; so I took it to Bill Schwarz in Ellijay and it was a simple matter for him to fix.

In theory, I can see that the problem might be caused by the screw that connects the back of the top tang to the back of the trigger plate being too tight (screwed in too far) which could reduce the distance between the lifter & the H-bar. Look behind the safety & see if the end of that screw is flush with the metal or if it is a little proud. If it's a little proud, try loosening it until it's flush. This theory is defeated if the screw has been replaced with a screw that's a touch short, if which case "being flush might be too tight". Again, just a guess, no experience with this idea.

Hope this helps. If you need Bill Schwarz's number let me know.

Gary Hackney