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I don't think he's saying the frame/slide/barrel battering is a myth. More that it's a working within the margin for error thing. There's always a margin for safety built into any process that is mass produced.
I've run a .45 for about 15k rounds with a 15 lb recoil spring, no shock buf. No battering issues, no peening. 200 gr bullet @ 850fps.
I've run a .40 cal 1911 for about 15k rounds with a 12.5lb recoil spring, no shock buf. again, no battering, no peening. 180gr bullet @ 950fps
And a 9mm 1911 for about 10k rounds with a 9 lb recoil spring, no buf and no problems. 115gr bullet @ 1150fps.
All with 17lb mainsprings. All with small radiused firing pin stops.
With regards to force, a higher recoil spring weight will apply the force against the lugs and slide stop pin, so more is not necessarily better.
Something to consider; if you place your hand on the rear of the slide while firing, you will easily stop the slide from moving, with no injury to yourself. There's forces there, but a lot of them are eaten up by the action getting itself moving, overcoming inertia. Lower mainspring rate or not, the slide is still cocking the hammer low on the hammer. Unless you use on of those Cammer hammer things, but even then, it's only moving the fulcrum a few milimeters.
Am I saying use a 9 lb recoil spring on a full power defensive load .45? No. What I'm saying is that these things aren't watches or delicate measuring devices, they're steel tools designed to contain explosive forces. The timing and other operational parameters aren't limited to a narrow band, they're designed to run under adverse conditions.
And the timing is kind of locked up, the most you can do with spring rates is speed up or slow down the process, not really change it. Pull trigger, hammer drops, primer pops, barrel unlocks, barrel comes out of battery, slide reciprocates, round chambers, process starts over again. Remove any one of those actions and the whole process stops.
I've run a .45 for about 15k rounds with a 15 lb recoil spring, no shock buf. No battering issues, no peening. 200 gr bullet @ 850fps.
I've run a .40 cal 1911 for about 15k rounds with a 12.5lb recoil spring, no shock buf. again, no battering, no peening. 180gr bullet @ 950fps
And a 9mm 1911 for about 10k rounds with a 9 lb recoil spring, no buf and no problems. 115gr bullet @ 1150fps.
All with 17lb mainsprings. All with small radiused firing pin stops.
With regards to force, a higher recoil spring weight will apply the force against the lugs and slide stop pin, so more is not necessarily better.
Something to consider; if you place your hand on the rear of the slide while firing, you will easily stop the slide from moving, with no injury to yourself. There's forces there, but a lot of them are eaten up by the action getting itself moving, overcoming inertia. Lower mainspring rate or not, the slide is still cocking the hammer low on the hammer. Unless you use on of those Cammer hammer things, but even then, it's only moving the fulcrum a few milimeters.
Am I saying use a 9 lb recoil spring on a full power defensive load .45? No. What I'm saying is that these things aren't watches or delicate measuring devices, they're steel tools designed to contain explosive forces. The timing and other operational parameters aren't limited to a narrow band, they're designed to run under adverse conditions.
And the timing is kind of locked up, the most you can do with spring rates is speed up or slow down the process, not really change it. Pull trigger, hammer drops, primer pops, barrel unlocks, barrel comes out of battery, slide reciprocates, round chambers, process starts over again. Remove any one of those actions and the whole process stops.
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