Springfield recoil spring question.

[i-shoot]

Long story short: A year or two ago, I purchased a used Springfield 1911 Range Officer from another Calgunner. At that time the original owner said that he had changed the main spring to 19 lbs. but I do not remember if he said that he changed the recoil spring or not. I have not shot the pistol and I have forgotten our conversation about the recoil spring. I do not remember if he changed the recoil spring or not.

I am about to order a new 11 lb. Wolff recoil spring to change out the unknown spring that is in the pistol.

Am I going about this correctly? I am not comfortable shooting the pistol with an unknown lb. recoil spring. Is starting with and 11 lb. recoil spring correct? If so good. Your constructive thoughts & adivise are appreciated.

[Geologist]

What caliber? The .45 comes stock with a 16# spring. I am running a 14# in my loaded target with a 19# MS.

[i-shoot]

My Range Officer is a 9mm.

[Mayor McRifle]

An 11 lb. recoil spring would definitely be good for lighter loads. If you'll be shooting regular 9mm loads, you might want a heavier spring. Find a spring weight that ejects your brass about 8 to 12 feet away with the load you're shooting.

[meanrock]

If the gun still has the stock ILS and mainspring- stock recoil spring is ~ 9 lbs.

You can run 10lbs without issue with factory ammo. The slide will catch a bit on the disconnector during recoil (I think....at least that's how I understand it).

If the ILS has been removed and the mainspring has been replaced with a heavier one, You can run ~ 12 to 13 lbs recoil spring, depending on your ammo.

I removed the ILS in my Springfield, put in a 20 lb mainspring with a new housing/mag well, and run a 12 lb flat spring with ~140+ power factor 9mm.

[HPGunner]

^ same here I've swapped out the ILS mainspring housing for a Smith and Alexander housing with a magwell and using a 19# mainspring paired with a 12# recoil spring. The 9mm Springfield runs like a champ,

[JTROKS]

I have a LT 1911 9mm with 17 lb mainspring and a 10 lb recoil spring for my reload ammo of 124 grain hardcast at about 1025 FPS. My slide is flat topped also. It kicks the brass out about 5 ft with a 3-4 o’clock ejection.

If you get your extractor and ejector tuned you can effectively use the ejection as gauge to find out the correct recoil spring.