1911 upgrading question.

[stylett9]

I recently purchased a Kimber 1911 eclipse custom II and love the gun. However, i am interested in lightening my trigger pull and reducing a little bit of recoil.

I heard the biggest help will come from switching out the slide spring and changing out the hammer. Is this true? I found out my kimber uses a 16 or 18 lbs(forgot) slide spring. Would swapping out for a 10lbs be ok or is that too little?

any and all advise to lighten my trigger pull and reduce recoil is greatly appreciated!

michael

[dgey]

break the gun in first...shoot 500 rounds out of it before thinking of any mods... 230 gr round nose..., after you do this, the gun will feel different because the surfaces will have had a chance to wear a bit. Once this happens, you can then decide if what you have is still not to your liking...

I have 3 kimbers, CDP II pro, CDP I compact, and a gold match... Once I broke in the CDP II, I decided not to do anything to it... It's become my favorite and most accurate gun for me...

[dfletcher]

I recently purchased a Kimber 1911 eclipse custom II and love the gun. However, i am interested in lightening my trigger pull and reducing a little bit of recoil.

I heard the biggest help will come from switching out the slide spring and changing out the hammer. Is this true? I found out my kimber uses a 16 or 18 lbs(forgot) slide spring. Would swapping out for a 10lbs be ok or is that too little?

any and all advise to lighten my trigger pull and reduce recoil is greatly appreciated!

michael

Aside from breaking the gun in by firing a few hundred rounds, the best thing you can do is hand the gun over to a qualified gunsmith and tell him you want a smoother, lighter trigger pull.

I'm not aware of a lighter recoil spring having any effect on a trigger pull. Perhaps the reference was to a mainspring?

Finally, I don't know if the Kimbers have the Colt Series 80 type (trigger actuated) firing pin block. If so this is not conducive to a refined trigger pull.

[uscbigdawg]

Michael,

First thing to help that gun the most is to reduce the weight of the recoil spring. Usually factory 1911's ship with an 18# recoil spring and this is WAY over sprung. Dropping it down to a 12-15# would be the first thing. Just buy a couple of Wolff or ISMI recoil springs (non progressive) and just try them out. Here's an example:

SA 1911 (custom built), .45 ACP = 15#
Brazos Pro Series Limited, .40 S&W = 12#
Rusty Kidd Viper (IPSC Open at 175PF), .38 Super = 9#
Rusty Kidd Viper (Steel at 135PF), .38 Supercomp = 8#

The SA, Brazos and Viper IPSC guns are all shooting major power factor loads and there's no frame battering or anything stupid like people think.

If you want a GREAT trigger job (and I didn't believe it until I tried it on my new gun) is to buy the Brazos Custom Gunworks, Pro Series Trigger Group. It has a replacement hammer, sear, mainspring, hammer strut and sear spring. It does drop in and the trigger pull is ridiculously crisp and clean for a drop in. I would also swap the disconnector with one from SV/Infinity. One of their Tri-Glides or a disconnector from Extreme Engineering would do the trick. I did it on my dedicated STI/Tactial Solutions practice gun. Polished the engagement surfaces and it's just incredible.

Rich

[stylett9]

hey guys, thanks for the replies. Some good information for me to learn more about my gun.

[eaglemike]

With a compensated gun, or low power ammo in .38 super or 9mm, you can run the single digit springs.

If you are going to shoot 185 or 200 grain medium power ammo a 15lb recoil spring is fine. If you are going to shoot military 230 grain, the imported full power stuff, or defense hi-power ammo you need an 18 to 22 lbs spring. It also makes a difference on the slide configuration. If you have a traditional weight military spec slide, the above numbers are pretty good. If you have a later full length heavy profile slide, you can use a lighter weight spring.

The mainspring for the hammer, contained in the mainspring housing in the grip of the gun, can be replaced with a lighter weight spring. This can also lighten you trigger pull. The usual standard factory is 22lb, IIRC. I've often used 18lb replacements without any issues for setting off primers. Lighter springs can be used, if you know they will still set off the ammo used. Clark has a nice 4-finger leaf spring that can be fitted, and this can also be tuned to reduce trigger pull. A full on trigger job can make a 1911 really nice to shoot.

I've lightened slides in the past, and tested recoil springs. A lighter spring can sometimes allow the slide to unlock a little early, to say nothing of long term use battering the frame without a buffer.

Reloading your own .45 is really easy. It makes shooting the stuff a lot more fun, and waaay cheaper.

all the best,

Mike

[JTROKS]

Try using a tungsten guide rod to put some weight up front. If you don't have a bull barrel get it have one installed or you can get a gunsmith to thread your existing barrel and install a tungsten sleeve and turn it to a bull barrel lock up type. With the CA AW regulations you'll have to get that sleeve pinned and soldered to make it permanent.

[tophatjones]

Proper trigger pull weight begins in the proper mating of the sear and hammer engagement surfaces. You'll either want to have gunsmith look at yours or purchase a prefit aftermarket set like Cylinder and Slide's. It's possible for the home gunsmith to work on his own sear and hammer, but without proper jigs, it's real easy to mess something up and create a hammer that follows through. Another area that you can check to lower your trigger pull is the leaf spring. The trigger spring can be bent back somewhat to lighten overall pull. Be careful here as well because if you bend it back too much, the force of the slide falling can bump loose the trigger and allow the hammer to fall. Some factory models (like the Kimber with the 19#) come with lighter mainsprings to lower the trigger pull weight, but this is just compensation for proper gunsmith work with the engagement surfaces.

My advice to help lower recoil is to 1) switch out your 19# mainspring for a 23#, which is the standard weight, 2) switch out your 18# recoil spring to a 15# or 16# (if you're shooting standard loadings of 230 grain), 3) get an EGW Oversized Firing pin stop, and 4) radius it just right to allow for the slide to cycle at a reliable speed. Unlike most aftermarket FPS, the EGW stop doesn't come with a radius. Instead, you or a gunsmith is expected to add a radius in order to fit the specific needs of each gun. By upping your mainspring weight and putting a smaller radius on the stop, the slide loses mechanical leverage and requires more force to cock the hammer. I believe for standard 230 grain ammo, a 0.060" radius is close. You can experiment with your stop to get the right radius. The smaller the radius, the more mechanical advantage the hammer has over the slide, and more energy is required to move the slide back. Recoil can be made incredibly tame by experimenting with this combination of heavier mainspring and FPS radius. The biggest advantage with this combo is allowing the pistol to have a light recoil spring which will extend the life of the lugs on the barrel as well as preventing muzzle dip immediately after the slide returns to battery (which can happen with the heavier recoil springs).

Good luck!