1911 Mainspring weight help

[heidad01]

You clearly understand what you're doing, so I will tell you this. Just buy a spring assortment and enjoy the benefit of testing to a finer granularity (all on the same trip to the range). Spring assortments are priced FAR cheaper than buying individual springs "chasing perfection" in the way of setting up your gun. This is even more relevant if you handload your own ammunition.

^^^ This is the best option to find out what your gun runs best with and you like the feel of.

[flanel]

For ultimate longevity and reliability check out ISMI springs.

[Ned Christiansen]

My experiment with no recoil spring was only about five rounds. I was just demonstrating that the locking of barrel to slide is not dependent upon the spring to stay locked "long enough". Had heard some people speculating that with too light of a spring and too heavy a load the gun might unlock too soon causing a case rupture. Nope.

[bwhited]

Factory is 23#.

[Slugz]

Well i just got my springs and opened my 1911 up and blew my mind. The new springs were all considerably longer than the ones in my gun. Granted, it's an RIA with a few hundred rounds through it but would that have compressed the springs that much? I know every spring i bought was considerably heavier than the original. Including the firing pin spring that came with the recoil spring. Should i even install them? Is my RIA just loaded up with really weak springs or are these just too much? Is the RIA built any differently from other 1911s as to need more lax spring tension?

[jonzer77]

1911 Mainspring weight help

My favorite setup on a government model chambered in 45ACP is 23# mainspring, 16# recoil, and a flat firing pin stop.
The flat FSP is really nice.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Slugz]

Flat firing pin stop? Isn't the rounded stop more beneficial to function?

[jonzer77]

Flat firing pin stop? Isn't the rounded stop more beneficial to function?

Flat with a small radius is how the 1911 was originally designed. It was later changed because the military complained that it was too hard to rack the slide with the hammer down.

Here is a good read from the highroad.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=719278

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[himurax13]

Well i just got my springs and opened my 1911 up and blew my mind. The new springs were all considerably longer than the ones in my gun. Granted, it's an RIA with a few hundred rounds through it but would that have compressed the springs that much? I know every spring i bought was considerably heavier than the original. Including the firing pin spring that came with the recoil spring. Should i even install them? Is my RIA just loaded up with really weak springs or are these just too much? Is the RIA built any differently from other 1911s as to need more lax spring tension?

Yes

Yes

My RIA Tactical came with 18 lb recoil spring. I am still using the original hammer spring. I usually trim the firing pin spring because Wolf gives you really long ones.

No