Light 9mm loads, a good idea?

[Revoman]

What happens if you shoot a normal or hot load in a gun that's lightly sprung?

If it's way reduced, it'll beat the crap outta yer gun, especially with no buffer. I would not do it to any of my autos.

[ar15barrels]

What happens if you shoot a normal or hot load in a gun that's lightly sprung?

The slide and barrel strike the frame harder than the frame/slide were designed for.
Repeated treatment like that deforms or cracks frames and slides.
Most semi-auto handguns take less than a minute to swap out springs so there is no reason not to have a reduced power spring for reduced loads and a standard spring for standard loads.

Many people are running worn out springs and don't even realize it.
Worn out springs generate less force than new springs.
Springs should typically be changed out every 5000 rounds.
Running the same spring to 10->20->50,000 rounds ensures that you are beating up the frame/slide.

Those worn-out springs often work fine with reduced power loads.

[Divehobo]

What happens if you shoot a normal or hot load in a gun that's lightly sprung?

I would not do it, at all. Light loads only after dropping spring weight. You can carry larger weight spring if your considering full power loads. Not worth breaking the frame

[the86d]

Have you tried a heavier, metal handgun like an Beretta M9/92fs for range-time?

I noticed that my lady's plastic SR9 seems to snap more than my M9 using the same ammo.

My daughter really likes shooing .38 SPL in my heavy .357 Mag. GP-100, especially bunny-fart/light-loaded Wadcutters or SWCs where you can see the projectile flying they are so slow... but they tend to shoot... like a thrown rock, and arc @like ~75yd+.