1911

[atlas]

The main spring on my kimber 4" 1911 seems to over compress. Basically you pull the slide back and the spring collapses to where it is like a stacked coil (no more natural spring compression), but this is not quite enough back to let the next round be caught. I have to pull it a little further at this point and it seems that the last coil of the spring slips inside the coils near the end to accommodate this situation. Do I just need to trim a couple coils off recoil spring? What end would they be cut off in that case?

The slide seems noticeably easier to pull back than my SA 5" loaded and a rock island 3.5" (single recoil spring). Is this normal for kimber 4" 1911's?

[Kruzr]

The mainspring is that spring that is completely inside the mainspring housing at the rear of the gun. From your description, I assume you mean the recoil spring.

Take a good look at your manual. The recoil spring in a Pro or Compact size Kimber (4") has a recommended replacement every 800 rounds! This is because they use an Officer's spring (3.5") in a 4" gun.

If you mistakenly put a Commander length spring in the gun, it will coil stack and something will eventually break. It can also be the cause of cracked aluminum frames on the Pro and Compacts. Make sure you have a full diameter 22# Officer's spring in the gun or one of the Wolf springs that are made specifically for the 4" Kimbers. These are a bit longer and you will get more life out of them but still need replacement about every 1200 rounds.

[Franksremote]

^ what he said

Get a Commander spring 4.25" and if it doesn't bind run it, if it does, snip enough coils one at a time till it doesn't bind (2-2.5 coils).

[Kruzr]

^ what he said

Get a Commander spring 4.25" and if it doesn't bind run it, if it does, snip enough coils one at a time till it doesn't bind (2-2.5 coils).

Or just get the proper spring for the gun and don't cut anything. I promise you, a Commander spring will coil stack in a 4" Kimber. It's .75 inch longer than the factory spring.

Don't forget that alloy frame (unless you have an Eclipse Pro or a Pro Carry HD) on your gun can take a beating if you aren't diligent about recoil spring changes. We cracked the frame on our range rental Kimber Pro twice due to poor spring maintenance. Kimber replaced it both times and you won't shoot your gun as much as our rental but springs are a lot cheaper than shipping a cracked frame back to Kimber and having to do another DROS.

Strongly suggest you go to gunsprings.com (Wolf springs) and order some of their special made recoil springs for the 4" Kimbers.

[atlas]

thanks. I'll take a look at that. I thought something like this might be the case.