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My Colt Officer had a Wolff recoil spring that was about 20 or so years old and started having trouble pushing rounds in, especially after it got a little dirty. I replaced it with a new one and it seems to be working fine now. Now I'm wondering if this is a problem specific to small 1911s or all 1911s or all autos. My full sized Colt Series 70 is 10 years older and still has the original spring and it still works good. What about Sigs, Glocks, Smiths, etc? Is that something we should change every so often?

glbedd53 wrote:My Colt Officer had a Wolff recoil spring that was about 20 or so years old and started having trouble pushing rounds in, especially after it got a little dirty. I replaced it with a new one and it seems to be working fine now. Now I'm wondering if this is a problem specific to small 1911s or all 1911s or all autos. My full sized Colt Series 70 is 10 years older and still has the original spring and it still works good. What about Sigs, Glocks, Smiths, etc? Is that something we should change every so often?

I changed the recoil spring in my M1911, "Old Reliable," 53 years ago, a year after acquiring it, along with a new barrel with matched NM bushing, and it has since that time faithfully functioned through thousands of rounds of 230gr. ball. It is now 94 years old, not an awful lot older than me, and it shows no functional signs of its age, as compared with its outward appearance, which has aged with grace. The only part I have had to replace some years ago was the slide stop.

Many long years ago I carried a spare spring in my gunbox, "just in case," but it is now long-lost. I know enough now to recognize that too many factors can change the desired recoil spring weight for a weapon, that a spring either too heavy or too light can both harm your weapon, that a spring is not a "drop-in" spare part for an M1911, there is no one-size-fits-all, and that since I do not expect to be in combat in the near future, if I should need a new one I would purchase a fairly wide spread in weights and try them out.

On the other hand I have talked with M1911 owners who routinely replace the recoil spring on a calendared basis.

I suspect the truth lies somewhere in the area of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," but to each his own.

Elmo

Here's the deal on recoil springs: They do wear out.

If you carry your gun to protect your life and in that role you want it to be as reliable as possible, you'll want to follow the manufacturer's recommendations on recoil spring replacement even though they are conservative and most guns will continue to function at least reasonably well for quite some time beyond the replacement interval.

If you only use your gun for plinking at the range and there's no horrible consequence if you get some FTE's or failures to go into battery, you can put off replacing the recoil spring for a while. Just be aware that with a weak recoil spring, over time the slide will batter the frame with increasing force during the recoil cycle and you risk peening and cracking that critical part.

If it cracks, you're looking at having to buy a new gun because you saved about six or eight bucks on a spring.

You'll want to do your own cost / benefit analysis and make decisions accordingly.

On my carry guns I have a philosophy of "Recoil Springs are cheap, lives are not." This leads me to replacing recoil springs far more frequently than many people feel is needed, same goes for mag springs. Additionally when a carry mag malfunctions it gets painted on the bottom and becomes a range mag, if it malfunctions again it becomes a target for my boot. Replace your springs at least as often as the manufacturer suggests, after all springs are easier to replace than lives.

I agree that changing out recoil springs every so often is no big deal. But then what about the other springs? Mag springs is one. The one I always think about is the hammer spring. The 1911 stays in condition one all the time, what about that? Springs under tension is one of the things about semi autos that bothers me.

Quality modern springs really don't take a set like people believe as long as they remain in a single state within their design tolerances. Even when in the position that sees less tension all springs in firearms are under tension to some degree, otherwise they would not remain in place. What hurts springs is the constant change in tension which causes them to fail.

Think about a wire clothes hanger, it doesn't break just sitting there. You can untwist the top and it will spread out, which attests to the fact it is under tension. Now constantly bend and flex the hanger and note how must less the resistance becomes the more you work with it, eventually leading to a failure point where it breaks.

glbedd53 wrote: Springs under tension is one of the things about semi autos that bothers me.

I can't even spell "en-gin-ear" (see), but I have read numerous times that springs do not weaken from being in a compressed state, but weaken over time from compression/decompression cycles. Question usually comes up concerning leaving magazines loaded for long periods of time without use.

G.A. Heath wrote:On my carry guns I have a philosophy of "Recoil Springs are cheap, lives are not."

+1 --- Replace it.