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I read in a gun mag yesterday that a 1911 that has been C&L for a year should have the mainspring changed. Any opinions on this.

Just for clarification...I'm assuming this means a 1911 that's been in condition 1 for a year but not used / fired, correct?

In that case, I honestly couldn't give an opinion as I don't own any guns that don't get fired for that length of time. However, I'm very curious as to the opinions on this though.

If it is a quality firearm using quality parts I would say that is a bogus article, my P14 has gone up to 2 years cocked and locked because I lacked the money to do any practicing, when that changed and I could afford to start shooting again , it functioned flawlessly!

I would think it is no different than a magazine spring. It is not the at rest or the compression which wears a spring. It's the cycles back and forth.

At the risk of sounding snarky, my OPINION is that the article was written to support gunsmith parts and labor.

The mainspring of a 1911 is a simple coil spring, and I've only NEEDED to replace one once, on a 1911 with over 10K rounds through it. The rest I've replaced for other reasons, where I was working toward a specified (very light--competition) trigger break pressure, to increase slide resistance on recoil or some other marginal/fringe competition rig.

Take it to the range, and if it fires it's good. If you want to dry-fire instead, the old "pencil test" will be sufficient.

I'd have no concerns. If it's not "right" you'll know it...there's nothing marginal or questionable about a worn mainspring on a 1911.

cbunt1 wrote:At the risk of sounding snarky, my OPINION is that the article was written to support gunsmith parts and labor.

The mainspring of a 1911 is a simple coil spring, and I've only NEEDED to replace one once, on a 1911 with over 10K rounds through it. The rest I've replaced for other reasons, where I was working toward a specified (very light--competition) trigger break pressure, to increase slide resistance on recoil or some other marginal/fringe competition rig.

Take it to the range, and if it fires it's good. If you want to dry-fire instead, the old "pencil test" will be sufficient.

I'd have no concerns. If it's not "right" you'll know it...there's nothing marginal or questionable about a worn mainspring on a 1911.

or this particular magazine has multiple full page adds for brands of firearms that are striker fired and was asked to do them a favor...

I've had a 1911 in condition one (cocked and locked) for well over a year with no issue. In fact, I suspect the mainspring will lost longer than I will. I should probably take it to the range more but 9mm is just so much cheaper to plink with.

The spring isn't relaxed when the hammer is down. When the hammer is down, figure the spring is 30% compressed. Cocked, it's probably 35% compressed. I'm just pulling numbers our of the air, but I don't think there is much difference to the spring between cocked and de-cocked.