Tuning 1100's Mag Tube Spring?

[Religious Shooter]

I'm finding that I am noticeably slowing down after loading 4-5 rounds. The #6 to #8 rounds become more difficult as the tension increases. So I'm thinking about trimming the spring in my 1100's mag tube to facilitate loading.

I think George metioned 4" past the tube. Currently mine is 7.5" past the end of the tube.

Before I cut it, I wanted to get more input to see what others have done. So... what length do you cut it to? or how do you tune the mag tube spring? any brand or type of spring out there that would help in reloading?

[George]

I am of the opinion that the uncompressed spring when inserted fully into both the mag tube and the extension tube should have the same amount of bare spring showing as the length of the extension tube you are using, ie; 10 inch extension tube = 10 inches of bare spring showing before compression. Or more! On my 11-87 I have 18 inches of uncovered spring before compression. The 10th round in the tube is a hard push but it doesn’t lock up a speed loader stick so it must not be too hard.

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Regards,

[Neil Beverley]

There's a problem with the perfect answer to this in that springs can vary considerably. I was asked the same question in the UK and gave a perfectly correct but absolutely useless answer: "cut your spring just enough, and not too much".

I was pressed to give an answer with regards to the length of the overhang but I feel this can be misleading. I can say that 7.5 inches does sound too long (by quite a bit). I will offer a couple of suggestions.

1. Take the gun to your club, or better, to a match, and find someone with a similar gun set up. Then by feel trim back your spring until yours is no lighter than than the lightest reliable gun. I've actually tried this with my own matching guns and have set one up until I suspected one of them was just turning unreliable. Then the second one is left slightly heavier. Use a spring gauge if you want to be more precise.

2. Buy 2 identical replacement springs. Progressively cut one until it fails (just fails to feed; occassional problem only). Take the second spring and cut it to leave it a little longer than the first. Test to check OK.

3. Buy a slightly longer mag tube extension than you need or are allowed. Slip in a 2 - 3 inch long piece of 3/4 inch water pipe and a follower or a washer. Fit the spring. If the spring is too heavy then reduce the length of the water pipe thus lightening the spring tenssion but without having to cut the spring. If you cut too much off the pipe it's easy enough and cheap enough to start again. Infinitely variable. You could even take some pre cut lengths to the range, say 1", 2", 3" and 4" and quickly test them all.

I run my gun (1187) spring fairly light and it surprises many people how light it is. I have excellent reliability. No EZ loader, just a standard button but the port has been significantly rounded. Also on the 1187 I cut back the foreend and reverse the angle of the foreend at the rear so it flows away from the loading port. It doesn't have any bearing on reliability but it does get it out of the way for loading.

It is reckoned that with this configuration I'm loading fairly fast at about 4 rounds in 2.5 - 3 seconds, say 0.6 (on a really good day) to 0.75 splits.

[EricW]

I don't know about cutting your mag springs. The last thing on earth that I'd want to do is make an 1100 run slower. They're very difficult to shoot splits under .25 anyway due to the lazy cycling. Why would you want to make it worse?

[Religious Shooter]

I don't know about cutting your mag springs. The last thing on earth that I'd want to do is make an 1100 run slower. They're very difficult to shoot splits under .25 anyway due to the lazy cycling. Why would you want to make it worse?

IMHO, I don't think getting or being able (with a shotgun) to do fast firing splits is all that important with shotgun in 3 gun. Maybe if you were in the shoot-offs it would be of high priority. But in normal use... at least at my level I don't think it is important.

Reloading is (almost) everything.

[EricW]

Being able to follow up a called miss quickly is important.

JMHO.

[Neil Beverley]

Eric

With respect, I don't agree with your logic for a number of reasons. If I may ...............

If your gun is struggling to achieve sub 0.25 second splits then there is something else wrong with it and it's not because of a weak magazine spring. Even set up with a light spring I don't have a problem achieving splits of 0.17 - 0.18 with the best being arond 0.15, both for an 1100 and an 1187.

Even if a weak does cause slow recycling it occurs on a very seldom basis because statistically the gun will be frequently loaded with more than 1 round in the tube thereby increasing the spring tension.

I truly don't believe in a typical match there are a significant number of targets than can be shot with sub 0.25 second splits anyway.

Bearing the above statements in mind and the importance of loading on a stage I believe you are focussing on the wrong issue. Speed of reloads is VERY important. Consider the math. Is a 10% improvement on shooting splits of say 0.25 seconds more important versus a 10% improvement on loading splits of say 0.8 seconds. Yes, there is more shooting than loading but I reckon that there are less opportunities for sub 0.25 seconds shooting splits versus the typical number of rounds to be loaded per match.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Actually it's things like this that make the whole damn sport so interesting and of course it's all a freestyle choice. I'm sure others with have different views as well. Personal style comes into play as well.

[EricW]

Neil,

My point is being missed.

I can see my hits/call misses easily in the .15 second range. I can also make my gun choke down in that split range - turning a .20 second makeup shot into a .5 to 1.0 second makeup shot. I am also far less than an extraordinary shooter, but that loss of momentum while shooting makes a difference to me.

As long as you're not trading reliability for loading ease, it's no big deal. But my understanding has generally been that cutting the mag spring leads to less reliability, not more.

Respectfully,

E

[Les Snyder]

Religious....KyleL (if you don't know Kyle he's the shooter in the Remington CM video) recommends 8inches of spring longer than the magazine plus extended tube...I shoot an 8 + 1 limited gun, and the length worked well with both the Remington and Benelli...longer tube open guns would want longer....when I was playing with the 1100 and 1187 I bought a 10 pack of springs from Brownells that was labeled for 12ga, but had a relative small coil diameter, closer to 20ga, that tended to stack unevenly in the tube... I like the larger coil diameter of the aftermarket springs like the early Choates.... regards

[benny hill]

8" is perfect. get's the last shells out fast while still being easy enough to load.