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9mm 1911 mainspring weight?


Vtflyer06

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19lb MS cause you get slightly faster lock time, better reliability and you can get down to a 1 1/2 lb trigger if properly done.

9 lb Recoil spring seems to work well in my 9's for sight recovery

 

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Best setup I've found for minor power factor loads is a 19 lb mainspring and 8 or 9 lb recoil spring.  Lighter mainsprings will give a mushy trigger and possibly unreliable ignition.  This combination will give you a nice, crisp trigger plus reliable feeding and ejection.

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Edit:  Now I see mainspring mentioned in the OP title.  Sorry for the unrequested reply on recoil springs.

 

17# mainspring in a 9mm Trojan and a Valor, with no issues igniting Remington, Federal, and CCI SPP.  Trigger at 2.75# in both.  (I do find that I prefer 23# mainspring in 45 cal with major loads...as this helps control slide velocity.  Triggers still under 3# easily attainable.)

 

I think you'll find most factory 9mm guns with 17-19 mainsprings.

 

Trojan generally runs good with a 10# recoil spring, but begins to have some feedway stoppages if that spring gets down below 8.7# on my coated ammo.  (More on this below).  So, I generally buy 11# springs for it and have reliable slidelock at ~135 pf (135 grain bullets just a touch over 1000 fps.)  Valor is only a backup gun so far and hasn't seen as many rounds.  Seems to feed smoother and tolerates a touch lighter recoil spring.

 

Save yourself the headache and buy or make a jig to measure recoil springs.  I purchased 10 and 11 pound springs from Springco, Wilson, and Wolff this summer and found only one of the three manufacturers was close to rating.  (I could be wrong, but I believe the Wilsons are a repackaged ISMI product.)  I kid you not, one manufacturer delivered four springs with over 1.5# in spread from min to max, and some were more than 2# below rating.  That's over 20%.  I was appalled at the variation I saw from two of the manufacturers (that I really wanted to like), and even mroeso at the CS from one of them about it.

 

Takeaway, if you're tuning in one pound increments based on the label on the package, you really have no idea what's in your gun.  If you're trying to fine tune and get reproduceable results within a pound or two, you're going to need to measure the springs that go in your gun, the spares that go in your range bag, etc.  My jig stays on my bench and I quickly measure springs every time the gun gets cleaned to make sure they're still what they should be. 

 

For 5" 1911 govt springs, you should measure 6.25" to 6.5" free length, and weight rating taken when compressed to 1 5/8".  

 

 

Edited by johnmyster
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I am not the Princess and the Pea and I find 19 lb mainsprings satisfactory in all 1911 pattern guns.  My recoil springs for 9mm and .45 Minor are all over the place; I probably ought to pick a number and rationalize the whole urban arsenal.  

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Thanks for all the replies.  I was asking just for mainspring since I was planning on grabbing a bunch of different recoil springs and doing double drills to select the best one for my ammo.

 

For those wondering I'm using a 125 round nosed Blue Bullet seated at 1.135 OAL making 133-135 power factor.

 

Thanks guys!

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Save yourself the headache and buy or make a jig to measure recoil springs.  I purchased 10 and 11 pound springs from Springco, Wilson, and Wolff this summer and found only one of the three manufacturers was close to rating.  (I could be wrong, but I believe the Wilsons are a repackaged ISMI product.)  I kid you not, one manufacturer delivered four springs with over 1.5# in spread from min to max, and some were more than 2# below rating.  That's over 20%.  I was appalled at the variation I saw from two of the manufacturers (that I really wanted to like), and even mroeso at the CS from one of them about it.
 
 


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Well since I was pressed...continuing rant so I can continue to work up to 50 posts.

 

Wolff was +/- 0.5# to spec in my limited test.  So I checked some other Wolff Springs on hand (new to slightly used, 14# and 17#, for major and minor 45) and got the same results.

Edited by johnmyster
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Since nobody has mentioned it already, with 9mm 1911's it's not always just about what works with your ammo until you've got the gun dialed, the better your gun runs the lighter you can go, but if it runs clunky you might get stuck having to go heavier due to poor feeding...

 

A lot of 9mm 1911's feed like s**t until you tune the extractor (assuming you've found mags that run with your gun), if you end up getting feeding problems once you get down 10lbs or below, it probably means your extractor is too tight and not letting the fresh rounds coming up from the mag slip under it easily. Fix that, and your gun will run slick and you go down as low as you want.

 

FWIW, I run an STI Trojan with 17lb mainspring/hammer-spring and well worn 9lb ISMI recoil spring (it's probably like a 7lb now), no light strikes ever, crisp 2lb trigger with no hammer/sear work at all (just a bunch of trial and error bending of the sear spring until I got it where I wanted).

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