Should I go as light as possible with recoil springs on 2011?

[fireman1776]

With a 9mm 2011, is there a downside to going as light as will function with recoil springs? 

 

Will it shorten the life of the slide or frame considerably? 

 

After lots of testing I settled on a much lighter recoil spring than factory in my Staccato P. I love the recoil impulse and never had a malfunction because of the recoil spring. 

[Rnlinebacker]

No, the gun will be fine. Many of us run 7pd springs in our open guns.

 

The recoil springs function is to compress and return the slide into battery. The gun can still fire once without a recoil spring in it.

[zzt]

I chose recoil spring weight based on the load and doble tap.  If the muzzle returns high after the first shot, I need a heavier spring.  If low, a lighter spring.

 

If you are not battering the vertical impact surface, don't worry about your spring.

[dsmarty386]

do measurement drill with different recoil springs. you want the gun to return with minimal input from you. i see a lot of folks running super low recoil spring weights on 9minor guns and they actually have to "do more work" to bring the muzzle back down. there is an obvious over return issue on too strong a spring as well.

 

i run a 10lb on my LO 2011 5"

[fireman1776]

22 hours ago, dsmarty386 said:

do measurement drill with different recoil springs. you want the gun to return with minimal input from you. i see a lot of folks running super low recoil spring weights on 9minor guns and they actually have to "do more work" to bring the muzzle back down. there is an obvious over return issue on too strong a spring as well.

 

i run a 10lb on my LO 2011 5"

I’ve tested a fair amount with doubles and video. The 8lb returned the easiest and had the least amount of dip. 

[dsmarty386]

24 minutes ago, fireman1776 said:

I’ve tested a fair amount with doubles and video. The 8lb returned the easiest and had the least amount of dip. 

nice!

[GunBugBit]

I’m shooting 120 PF 9mm loads out of PM-9s and recently switched from 8# to 7# recoil springs.  I perceive less muzzle flip with the lighter spring.  Worked great for today’s Steel Challenge.  To get above the 125 PF floor of minor for USPSA, I have to bump up the powder 0.2gr and then I use an 8# spring.

 

With my minor .40 loads, I use 8#.

[mmchambers06]

The downside is a really stiff mag spring/fully loaded mag combined with a weak recoil spring can cause failure to feed. I encountered that with a new mag before it was broken in a couple of times.