A question regarding a replacement recoil spring

[chitoryu2454]

some months back i bought a replacement recoil spring for my CD1911-A1.
yesterday i noticed the face of the frame rails at the muzzle end were slightly peened and distorted. i took a jeweler's file and removed the distortion and the polished the tool marks out and re-blued the rails. I am assuming that this was caused by a weakened recoil spring (about 2000 rounds").
the new spring is from the manufacturer and is about 3/4" longer than the old.
does this seem normal?.
I am also considering shock buffers...do these things really work?
any and all comments would be appreciated.
thanks one and all.

[Bud White]

yes new springs will usually be longer ive seen up to 3/4ths a ince.. i use shock buffs in my range guns but not carry cant truely say if they work but makes me feel better

[wichaka]

When you say frame rails at the muzzle............you mean the forward most part of the rails on the frame? If so, the recoil spring shouldn't affect that part much. I wonder if your slide isn't on the frame straight.

Recoil springs can go much longer than most people think. As long as the gun is functioning properly, and your brass isn't sailing into the next state, it should be fine.

Shok-buffs. Please do a search on this forum for 'buffs. This subject has been debated to death.

Some like 'em, some don't, its a personal choice and I'll leave it at that.

[Hawkmoon]

I don't recall where I read this, but maybe Wichaka or 1911Tuner can vouch for whether or not it makes sense. What I read is that you can use ejection as a rough guide to recoil spring adequacy. If your brass is being thrown 3 to 6 feet you have the right spring. If the brass is being thrown more than 6 feet the spring is too weak. And if the brass is falling at your feet the recoil spring is too strong.

[wichaka]

Yup, that's the rule of thumb for recoil springs..........
But don't get your tape measure out, its just a guideline. A little more or less won't hurt anything.

[BGregory]

Probably said it before, but in general, the heaviest recoil spring that allows the gun to function properly in a loose one-handed grip. Seems to work well with all pistols as a general rule, not just 1911s.

[chitoryu2454]

you mean the forward most part of the rails on the frame? If so, the recoil spring shouldn't affect that part much.

if the side isn't on the frame squarely, it would have to have been a fairly recent developement....which is entirely possible. any ways of confirming if this is the case?

[wichaka]

Look at the dust cover at the foward bottom of the slide, where the recoil spring sits against the plug. Are there any rub lines?

[chitoryu2454]

No rub marks....surprisingly, i almost expected to see some. i don't even have one of those thin wear lines on the side that i have seen a lot of guns have. While i was gone, i shot a quick mag with the new recoil spring. all of the casings were in about 6 ft out and maybe 8 to 10 inches to the rear. this is interesting since that last time the wife and i shot we used a couple of different guns and i remembering her remarking how the casings were "all over the place" while the other guns placed them in a fairly neat pile. so i think it was probably time for a new recoil spring and my left index finger agrees as that old feeling has come back from pushing in on the checkering on the plug.
even so I would like to investigate the deformation of the rails a bit further, as i believe that needing a new recoil spring may have been a coincidence. as always i am grateful for your input and look forward to it.

[wichaka]

Hmmmm, interesting. Not sure what to say without seeing the gun.

Tuner has a much better cyber bench than I do. Will see if I can dig him up.

[chitoryu2454]

I'll get some pics this weekend....right or wrong i filed and dressed the area and then followed up with some bluing ( did a really good job even if i say so myself). I sorta figured if I did that i could monitor it and see if the recoil spring was the fix. This weekend it will be shot alot as my wife has invited one of my female cousins up to shoot (they are Ganging up on me :eek: ). I will take pics after i clean it and post them for your review. thanks for the replies, all of you. everytime i come here i learn something new.

[BGregory]

If you have access to Kuhnhausen's 1911 Shop Manual, possibly the problem you are describing can be found on page 75.

In a nutshell, the slide is contacting the frame rails before contacting the spring guide plate.

Fix is to set back the front of the rails with recoil spring guide in place until the slide no longer touches the rails. Radius the corners to eliminate early corner contact. Renistall and recheck.

[wichaka]

That thought crossed my mind, so you may want to look at in the inside of the slide by the dust cover to see if there's been any impact there.

[chitoryu2454]

sorry for the delay guys...father in law had quad bypass surgery and had a stroke on the table. the wife and i have been busy helping out....moving furniture and making his home a little more friendly for the recovery process.

this problem is begining to seem like something that may have happened over a longer period of time. over last weekend about 300 rounds were passed thru it....with no evidence of the problem coming back. as i said earlier i did file, sand and blue the affected area in an effort to be able to detect any abnormal happenings, but nothing yet.
so either there was a slight interference all along which i filed and sanded away, or the recoil spring helped, or its a problem that takes a very large number of rounds to show.
so as of now i shoot and watch.
thanks to all of you and if and when the problem re-appears i will be back with photos.
i hope you all have a good weekend and happy shooting.