Hard to cycle by hand

[tmoriart]

I have a Colt Series 70 Govt Model. Cycling the slide by hand is very hard, much harder than my newer Springfield. When I manually cock the hammer, cycling the slide is much easier. It seems as if the hammer is tougher to manually cock in the Colt. This makes me think the problem may be the mainspring. But I think this is still the stock spring. Any suggestions as a cure for this condition?

Thanks.

[Joni Lynn]

??Replace the spring with a lighter one?? I don't know what pound rating a factory gun like yours has but lighter ones are available. Same goes for the recoil spring.

[Bob Reed]

Hello,

You might have some debris, gum, or even corrosion in the mainspring tunnel (bore) thats in side the MSH and maybe some on the mainspring cap. The factory spring rateings for the Govt. Model .45 are 23 Lb. Mainspring & 16 Lb. Recoil Spring.

BTW: Does your hammer fall the way it should, and, are you getting good primer strikes?

Hope This Helps,
The Sockman

[John]

Disassemble the MSH and check there is nothing in there which prevent the free movement of the various parts (basically the spring and the cap on the top). Be careful when taking that thing apart, the spring can jetison the cap to the never-to-be-found land, or straight to your eye.

Also check the bottom of your firing pin stop, it should be slightly radiused.

Finally, and since someone had this issue recently, make sure the hammer strut is not binding somewhere inside the grip safety.

Rgds

[brickeyee]

Compare the radii on the firing pin stops on the two weapons. The Springer probably has a smaller radius. This decreases the mechanical advantage. It is one way of slowing down the slide slightly during normal firing.