1911 Shooting Spring

K

kh1911

New member
So I was shooting my GI model 1911 yesterday and all way good for about 2 mags, then on the next shot the recoil spring, tube, and barrel bushing went rocketing out of the gun about 15 feet onto the range. The only damage was on the lug for the barrel bushing, just the corner of it was sheared off a smidge. I've never had this problem before. I'm thinking maybe the bushing was to loose but I really cant determine what caused this. Any suggestions would be much appreciated, thanks!
 
Maybe the bushing wasn't fully locked in place.
What did you mean by spring tube?
Does this gun have the standard setup or a full length spring guide rod and plug?
 
I dont see how this could even happen, short of the bushing not being in the correct "locked" position, or the bushing having a flaw in material or heat treat and literally breaking.

What brand and model of 1911 is this? How does your bushing and spring plug look like, if you still have them?
 
This can (and does) happen very easily, if the recoil spring is too long for the gun. (Which can happen, for example, when the recoil spring is replaced, of if a shock buffer is added). If the spring is too long, when the slide retracts the coils of the spring all close up before the slide has fully retracted. This is referred to as "recoil spring bind" or "stacking."

If all the coils close up before the slide has fully retracted, instead of the slide pushing against a spring, it is now pushing against what is effectively a solid cylinder of steel. And what is that solid cylinder of steel connecting? The flange of the recoil spring guide at the rear (which, in turn, is solidly against the frame abutment surface of the frame), and the front of the recoil spring plug in the front. The recoil spring plug and the ears of the barrel bushing are NOT designed to withstand that kind of force, so typically one or the other will fail if the recoil spring stacks up.

This is why we should always check a new recoil spring for spring bind when installing it for the first time.
 
I just checked for spring binding and the slide fully retracted. Should I just trim a half coil off the spring? I've put maybe a hundred rounds through this gun without that ever happening before.
 
Randomly clipping coils to reduce the spring length is not recommended.
If the spring is the wrong one or it's getting tired with the coils becoming closer together, the cure is a new correct spring.
A web search will show how to check if the spring is bottoming out.
There's a few tricks to it since it's difficult to measure directly.
Here's a youtube video how to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twSjjW1aep0
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top