Gregory Gauvin
New member
I have been reading up on .45 Super conversions. There seems to be some controversy in the method of re-springing the 1911 to handle the higher recoil. The mainstay of replacing the firing pin stop with a flat bottom makes sense to me, but this also goes in hand with beefing up the mainspring itself. Now, from what I'm seeing, there seems to be some who throw in a 28LBS recoil spring (slide return spring) and leave the mainspring alone. There is another group who believe the recoil spring is simply a slide-return spring. It needs to be set effectively to reliably chamber a round and adjusted not to slam the slide closed too hard. These guys run beefed up mainsprings and 18LBS or so recoil springs.
Running a flat bottom FPS and upping the mainspring makes sense to me in order to increase lock-time. Increasing the recoil spring alone will not increase lock-time, only, lower slide velocity (on the way back) but increasing the spring weight will increase slide velocity going into battery. Obviously, you can't increase the mass of the slide. So, changing the recoil spring to a 28# or 30# alone does not cut it, otherwise, the same theory would say you can put a stiff recoil spring in a blowback pistol (let's say a 9x18 makarov) and start running 9mm Luger power levels. Obviously, you can not do this.
So, from the horses mouth...what is the proper way to set up a 1911 for .45 Super?
I'm running the standard spring weights in my 1911. I have no need for .45 Super but I have thought about pushing some 230 grain Hard Casts to their upper end. Running them at 859ft/sec with a dose of HS-6 is the limit to where I'd run them sprung with standard springs, as, this is where I do run them and they are most accurate. But anymore and I feel that I would be beating the gun. For fun, I was thinking of working up to a +P loading which some others have done, and running them up to 1050ft/sec. That's just a bit past velocities of some +p loads with FMJ. 18 or 20# recoil spring I'm thinking...?
Running a flat bottom FPS and upping the mainspring makes sense to me in order to increase lock-time. Increasing the recoil spring alone will not increase lock-time, only, lower slide velocity (on the way back) but increasing the spring weight will increase slide velocity going into battery. Obviously, you can't increase the mass of the slide. So, changing the recoil spring to a 28# or 30# alone does not cut it, otherwise, the same theory would say you can put a stiff recoil spring in a blowback pistol (let's say a 9x18 makarov) and start running 9mm Luger power levels. Obviously, you can not do this.
So, from the horses mouth...what is the proper way to set up a 1911 for .45 Super?
I'm running the standard spring weights in my 1911. I have no need for .45 Super but I have thought about pushing some 230 grain Hard Casts to their upper end. Running them at 859ft/sec with a dose of HS-6 is the limit to where I'd run them sprung with standard springs, as, this is where I do run them and they are most accurate. But anymore and I feel that I would be beating the gun. For fun, I was thinking of working up to a +P loading which some others have done, and running them up to 1050ft/sec. That's just a bit past velocities of some +p loads with FMJ. 18 or 20# recoil spring I'm thinking...?