Colt Gold Cup Factory Recoil Spring

O

OverPressure

New member
I have had my manual out checking to see if they listed what #spring came
installed in the pistol. I believed the original spring was 16lbs. and ordered
an 18 to cycle the gun a little faster. This 18lbs spring feels really
stiff once instaled. The slide action is smooth. The original spring
cycled slowly. The green painted spring is discribed in the manual as
the lighter spring which is going the opposite direction on my intensions.

No Color code and I wasn't able to find anything online giving colts shipping
standard on the gun.

Any information here would be appriciated. Series 80 3 to 4 years old.
 
The shorter lighter recoil spring is 14 pounds.

Are you planning on shooting hot loads that you are going to an 18 pound spring?
 
Recoil Spring

Am I to assume that the longer factory installed spring is 16lbs?

What i was going to do was some speed/action shooting which i normally
use my defender for.

The Gold Cup, as a target gun cycles slowly and i wanted to increase the
cycle rate. This is a test and don't intend to use this gun for action.

I don't think i will increase the charge, what i will do is decrease the spring
tension if it is needed. I am shooting a 200 gr. SWC at 860fps.

This 18lb spring just feels alot heavier than a 2lb. increase.
 
I think you may be going at this a bit wrong.
Though an 18 pound spring may cycle the slide on an empty chamber when the slide encounters resistance such as stripping the round from the magazine the difference is minimal at best.
Springs work both ways so increased spring weight is increased force slamming the slide home.
If it were my gun, I would stick with what the engineer determined to be the best spring weight.
The recoil spring with the green end of for lighter target loads such as 185gr LSWC.
 
Hunter0924

What I don't know at this time is how well the load i am discribing will rack
the slide back. This 18lb spring will strip the bullet out of the magazine
much quicker than the factory spring!!! Hopefully it feeds correctly.

My conversation with Wilsons Combats Gun Smith didn't throw up any red flags
so i will move ahead.

What i was trying to confirm with the post was did colt ship this gun
with a 16lb spring!!!

Early this evening i installed the new spring , it felt quite a bit more than
a 2 lb. increase.

My Colt defender is my action pistol. It cycles instantainiously with the same
ammo i have been using in the gold cup.

This is a test to see if i will build an action 1911 like a springfield Mil Spec.
What i will do is go to a lighter spring if this is too heavy rather than increase
the load.

JUST DOING A LITTLE 5" 1911 SPEED STEEL TESTING!!!
 
GC

What i was trying to confirm with the post was did colt ship this gun
with a 16lb spring!!!
Click to expand...
Yes. Stock weight in a Gold Cup is 16lbs.
The comment that the spring works both ways is apt....and worth some thought.
When you "speed the gun up" is one direction, you slow it down in the other.
The recoil spring absorbs some of the recoil of the cartridge firing as the slide comes rearward and then it releases the compressed energy to return the slide to battery and strip a new cartridge.
Which part of that cycle do you want speeded up?
Put a heavy enough spring in the gun and the slide will hardly move with a target load....may not eject. But it surely will snap forward fast when you release the slide on a new magazine.
Put too light a spring in your gun and the slide will pop back, throw the brass out and batter the frame. It may get stuck occasionally when stripping and chambering a less than ideal round or if not held tightly enough.
Pete
 
I have been shooting 1911's a long time, I only run heavy springs in my Wilson Combat carry {short barrel} and my DW specialist {home defense weapon chambered in 400 corbon}, both get hot ammo and both don't get shot much, and I am running as light as possible, they just ended up being heavier..

My Bullseye gun has a 13 {I can run 10 for some rounds}, my Ed Brown uses the wilson flat spring kit {not sure about the weight but its lighter than 18}, and as a rule I try to stay under 15 with the others, 13-14-15 will keep your gun from getting beat up and still cycle fine...

Now I am sure your 1911 will still have a long good life with say a 22lb spring, but I just don't see the point, you want your gun to cycle faster, pull the trigger faster... The fastest 1911 out of the box I ever bought was my brown special forces, and a friend of mine put a speed trigger and trigger job, polished ramp, ball ammo, and custom tuned mags in his dw heritage and that is really fast to, but it all comes down to your finger...
 
All 1911 recoil springs should have the same length, regardless of rating. A spring that's short is worn, has been clipped, or is otherwise not correct.
Virtually ALL competitors in speed-oriented competition use lighter recoil springs. Heavy springs increase muzzle flip in recoil, and muzzle dip when the slide runs into battery, slowing-down your follow-up shots.
Unless you are running heavy loads, for bowling pins or something, try a 14# spring.
 
Colt Defender

Ok, my action gun is my Colt Defender. I do some self defense exercises
with multiple targets where my gold cup just doesn't cycle fast enough
to get the bullets out of the gun.

Darkgael brings up an interesting point, " which way do you want to speed
up the gun".

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Colt Defender it is in simple
terms a 3" 1911. I would need to film the cycling to see what is actually
taking place. It is just lightning full cycle. Different recoil spring design.

The only time i fired a 1911 that cycled as slowly as my Gold Cup , it was
setup to fire a 650fps target rd. Everybody else i know with a 1911 has
a much faster cycle rate. The Gun above had a 11lb spring.

The gun is in perfect condition, slide well lubricated. I think that because the
exsisting spring is so light it probably is throwing the slide back rapidly and
has a very slow return. MY CONCERN IS THAT THE 18LB IS A LITTLE HEAVY.

Weather permitting i will try to get to the range and if the gun doesn't cycle
properly i will drop down to a 17lb spring and go from there. I don't have one.

Once i get things working correctly i will take it to my local gunsmiths/guru's
and have them give me their opinions on how healthy the setup is for the
gold cup. I'ts a 55 mile drive one way, so i don't get up there that often.

You need a spring or powder, get ready for a 2 hr drive around here.
 
Overpressure- have you ever put a timer on yourself? What are your "splits"?

Stock recoil spring for a Gold Cup is #14lbs, IIRC. I think you'll find that the guys who take USPSA really seriously have come around to going lighter on their recoil springs, rather than heavier. A lighter recoil reduces "dip" (i.e.- the front sight dropping out of sight behind your rear sight) which allows you to track that front sight, and get back on target quicker.

I know what you mean with the Defender. I worked over a Colt Officers ACP into a comp gun and that tiny light slide made the gun have very light recoil, and very fast cycling time, but putting a timer on myself I couldn't get any faster than with a standard 6" comp gun.
 
Ok, my action gun is my Colt Defender. I do some self defense exercises
with multiple targets where my gold cup just doesn't cycle fast enough
to get the bullets out of the gun.
Click to expand...

Extremely fast shot splits are .10" sec, so if the gun is cycling slowly, you could experience, in something like a Bill Drill, the sense that the gun is slowing you down.
Your load is not really a light one (200@860), so you shouldn't have to use light springs to get the gun to run, but something is slowing it down if you sense that you are waiting on it.
A heavy spring is going to speed it up in one direction and slow it in the other, so I don't know that you'd get an overall increase in cycling rate with a heavier spring.
It sounds like something is dragging, preventing the gun from cycling at normal speed.
 
Last edited:
Overpressure, the spring supplied in the gun is a 16#. You are correct that the green is a 14#. I and others have routinely used the 18 1/2# spring in uncompensated 5" guns for many years with no issues. There is a potential issue I've seen going to a heavier than 18 1/2# recoil spring. Within my humble experience, going heavier than 18 1/2#, 20# for instance, works fine with ammo generating the same, or greater, recoil impulse as regular 230 grain ball. But, if you use more lightly loaded ammo, malfunctions may occur, smokestacks, etc. I do not use 20# or heavier recoil springs.

As to whether there is any advantage to recoil springs heavier than 16# in the 5" guns, I used to think so, along with buffers. Now days, I'm not so sure, so I'll let others pontificate about that ;-)


BTW, the new, heavier than stock, recoil springs will feel heavy when first installed. I lock the slide back for at least a day or so, sometimes quite a bit longer. No harm will be done. The spring will take a slight set, and will not feel quite so heavy afterwards....ymmv


I
 
Rock185

This Cycles Perfectly. I took it to the range this morning , "quick and smooth".
Dead on at 10 yards and just a joy to shoot.

Too much wind and rain to test it on the action range or 25 yards, that'll be next.

I should have swapped out this spring several years ago!!!

WOW!!!
 
Glad it is working out for you.
The "several years" part may be more significant than the poundage. Springs do get squashed down with use.

But you must be a heckofa fast shooter.
I run a 12 lb spring and Minor power factor loads - I shoot IDPA ESP with a .45 - and have no sensation of waiting on the gun. By the time I get back on the target, the gun has been ready to go for a long time. But then I am just a scratch Expert.
 
I agree that you shouldn't go higher than a 16-pound recoil spring for standard power loads, and if you shoot lighter-than-standard loads for your competition I wouldn't go higher than 14-pounds (and I would probably run 12 pounds for the light loads).

In general, the trend toward 18-1/2 pound springs is due to the fact that too many "elite" makers have reduced chamber tolerances and slide-to-frame tolerances to so tight that a spec of dust will tie up the gun. So they compensate by using a heavier spring, in the expectation that the heavier spring will overpower the crud for a few rounds longer than a standard 16-pound spring.

Other than that, there is no advantage to going heavier on the recoil spring, and there are disadvantages in terms of long-term damage to the gun. It's unlikely that in a single day of competition you'll get enough crud built up in chamber and/or slide to impair functioning with a standard 16-pound recoil spring. And Colt still adheres to Browning's tolerances, so even a Gold Cut isn't going to be so tight that a single dust mote will cause a stoppage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top