ever wore out any spring in a gun?

I decided to replace the recoil springs on my M41 S&W and a recently purchased M46. The M41 was an 80’s model and the original owner had not fired it much, the M46 was of 1968 manufacture pistol and had been fired very little.




The recoil spring from the M41 was not significantly shorter than the Wolff replacement spring.





The recoil spring from the M46 was.




I took the M41 to an indoor range 22LR Bullseye match with its new Wolff recoil spring. I brought the old recoil spring, just in case. While I was there one shooter was having malfunctions in the rapids. Being a nosey person I had to find out what was going on. His M41 was failing to chamber the round. I pulled on his slide and there was hardly any spring tension. I took his old recoil spring out and it was shorter than my M46!. He had been shooting his pistol for decades and never replaced the recoil spring. I gave him my old M41 spring to try, and that had more tension than his old, and he was able to finish out the match without any more alibi’s. I got my original M41 spring back later.

I have a M586 that had been fired so much it would misfire, particularly in cold weather. A new mainspring fixed that. My Kimber M82G misfired and I replaced the mainspring and that fixed that malfunction. I recently replaced the recoil spring on my Les Baer Wadcutter 1911, the pistol was functioning fine but I can say the original recoil spring was shorter than the factory replacement. I replaced every military Mauser mainspring with Wolff standards springs and I can tell the difference in firing pin energy. Ditto for my M1903’s and A3’s.

You shoot enough, you will find that springs loose tension and that causes problems. Replacing springs is a good idea, just when, heck if I know. Pick your own maintenance schedule.

I have worn out springs to the point of needing replacement, and I have broken flat springs by accident, but I have never shot a gun so much a spring was too weak for proper functioning.

The m1 carbine I got from the most recent CMP lotto would not run until I put a wolff service pack in it. My garand ran fine, but needed a bump to charge a fresh clip before it got an Orion 7 oprod spring. I've never had to replace a spring in any of my commercial firearms.

I have broken flat hand springs in second generation Colt 1851s, and Pietta 1860 percussion revolvers.

I routinely replace these flat springs with a strand of spring wire, and have not had any of those fail.

Breaking a spring qualifies as "wearing out", I think...

I've replaced a good number of magazine springs over the years, the Para Ordnance P14 mag springs are among those with the shortest life -- lots of feed failure (usually bolt over base, aka nose up jam), fresh springs fix it for a good number of rounds.

Recoil springs on 3-3.5" 1911s don't last very long either.

I've gone through several striker springs and recoil springs on my Kahr CW9 -- symptoms failure to return fully into battery, failure to fire with weak firing pin dimple.

1911 recoil spring, maybe 3 or 4 times. 16 pound wolfs on my favorite Colt Combat Elite.

I wore out the springs in my M41 shooting Blazer aluminum .22. The gunsmith told me to "quit shooting that crap".

No. And I've never had a part break, either.

That said, the most rounds I've ever put through one gun (so far in my life) is just over 4,000.

Now, someone once GAVE me a gun with a broken recoil spring seat. It was some kind of Colt 22 rifle, where the seat was a cast pocket in the receiver. I don't remember the exact model or how I fixed it, since it was 30 years ago or so.

M1917 Enfield ejectors (which are springs) are notorious for breaking. Out of 5 Enfields that I have, 2 of them were found to have broken ejectors when I first obtained them. It's a good idea to have spare Enfield ejectors.

Wore out the recoil spring in my XD9 after about 7,000 rounds. The gun started acting up even after a full cleaning. New spring fixed it.

Yes. Recoil springs in 1911s. Trigger, hammer, extractor springs in ARs. Extractors (which are a spring) in M24 (Rem 700). Magazine springs in pump shotguns. Drive springs in machine guns.

Once in a KAHR PM45, it lasted about 2-3k rounds longer than they said it would.

The M1 carbine has quite a few springs in it - and all need to be working properly or your carbine might not cycle properly. That's why most parts houses will gladly sell you a spring service pack (with seven different springs) so get that "war baby" back up to snuff. I just went that route for an older commercial carbine (a Plainfield) myself. For anyone with a carbine and wanting to replace the ejector and extractor springs on the bolt - get a bolt disassembly tool (unless you have three hands - you're going to need it...). Hope this helps...

The outfit I used was Numrich (gunpartscorp.com) - they list 13 pages of carbine parts.... and I was very satisfied by their prompt service.

Yes. Have worn recoil springs, mag springs, and extractor tension springs to the point where failures began to occur. Never had it get to the point where gun wouldn't run at all, but who would?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've replaced some dramatically worn and shortened recoil springs in a Garand but the singular failure I've ever experienced was a snap in two event in my NAA .22.

Have seen a lot of battered 19ll's that also evidenced that shortened and worn spring issue.

I picked up a Heritage Rough Rider .22 revolver for cheap and when I did I spent a lot of time shooting it (back when .22 was still everywhere). I ended up wearing out the cylinder hand spring to the point where it would not rotate any more. When I took it apart and realized the issue, I think I spent $1 on a new spring (and a couple more on shipping) and replaced the new one which has worked well since.

Yes. Hand and bolt springs on SAA clones. Hammer plunger spring on two Ruger Vaqueros used in Cowboy Action shooting after lots of live rounds and dry firing.

I once owned a dan wesson 357 revolver. A spring broke in it. I forget which one.

Off the top of my head, springs that wore out to the point of negatively impacting function, or just broke:

-Many S&W M&P magazine springs
-Glock magazine springs
-Many recoil springs in several guns (but to be fair they were already lightened from stock)
-Broke a magazine catch spring in a Glock
-Broke a trigger return spring in an M&P
-Broke a trigger return spring in a Tanfoglio
-Extractor spring in an AR15

Generally, springs are the weakest link in any pistol or rifle I've ever shot a lot.

Yes, lots of them. I prefer to replace them before I wear them out, however.

I think it is a true statement that, if you've never had a spring fail on a gun, you either do a lot of preventative maintenance or you are not a high volume shooter.