Classic SIG Braided vs. Solid/Flat coiled springs..

[wing932]

Hello all.. I am an avid gun dude like many of you and recently got back in the game.

I just bought a p229 and figured sweet... this is good to go. I have a number of AGI (American Gunsmithing Institute) videos and they have a number of vids for specific models of gun. I watched the p229 vid and he made very specific mention of the braided spring used in SIGs.

It was interesting because when I bought my first AK years before... it had braided springs and the AK is renowned for reliability. I also felt good about this AGI gunsmith because he really seems to understand design and in his S&W M&P videos... he called out an issue with feeding that indeed was fixed by S&W in later iterations of the magazine. In the SIG series video (this is all before SIG polymer handguns)... he called out the braided spring as a unique part of the design. He said many handguns expect the slide to impact the frame... and in the West... decent quality springs were available. Russia however did not have quality spring stock... so used the braided design. It also has other properties... such as if a single wire in the braid broke... at least in an AK the hammer will still be able to fire rounds.

So.. in the video he said that the SIG was designed so that the spring actually bottoms out... I think he said the coil binds... and this is by design. The spring will absorb the recoil in a way that the slide does not impact the frame.

So... fast-foward to 2020. SIG closes the German factory... which apparently was the source of the braided springs in the world. SIG USA... from various forum posts I have seen... had trouble sourcing these in the US. And a number of braided springs went out that some people in a particular forum (not here) said would fail after 50-200 rounds. I am not sure of the confidence I should have in this... but I decided to put 17 pound single-wire springs from Wolff into my p229 for my first range outing.

So... to the point... I noticed this thread today:

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/sig-p229-enhanced-elite-9mm-recoil-spring.622302/

There is a guy named "Bruce" who I imagine runs a range or something. Sounded perhaps a bit more authoritative than this other thread I saw around. Now... in 2022... there is no such thing as a braided spring from SIG... unless it is from what seems to have been a crappy run of springs after the German plant shut down.

Anyone know nowadays what the verdict is? Nowadays the polymer SIGs seem to be the thing. In reddit the sigsauer forum is pretty much exclusively pics of 320s and 365s. But... the p226 line of pistols have a huge place in handgun history. After the 1911... Sig vs. Beretta was a huge thing... and Glock became a thing then too (the 80s). Seems a real shame if the p226/229 are abandoned (assuming round/flat springs are not totally equivalent).

Interestingly... the p320 spring has both a flat spring and a braided spring:

https://www.sigsauer.com/p320-recoil-spring-assembly.html

Somehow they cant source braided for p229 series... but they can for one of the more popular handguns they offer.

Edit: In SIG USA's defence... the 9mm p226 spring is available as braided:

https://www.sigsauer.com/recoil-spring-set-p226-9mm.html

I also noticed there are versions of springs for p320s that have two round springs. Not sure on what the current status is.. but in 2020 people weren't happy about the p229 springs becoming solid wire and no longer having availability of braided. And it seems to be the case now in 2022 as well.

 

[Gordon]

Hello ,
Bruce Gray indeed is the wizard of Sig pistol products . I reccomend one of these or the bare stainless one from the drop down menu for your P229.
https://grayguns.com/product/custom-fat-super-black-guide-rod/

Note it says they do NOT recommend the single strand FLAT aftermarket recoil spring spring in your pistol - a P229

Because of the short recoil spring area in the compact P229, Gray Guns only recommends this OEM recoil spring which is NOT a multistrand because of the coil bind problems in that model. His Fat guide rod helps that problem with THIS spring only.

https://www.sigsauer.com/recoil-spring-229-9mm.html

The P229 is a nice and reliable gun , they also sell three packs of that spring and I advise going that way for the future.
https://www.sigsauer.com/recoil-spring-set-p229-9mm.html

For those of you with the P226 9mm that want to shoot +p or +p+ lots of ammo Gray Guns makes their "pink " recoil spring which with their fat guide rod is "Da Bomb" , but due to the short length of the P229 system is NOT adaptable to it !
https://grayguns.com/product/pinkp9-recoil-spring/

 

[5-SHOTS]

A few years ago I bought a new SIG-Sauer P226 AL SO made in Germany. The stock recoil spring was a normal 14 lb spring and the only visible manual intervention was the flattening of the ends. As I only shoot 123/124gr. factory cartridges which here in Italy always have loads around the NATO standard, I decided to buy a Wolff factory rating and two extra power springs (15 and 16 lb) and I also bought the original 16lb SIG-Sauer braided spring. The braided spring cost three times as much as a normal spring. After a few hundred test shots with the various springs I came to the conclusion that the softest recoil was that of the 16 lb braided spring. The normal 16 lb Wolff spring didn't feel that soaked up the recoil any better than the original normal spring. I also noticed that Wolff springs were shortening already after 100 rounds (I imagine anyway that sooner or later they would have stabilized at a certain length) and had no flat ends, in this proving to be inferior to the original normal spring. So I decided to use the braided spring and never looked back. Now I have a bunch of spare springs for my P226
I must say, however, that I saw an original braided spring broken in two at the range I frequent; the owner of the range told me it broke on a shooter with a .40S&W P229.

 

[Gordon]

A few years ago I bought a new SIG-Sauer P226 AL SO made in Germany. The stock recoil spring was a normal 14 lb spring and the only visible manual intervention was the flattening of the ends. As I only shoot 123/124gr. factory cartridges which here in Italy always have loads around the NATO standard, I decided to buy a Wolff factory rating and two extra power springs (15 and 16 lb) and I also bought the original 16lb SIG-Sauer braided spring. The braided spring cost three times as much as a normal spring. After a few hundred test shots with the various springs I came to the conclusion that the softest recoil was that of the 16 lb braided spring. The normal 16 lb Wolff spring didn't feel that soaked up the recoil any better than the original normal spring. I also noticed that Wolff springs were shortening already after 100 rounds (I imagine anyway that sooner or later they would have stabilized at a certain length) and had no flat ends, in this proving to be inferior to the original normal spring. So I decided to use the braided spring and never looked back. Now I have a bunch of spare springs for my P226
I must say, however, that I saw an original braided spring broken in two at the range I frequent; the owner of the range told me it broke on a shooter with a .40S&W P229.

That is because In the 229 it has been found the latest updated to solve the problem single strand Sig factory spring I posted a link to ONLY holds up in the shorter available area of the P229 .