Colt Commander LW-Recoil Spring Weight

[LawRand]

Hello All:

I recently purchased a lightly used but greatly neglected Colt Commander Light Weight. It appears most of the springs are DOA. The mag spring for sure.

I ordered a new recoil spring directly from Wolff and received it yesterday. When I ordered it, I believed the website said the 16# spring was factory for the Commander. However, the packaging I received says 16#-Factory for 38Super and 9mm and reduced recoil for .45ACP. What is the correct factory recoil spring rate for the Commander LW? Did Wolff send me the wrong spring? Thanks.

(Tuner-If you read this how the heck are you? Haven't talked to you for a while and that is my loss. Have you bought Jane Fonda's new book since she apologized to all of us???

Randall

 

[1911Tuner]

Springy Stuff

Hey Rand! Good to see ya on the surface after so long...Nope. I haven't
read Hanoi Jane's latest foray into the political arena. If I can find anybody around here who's actually bought the book..I might browse through it.

The 16-pound spring will work fine in your Commander. As I've written many times...I've tested recoil springs on a slew of new Colts over the years, and I've never seen a Commander...LW or steel-framed...that came from Colt with an 18-pound spring...and all but a small handful of 5-inch pistols that came with the "standard" 16-pound recoil spring. Most Commanders have tested at
about 15 or 16...and some have been as low as 14.5 pounds. Most 5-inch guns had springs that hit about 14 or so.

Be SURE to check for coil bind when you swap springs in any Commander. Best to do that in all guns, but the variants with top ends shorter than
5 inches are most critical.

All springs were tested at full compression, which will add about 3/4 pound or so to the operating tension as installed in the gun. To simplify that...If the spring tested at 16 pounds, the installed/operating tension wouldn't go much over 15 pounds.

Keep in mind that the alloy-framed guns won't stand up to as much use as their steel-framed counterparts. The LW Commander was designed for carry...not for hard range use.

Come on down and see an old redneck sometime. Gettin' ready to sell out and move onto my little piece of heaven in the next county, so there's gonna be ample room for a guest or two. 15 minutes from the range...Shoot the steel...Play with the fallin' plate machines...What say?

 

[LawRand]

Thanks Tuner. Good to hear from you.

Randall