proper mainspring wt. 38 super govt.1911

[fourspeed2]

I recently purchased a 1911 Caspian in 38 super. The pistol is an older race build built around 1991.Received it, took it to the range and experienced quite a few light primer strikes. Have disassembled and reassembled a few times to see if I could make a difference. No such luck. Have now contemplated shipping my pistol to Impact Arms to have it looked over but would like to try to replace the mainspring first to see if that could be the difference. I have seen somewhere that the stock mainspring on a colt govt. 1911 in 38 super is 13 lbs. haven't even seen those listed on brownells or midway, so any of you 1911 buffs out there with any help would be appreciated. Remember, I am not pretending to be a gun smith, just a novice. Many Thanks fourspeed2

 

[Drail]

I think the 13 lb. rating must be for the recoil spring. The mainspring should be more like 19 to 21 lbs. The first thing I would check on a light primer strike is the firing pin protrusion - you need to make sure the pin is coming all the way out. Gunk can accumulate in the tunnel and hang it up. The firing pin spring also may have broken or a piece chipped off and jammed up the pin. Take a good look in the firing pin tunnel in the slide Also examine the pin hole in the breech face for erosion or damage. A simple test is to clear the gun and insert a pencil or a small wooden dowel down the barrel and dry fire the gun. The pencil should be propelled up a foot or so out of the barrel. If this was a race gun someone might have put a very light mainspring into it to get a very light trigger release. Is this gun compensated? A lot of the .38 Super race guns suffered from primers blowing and damaging the breechface and pin hole when people used very hot handloads in them.

 

[rcmodel]

14 lb. recoil spring.
23 pound mainspring.

See this about that:

http://www.gunsprings.com/Semi-Auto Pistols/COLT/1911 GOV'T PISTOL/cID1/mID1/dID1#3

rc

 

[fourspeed2]

Compensated barrel it is

 

[fourspeed2]

Thank you

 

[Walkalong]

Make sure the firing pin hole is not full of oil, grease or crud as well. But you probably already checked that.

A new set of springs is always a good idea in a new to you gun that has probably been shot a lot. I did the same thing as you, bought an old retired .38 Super. I love mine. I did change out the old Aimpoint 5000 on it for a newer Aimpoint. I wish they still made the one with the big dot like is on the gun. They came silver or black. I put the big dot 5000 on my 9MM AR. Works great, and fast.