Ruger 1911 safety question

[DT Guy]

I considered it a defect since the spring on my Brown, Baer, Dan Wesson, Colt would at least stick out with the thumb safety removed.
The Wolff replacement spring wasn't kinked either.

No, they don't come kinked; the gunsmith who installs it puts the kink it it. It could certainly have been a bad/wrong spring, but the kink is usually a sign that whoever put it together knew what they were doing.

Larry

 

[Walkalong]

The last coil on each end should be slightly bent in to hold the two plungers from getting lost when taking it apart. It should not restrict the assembly from putting spring pressure on the thumb safety and the slide catch.

Some of them have a kink in the middle to help keep the whole assembly from shooting out. This won't stop a good spring from putting the pressure needed on the plungers.

 

[RecoilRob]

Edit to add: I'm not in complete agreement with Ruger spring selection; my wife's Ruger CMD lightweight 9mm came with a recoil spring that seemed about 10# slide return was sluggish and overall recoil feel was horrid chunk-chunk. I installed a 16# spring (only thing I had handy) and it corrected slide return and felt recoil. After shooting the "improved" pistol with 147 HST +P and Golden Saber 124+P my wife said "maybe we can shoot some hot ammo next time"; I replied, "that was the hot ammo".

And so goes the biggest problem the gun manufacturers have while trying to offer a piece to the masses that will function with any ammo it is fed. If sprung correctly to function with heavy bullets or +P's....it very likely will fail to eject or feed with the very lightest bullet weights or weak loadings. Of course....sprung lightly to work with the weakest of the weak it'll batter itself with the heaviest stuff but that's what lots of guns are forced to suffer. I agree that the stock springing on many pistols is too weak for the 147's I prefer...so stronger ones are installed and I just don't bother trying to shoot 115's or the like.

 

[Kano383]

And so goes the biggest problem the gun manufacturers have while trying to offer a piece to the masses that will function with any ammo it is fed. If sprung correctly to function with heavy bullets or +P's....it very likely will fail to eject or feed with the very lightest bullet weights or weak loadings. Of course....sprung lightly to work with the weakest of the weak it'll batter itself with the heaviest stuff but that's what lots of guns are forced to suffer. I agree that the stock springing on many pistols is too weak for the 147's I prefer...so stronger ones are installed and I just don't bother trying to shoot 115's or the like.

It’s like buying a 4x4 truck with heavy duty suspensions to carry bags of fertiliser on dirt roads, then find out that they try to pop the fillings out of your teeth when travelling empty in town and hitting a speed bump...