Slide Recoil Spring For Colt Gold Cup

[DorGunR]

I posted about buying an as new Colt Gold Cup NM about 2/3 weeks ago......so now I have a question.
The Gold Cup is a target pistol and normally the spring for these are about 12 pounds, I don't know what kind of spring is in it now so I picked up a 16 pound spring for it last Friday.
I will be shooting standard loads of 230 grain FMJ only.

Do you guys thing this 16 pound spring will be ok for this type of shooting?????

 

[Pumpkinheaver]

I think that is the standard spring strength for 1911 if I'm not mistaken. I use 18.5# springs in mine.

 

[Matt G]

If you're going to use 185g bullet loads over a light charge, I suppose that the light spring would be okay, but if you're ever going to fire factory hardball through it, be sure and use the standard 18# spring. I shot my Gold Cup in police academy with full house loads and qual'd and carried it for the first year as a cop with full power factory Gold Dot 230g loads, with the 18# spring AND a nylon buffer pad (which is a different matter altogeter, and is the issue of much dispute with many people) on the end of the guide rod.

Result? A completely reliable, street-worthy gun that was more accurate than I was. (The reason I don't carry it on duty now is that the Eliason sights were too delicate for me, IMHO-- the roll pin sheared.)

Keep two springs: One for the poofter target loads, and one for hardball. It takes less than a minute to change 'em out.

 

[cratz2]

Both Gold Cups I've owned came with two springs... One for hardball and one for LSWCs.

I know I should know off the top of my head but I don't - I was thinking the LSWC spring was 12 lbs and the hardball spring was 16 or 18.5 lbs but I surely wouldn't swear to it.

 

[Stickjockey]

My series 70 Gold Cup has 18# Wolff springs in it for full-power rounds. I also have one of those rubbery slide-over-the-spring-guide type recoil buffers in it. Works fine.

 

[Cactus]

The standard Gold Cup spring is 16 lb. just like on a Government Model. Either that or an 18 lb. should work just fine for 230 gr. ball.

 

[Peakbagr]

I have 2 Les Baers, one with a dot and the other with iron sights.
Both are Bullseye guns. One carries an 11 lb spring and the other 12 lbs.
I work up light and accurate loads just enough to allow the gun to cycle and eject the brass a few feet with 100% reliability.
If you are going to use full power loads, be careful to use an adequate spring otherwise the slide will pound the gun with the possiblity of damaging it.
You can also buy small slide buffers that fit over the guide rod and cushion the slide before it hits the frame it the spring bottoms out. You change the buffs every 500-1000 rds, depending on how heavy the load you're shooting and how heavy a spring is in the gun.

 

[lon_taylor]

gold cup recoil spring

I have a gold cup mark IV series 70 I bought new in about 1982. I have experemented with just about recoil spring and main spring cobination and for all loads the 18 1/2# Woff recoil and Colts oun 22# main works best for me.

 

[USSR]

The standard Gold Cup spring is 16 lb. just like on a Government Model. Either that or an 18 lb. should work just fine for 230 gr. ball.

+1. I have a 16# spring in my Gold Cup for 230gr ball loads.

Don

 

[rcmodel]

The standard Gold Cup spring is 16 lb. just like on a Government Model.

That is true of recent Series 70 & Series 80 Gold Cups.

But it is not true of the earlier ones.

They came with two springs.
A 16 pound spring for hardball.
And a lighter one, which I seem to recall was 14 pound, for mid-range match loads.

Personally, I use Wolff 16 1/2 pound springs in both my National Match guns.
We used standard 16 pound GI springs in all the National Match Hardball guns we built at 5th. Army AMU when I gunsmithed for them in the late 60's.
If heavier springs were necessary or desirable, we would have used them.

P.S. Here is another thread with the same question:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=607585

rc