Upgraded recoil spring

[skeath]

I recently bought a new recoil spring from Galloway for my S&W Bodyguard 380. It is 15% stiffer than stock; they claim it will reduce the felt recoil of this little gun. This is my report:

It does work. The slide is noticeably harder to rack, and recoil does seem to be less aggressive. Not a monumental difference, but quite noticeable. However, I did have 3 jams out of 14 mags shot today, which is 2 more than my total to date. In each case, the problem was with the last round in the mag. The last round has the least upward pressure from the spring.

These were Federal FMJ, bought at my range.

My guess is that the quicker cycle time now, in a small percentage of the time, is faster than the mag can deliver the last round. Unless someone tells me this is a bad idea, I am considering stretching the mag springs just a little, maybe 1/4 inch. Another option would be to leave the slide locked back overnight, to break in the recoil spring

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,

SK

[Walt Sherrill]

My guess is that the quicker cycle time now, in a small percentage of the time, is faster than the mag can deliver the last round. Unless someone tells me this is a bad idea, I am considering stretching the mag springs just a little, maybe 1/4 inch. Another option would be to leave the slide locked back overnight, to break in the recoil spring

Any thoughts on this?

The STOVEPIPING doesn't necessarily mean that the the magazine isn't delivering the next round properly, but it could suggest that the extractor or ejector -- for unknown reasons -- aren't doing THEIR jobs.

If the recoil spring is the source of the problem, it may be that the extra heavy recoil spring is keeping the fired casing from hitting the ejector with full force -- such that the casing isn't getting bumped off. Or, maybe the extractor is having it's own roblems. If it feeds and function properly when the "factory" recoil spring is reinstalled, it's probably not the extractor.

If the slide was coming forward too quickly, it might not be able to pick up the next round properly (because of mags springs not strong enough to lift the next round up in time to be caught by the slide) -- but the fired round should still be OUT OF THE WAY by then. If the slide isn't going back far enough to hit the ejector (due to a too powerful recoil spring), THAT might lead to a stovepipe. Leaving the slide locked back MAY help weaken the recoil spring a bit, .but it may take a while before you notice a difference.

Stretching mag springs doesn't seem like a good solution, as I wouldn't expect it to be a mag issue. If you wanted to weaken the springs, leaving the mags compressed (fully loaded) for a while will likel weaken the springs a bit, and keeping the mag loaded will do less damage than stretching the springs. (Depending on the mags, how fully compressed the springs are when fully loaded, etc., leaving the mags fully loaded can degrade the mag spring.)

If it were my gun, think I'd just keep the stock recoil spring and look for other ways to make the recoil a bit more tolerable. (I've found that the KTADDONS grip materials works well with some of these small guns. It's put on UNDER a handall-type grip sleeve. In my case it made a Kel-Tec PF9 which I found downright unpleasant to be much more tolerable when the material was used. It made a world of difference with a K-T P3AT and Ruger LCP, too. I'm sure that stuff can be made to fit your gun, too. They have a website.
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Note: there have been a lot of discussions on the forum recently about mag and recoil springs and what causes them to weaken. If anyone doubts that keeping coil springs compressed can (not WILL) have that effect, they need to do a couple of searches here on the forum for "mag springs" or "recoil springs." It really depends on the gun, on the design of the spring, how the spring is used, etc., so there's no "always true" answer to questions about spring life.

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[James K]

Unfortunately, there are some sellers of gun gadgets who tell a prospective buyer all about the advantages of the "gizmo" and forget about any potential disadvantages. One possibility is that the stronger spring is not allowing full slide movement so that the slide is not clearing the case rim but is hanging up in the extraction groove and causing a stovepipe jam. Plus, of course, manual slide retraction is more difficult.

I think I would have put the money into practice ammo and learned to handle the recoil (which is not excessive) rather than getting into the cycle of creating one problem while trying to correct another.

Jim

[skeath]

Sorry, my mistake. I used the wrong terminology. What I called stovepipes were just jams. The empty casing ejected, but the last round in the mag was not fully positioned to load, and caught the slide. That happened 3 times out of 14.

Thanks.

[Walt Sherrill]

The empty casing ejected, but the last round in the mag was not fully positioned to load, and caught the slide. That happened 3 times out of 14.

It could simply be that the slide is closing too quickly to properly catch the next round. Stronger mag springs might help with that issue -- but it might not. (I just checked the Wolff site, and they don't seem to have ANY mag springs for that model.)

You can try weakening the recoil spring (by leaving it locked back for an extended period), and that might slow things down a bit. Maybe enough.

Changing to a higher strength recoil spring didn't really reduce the recoil all that much, but did affect how you experienced the way the force of the recoil was transferred to your hand and arm. In theory, the stronger recoil spring stored a bit more of the recoil force than did the lighter (factory) spring, and in doing so delayed some of the recoil experience. When the slide went to load the next round, however, it used some of the extra stored force to slam the slide forward with extra force (and speed?) That may be what caused the problem.

Your best bet is to look for other methods of making the recoil experience more acceptable.

[Bill DeShivs]

The gun's designers worked very hard to come up with the proper spring rate for your gun. Why do you think you or an aftermarket parts seller would be able to improve on that?
Put the stock spring back in the gun. Problem solved.

[jim8115]

At the range, 90% of the guns I see jamming are ones that the owners have "improved" with aftermarket parts.