HK USP Compact Question

[branrot]

I just got my new HK USP Compact 9mm Variant I. It looks great, but it sounded like it had a loose piece rolling around inside. I field stripped it, and found that the culprit is a white plastic ring around the recoil spring assembly, which slides up and down the assembly. I checked the owners manual, and it appears that the ring is supposed to be there. My question is: is this normal? are the rings normally tighter so they don't slide back and forth? what should I do?

[Rex Feral]

Perfectly normal for it to slide back and forth.

[J.T.King]

Perfectly normal!

Thats the Recoil Dampening "system". That plastic piece absorbs the remaining recoil after your primary spring has compressed and ejected the spent casing, instead of transfering it directly to the frame. Makes for softer recoil and allows the shooting of higher pressure ammo. It also means that USP frames last a long, long time.

On the fullsize USP's, instead of a plastic sleave there is a special double spring setup with the secondary spring being much stiffer. It functions the same way but uses a metal spring instead.

As far as the loseness goes, it has to be that way. The spring underneath it must be able to compress. If it was snug then every shot would whittle away at that plastic sleave leaving plastic shavingins in the works of your pistol, yuk!

Nothing wrong with it at all!

J.T.

[branrot]

But the noise it makes when it slides, is that normal? Is there anything that you can do about that?

[EricM]

You should take it to the range and shoot it :).

[Cobra 4-6]

Branrot -

Yeah, the noise is normal. After about 2K rounds through it, the noise seems to have disappeared. I just shook the hell out of mine and I can't hear a thing.

[CMOS]

I'd have to agree that after many rounds the inside of the buffer will "roughen" up ans therefore slide along the recoil less easily. After seeing this thread I checked mine (after about 4000 rounds) and I don't hear the buffer move anymore.

Go shoot it!!! :D

CMOS

[JJCook]

I noticed the same thing when I first bought mine. It went away after a couple of trips to the range as well. Not to worry. Good choice!

Semper Fi-
JJC