Sig P226 mainspring weights

[Hstanton1]

Recently traded into a short extractor p226 through this forum, and it’s an amazing pistol so far. I picked up the GGI mainspring kit for it, and have found installation of both the 19 and 17lb springs to be simple and pain free. For those of you who’ve ran p226es extensively in the past, how reliable have these mainsprings been?

The stock 26lb mainspring that came in the gun is just fine when I’ve got two hands on the gun, but either lighter spring makes a substantial difference in how easy it is to press that first shot with only one hand on the gun.

[Jim Watson]

Bruce Gray put a 19 or 20 in my P226 when he worked it over for IDPA. It did fine while I was campaigning it but I put the stock back in when I relegated it to a "house gun."

There were statements on Sigforum about springs as light as 17 lbs like, "it is reliable as long as you replace it every X number of rounds, X being 1000 to 3000.

[OlongJohnson]

Classic Sigs respond well to friction reduction.

[Hstanton1]

Bruce Gray put a 19 or 20 in my P226 when he worked it over for IDPA. It did fine while I was campaigning it but I put the stock back in when I relegated it to a "house gun."

There were statements on Sigforum about springs as light as 17 lbs like, "it is reliable as long as you replace it every X number of rounds, X being 1000 to 3000.

Do you know if those statements also apply to 19/20lb springs?

[Jim Watson]

I don't know or don't remember the cutoff between good and good when frequently replaced, sorry.
It is kind of like the ever-lighter Beretta springs people are using, how low can you go? And how do you know?

[Hstanton1]

I don't know or don't remember the cutoff between good and good when frequently replaced, sorry.
It is kind of like the ever-lighter Beretta springs people are using, how low can you go? And how do you know?

No worries. I was hoping there was a body of knowledge on sig hammer springs similar to what there is with beretta hammer springs; people like Ernest Langdon have discovered a happy medium between the factory hammer springs and something like an 11lb pure gamer hammer spring.

Honestly though, the stock sig mainspring and the GGI P-SAIT trigger have improved things well enough over the short reach trigger that I don’t feel a lighter mainspring is all that necessary

[Jim Watson]

I was hoping there was a body of knowledge on sig hammer springs similar to what there is with beretta hammer springs;

It was being discussed at length on Sigforum at one time. Unfortunately, their search is even worse than PF.

[Actsda]

I have recently been trying out the 18 lb hammer spring in a P226 with the short extractor. So far, with about 500 rounds of a mixture of Tula and Blazer Aluminum cased 115, it has been reliable. I have run the 19 lb spring in P226's over the years with no issues. The 18 lb did have ignition issues in a P229 I tried it in. The stock spring is over sprung but is probably one of the reasons that the 226 used to be known as one of the most reliable combat pistols. The gun I'm testing it in is a training gun. I would not go below 19 lb in a carry/HD/Duty gun and I would recommend putting a lot of rounds through that gun before relying upon it. The difference in pull weight between the 18 and 19 lb spring is only marginal and the slight improvement is not worth the risk in my mind.

[TOTS]

Do you know if those statements also apply to 19/20lb springs?

ran a 17 lb in a 229 for a little while. Light strikes on a couple of hard primers during about a hundred rounds. Immediately changed to a 19 lb and have had no problems for just under 7K rnds. Still running it so I don’t see that 19 and up have that problem. I immediately saw it with the 17. BTW, all springs were Wolff.

[taadski]

I’ve had light strike issues across a pretty good assortment of 226s trying to go below 19 lbs. 18s will ignite softer primers pretty consistently (Federal for example), but need to be replaced much more frequently, and will still have issues with your occasional high or hard primer. In the end I wound up sticking with 19s in my Production division guns. And I definitely wouldn’t go under that for a work or carry piece.


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