Friends,
Minor rant ahead.
First though, just for clarification, this is in absolutely no way directed towards Jay585. His questions about frame battery and aluminum frames are reasonable and normal. I just get emails about things that it is completely impossible for me to know the answers to, on a regular basis. So I will get into that.
It is really not possible to say what is going to happen when someone uses a product in their firearm. I get multiple emails a week asking if they can run a certain type of ammo in a gun, and what their results will be. Often people want to know what kind of accuracy, how many rounds they can fire, etc. This is in used firearms with a history that is unknown, and a maintenance schedule that is unknown.
Better than 95% of the time when I ask when was the last time they changed a recoil spring, the answer is that they have never changed one. When I ask what the proper recoil spring weight is for their gun, they have no idea. They still want to know exactly how many rounds they can shoot before there will be any issues, if any at all.
That is like asking me to blindly guess how many miles they can drive in their car, with the used tires that are currently on it, over various terrain, before there will be a problem, without ever having seen the tires. Many people assume that if their gun is still functioning, that the springs must be fine, right? That is the same logic as saying as long as my tires are round and black, and have not popped yet, they must be fine, right?
I can say that in reference to aluminum framed 1911s, I have an early 70s Colt lightweight Commander. Maybe it was made in the 60s, can't remember at the moment. I shoot the heavy 250s through it every now and then. In fact this last Friday I was doing ammo development for the poly coated +P 250 load I am working on. I was running test loads through it that were warmer than the standard hard cast 250+P loads currently offered. Prior to going to the range, I inspected it. I could not remember the spring weight, but was guessing it was likely an 18# spring, so to be safe I put in a brand new 20# spring. Pretty big difference just racking the slide. Glad I did too, as shooting the warm test loads with an alloy frame Commander was not fun at all.
Love the gun, but I reserve shooting the Grizzly loads for making sure it is totally reliable, then for carrying on the trail. The rest of the time, I am happy with 200 grain SWCs in that little gun.
https://i.imgur.com/CQFA8OJh.jpg
Ok off the soap box,
and back to our Friend Jay.
I would just say this.
Springs are super cheap. I toss springs very regularly. Buy in bulk to absorb the shipping cost and swap them out frequently. Your guns will thank you for it. Alloy frame guns need lots of lube and fresh springs more than anything. They will take a lot of heavy use if you keep on top of those two things.