When to change springs

Semi automatic and single shot handguns, revolvers and other pistols

When to change springs

Post by Macross » 23 Jun 2020, 8:42 am

Have had my first pistol for almost a year now. CZ Shadow 2. Been shooting every week since October with roughly 150ish rounds through it each week. That comes out to about 5700 rounds. How do you know when to change out the springs... what should I be looking for as signs the original ones are starting to wear out?
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Re: When to change springs

Post by No1_49er » 23 Jun 2020, 10:51 am

Why would you be thinking that the springs may be "weakening" after ~6,000 rounds, especially in a pistol that holds some pretty good credibility?

Consider this.
If you own a vehicle that uses an internal combustion engine, do yourself a rough calculation of how many times the valve springs are compressed and relaxed. I recently sold a Holden Commodore powered by a 3.8 litre V6 which had been driven over 450,000km and had never required any engine internal repair. Peripherals yes, but not the "big bit". Tired springs? I doubt it. Not much more than 20 minutes of highway driving.
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Re: When to change springs

Post by Macross » 23 Jun 2020, 11:44 am

Good point... perhaps not needed any time soon, but was wondering about it after reading online about people swapping out springs after 'X' amount of rounds. Just not sure what the life span on recoil spring would be... 10, 20, 30, 80,000 rounds??? or what the signs are that they are starting to wear out.... first pistol, hence asking the questions.
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Re: When to change springs

Post by spEKTre » 23 Jun 2020, 11:58 am

When you throw the barrel out :) you will probably wear out the lockup lugs on the barrel before you need to even look at changing your spring.
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Re: When to change springs

Post by Kimbocv8 » 24 Jul 2020, 3:21 pm

Watch where your cases are ending up when you are shooting. Ideally they should be landing 6-8 feet away as a rough guide. Any more than that then your spring is on the light side and any less then your spring could go lighter. Of course this all depends on the ammunition you are using also, Try to use the same ammo every time which will help you setup your gun to shoot consistently. FWIW, I have been told the SP01s come with a fairly heavy spring out of the box (upwards of 18lb) and I know Production shooters who run 11lb springs in their guns.
Once you have the correct spring sorted you can then keep an eye on what your cases are doing to judge if you need to replace the spring - when you notice they are landing farther away than normal - that's when you should consider replacing. Shooting minor you will need to replace a lot less often than someone shooting Open @ 170+pf. If you are only shooting a few thousand a year then it will be some time before you will need to worry about replacing, if at all.
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Re: When to change springs

Post by Oldbloke » 24 Jul 2020, 10:17 pm

Springs basically never wear out. The car was a good example.
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