Came across an interesting question/answer on the Brownell's site. According to the tech, Para recommends that the "outer" spring be replaced every 800 rounds, no word on whether the whole assembly ever needs replacing. My guess is that the outer carries the brunt of the recoil. Being as the inner spring assembly is $31 by itself, that's a relief if it's true. Can someone confirm this information. Also, the Para part number for the outer spring is 0430004, anyone know how many pounds it's rated for? Thanks.
My CCO (3.5" "Officer's" sized LDA gun) came with this spring set:
(OK, this is the spare set I got from Brownells.)
At the time, Para was recommending changing out the entire assembly - the springs, the guide rod, that sleeve the larger spring rides on, and the little forward bushing. Their rationale was that the other parts took enough wear that it was just simpler.... The inner spring can't be removed anyway, so.... About $30.
First I've heard about just swapping the outer spring (it can't be $30 by itself - five bucks?), although the smaller guns apparently (before my time) used more Browning-style spring setups. I wonder if somebody got confused when you asked.
Can't say about the spring weights....
(The whole assembly has to be more than 24#, but that's just a guess, and when working with a dual spring setup, the math is different. And guess who forgot all that stuff about 40 years ago.... )
Don't skimp on spring replacement, but it's OK to use slightly lighter loads for the range - my preference is a 200GR lead SWC - which can raise the round count because you're not beating on it as much. The POI/POA won't be that far apart for SD purposes.
I have a 4" Kimber Compact Custom, which is essentially the same "Officer's" gun that is also rated at 800 rounds. It uses a single "large" spring on an integral guide rod. Same idea, but the spring can be replaced by itself (the rest of the parts are quite solid enough) for $5-$10. You need some courage, safety glasses, and perhaps a tool once you figure out what's involved, but it's easily replaced. In this case, at about 400 rounds, the slide would come back by itself when there was no casing in the chamber to retard it. The thing was about as soft as a cheap ballpoint pen spring! I wondered why it was clanking while being fired. When I noticed that, I put in a new spring (I had ordered one from Wolff to pad out a prior order), and all was well.
According to Brownells: "This assembly only is currently being shipped from Para-Ordnance with one spring (the inner), the stock number for the outer spring is 199-000-111." Kind of weird that Para would stop shipping a whole assembly. I'm still waiting for Para to get back to me on this one.
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