Ruger 1911 9mm Commander

FPrice

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I purchased a Ruger 1911 9mm Commander a few months ago, shot it once then put it away while I concentrated on other things. Shortly after I bought it I took advantage of an offer from Ruger to purchase some parts at reduced prices. One of these parts was a replacement recoil spring.

Fast forward to yesterday when I took it out for more range time. The recoil seemed to be more than a 9mm should have. Brought it home and took it apart to clean. I also ran across the bag of parts I bought and took a look at the recoil spring. The original spring that came with the gun is almost two inches shorter than the replacement.

I thought I had heard somewhere, maybe the defunct Ruger Firearms Owners forum, that the factory installed spring was under-powered to accommodate the wide variety of 9mm ammo out there.

Any comments from other owners of this model?

I am thinking of ordering a Wolff Spring kit for the 1911 9mm Commander to see how that spring stacks up.
 
I have many different spring setups for the .45 and 9mm 1911's. All depends on what I'm shooting through them. Are you putting just factory stuff through it? Light hand loads? Tune the gun to what you'll be doing with it. I have only Gov't size 1911's so I'm not sure what factory power springs go in a commander length gun.
 
If you look in the Ruger parts catalog, the only spring listed is an 18lb spring for a 5 inch gun, with a notation that it does not fit Commander. Maybe check the part # against that. It does indeed have a little more recoil, or maybe muzzle jump than a 5'' steel gun in 9mm because the gun so light. I also find you have to concentrate a little more on a clean trigger pull due to the light weight. I would suggest shooting it the way it came out of the box for a bit. Mine functions quite well with the factory spring.
 
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if trying to gauge the overall slide strength on a 1911 one must rack the slide with the hammer down, not cocked. unlike a striker gun where most resistance to slide travel is from slide weight and recoil spring, a hammer fired gun like a 1911 includes the hammer spring. the hammer spring strength is further augmented by the moment arm (distance from point of force on firing pin stop to the point of hammer rotation). most 1911's use a curved firing pin stop to help make the hammer rack easier.

anyway don't make any assessments about the 1911 based on recoil spring. drop the hammer and then try racking the slide. that's the tension the slide has to overcome every time round is fired. it's probably fine especially for a 9mm chambering.
 
I have fired mine with WWB, federal AE, Fiocchi, Hornandy Critical Defence and Federal Hydra Shocks with not one issue. All those loads were either 115gr or 124gr. It's gobbled up my reloads as well which are 4.2gr Titegroup under a 124gr FMJ. Been very happy with this pistol! Recoil really doesn't seem abnormal to me either, in fact I find this gun quite pleasant to shoot.
 
I like to break 1911 recoil into two sections. First does it allow for reliable function. It must run. Second is recoil spring weight. I usually judge this not with a scale, but how far the brass ejects from the pistol. If the rounds are flying more than four feet away or just dribbling out of the slide it calls for an adjustment. Not all springs are created equal and just because the package says one thing does not always pan out. Most people are under the impression the recoil spring dampens recoil, not so in the 1911, it's main function is to load the next round. The main spring and hammer dampen the felt recoil more. Too heavy a recoil spring and the rounds will not eject well and you will get muzzle dip on reloading during the cycle. To really tune. A1911 I use a kit of spring in 1 pound graduations, but test with a specific bullet weight since this can change the recoil, ditto for power factors. So. A well tuned 1911 can take a bit of time and effort.
 
I finally ordered some Wolff springs, partly to have some backups for my other 1911s and to see what the Colt Commander 9mm spring looked like. I ordered a commander full power and reduced power springs to compare them. Wolff's recommendation for a full power 9mm Colt Commander spring was 1 lb less than the full power version. When they arrived the first thing I noticed was that the reduced power spring was almost an inch longer than the full power spring. After pondering this for a while I emailed Wolff to find out why this apparent mis-match. Here is their response:

Mr. Price,

Thank you for your email.

When we making different weight springs for a particular gun, the first thing that is often changed in the wire size. The second thing that changes is the free length. There are many situations like the Commander 16 and 18 Lb springs where the lighter spring is physically longer than the heavier spring. In the case of these 2 springs there is a 0.003” difference in wire size. The lighter spring length is balanced with the wire size to provide the rating specified. In this case the 16 Lb spring is required to be physically longer than the 18 Lb spring to produce 16 Lbs at the working length of the spring in the gun. If the wire sizes were the same in both springs, then the lighter spring would definitely be shorter, but would then not provide the required battery pressure on the slide.

The Ruger SR1911 Commander uses a Commander spring bit I am not sure of the weight.

Thank you

W. C. Wolff
W. C. Wolff Company
 
Another update:

I just received the latest edition of American Handgunner. There was a letter in the Speakout section from another recent Ruger 9mm SR1911 owner who reported the same problem. He stated that he had contacted Ruger about this. Supposedly Ruger confirmed that the 9mm Commander shipped with a 10 pound spring and that they did not sell replacement recoil springs for this version. He then contacted Wolff Springs and "...they advised that I should work up the recoil spring weight until I experienced malfunctions , then back off 2 pounds and that should be the correct weight." Remarkably similar to Greg Derr's advice above.

My current factory spring throws the ejected shells a good 8' or so at about 4 o'clock. I am going to try the 15 pound spring and see if that works reliably.
 
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