Something I noticed with Springs.

I believe I've stumbled onto something with springs and accuracy. Perhaps I'm crazy. Perhaps this idea can be proven with a ransom rest by someone here. I do not own a ransom rest. Although I know someone here locally that has one so maybe I'll get around to this project some day. But to get on with it...

I was shooting my Nelson Custom Guns conversion unit in the 22 agg of a local monthly 2700 two weeks ago. My three slow fires were a pair of 96's and a 99 in that order. I posted a picture of the 99 already in another thread. But through out my first target I had a couple of jams. I began to worry and hope that my bad luck with reliability was limited to those 10 shots. Not so. During my second target yet again I had a couple more malfunctions. It dawned on me that I was running my nine pound factory recoil spring instead of the eight pound lighter recoil spring that I should have been using for the CCI Standard Velocity I was shooting. I was shooting High Velocity stuff the day before and forgot to change springs. To add another detail I use a 20 pound hammer spring. Most I hear use 18, or 19 pounds. This is a detail I will come back around to. 

So I dug out my eight pound recoil spring and at the end of my third slow fire target I switched. A task that took only a moment. I was done shooting before many and had time to take care of the switch. During the rest of the 22 agg, the sustained fire targets, I had no malfunctions and ended with an 883. A new personal best.

It wasn't until after the match that I thought back on the details of the match. My personal best at 50 yards. Was I shooting better or did I gain or retain a little bit of accuracy by using the heavier spring at 50 yards?

Thinking on this I was reminded of my Springfield Armory Range Officer (before I turned it into a dedicated 22). Stock from the factory the use of lighter hammer springs and lighter recoil springs showed horrible accuracy at 50 yards. Noticeable by my own hand, not a rest. Shots weren't anywhere near to call. With the heavy factory springs back in the gun accuracy returned. And then I was reminded again of a friend that reversed the gas block on his AR rifle effectively turning it into a single shot or bolt action like rifle and not a semi automatic. Accuracy from the bench at 100 yards increased noticeably. 

The theory or idea to this is to keep the gun in battery as long as possible. What happens - I think, I'm not educated on this so correct me if you know better - is that there is too much bleed of gasses or pressure out the back end when the gun comes out of battery too fast. Slowing it down or keeping it in battery longer could allow more pressure to go down the barrel and push the bullet. Perhaps it becomes more consistent? Maybe a better burn rate? I do not know. But I KNOW there is something to be gained by slowing down the slide. Perhaps stoping it from coming back all together for the use of a slow fire target. 

I mentioned I use a 20 pound hammer spring in the Nelson Conversion Unit lower. The 20 pounder gives me extra assurance (peace of mind) that I'm getting a hard enough hit to detonate. But it also seems to slow the slide down some. More so than an 18 or 19 pound hammer spring would I'm guessing. There is even a difference in felt recoil between 20 pounds, 19 and 18 pounds. So with a nine pound recoil spring I have no reliability. But an eight pound recoil spring works great. 

Is there a big accuracy advantage between one pound difference in recoil springs? I don't know. But it's something in my spare time in the future I plan to toy with. I want to ransom rest test one ammunition, with different poundage hammer springs, and recoil springs, and list them out with group sizes in excel. I'd be curious to see the results.

I am still using the recoil spring that came in the Nelson and have a shoot tomorrow I sure hope it goes well.  One thing I have noticed is that the first 5 rounds I get some feeding problems that causes me to have to drop the mag to clear and then reload.  Not a real problem in SF as the club shoot is 10 rounds in 5 minutes but there is still time.  As long as I can keep my cool.  Then the gun runs fine the rest of the time.  It don't seam like it matters what ammo I am using she just needs to warn up I guess.  I will make sure to get at least 5 dry fires in maybe that will help.  I have a RR maybe I will see if the RS makes a difference.  I don't have a good bench to use it from so I just been benchresting for groups.  Don

A slight advantage to the heavier hammer spring may be quicker lock time.