Sorry, no.

If the spring is fully collapsed before the slide hits the big U, the recoil force is applied through the rear end of the guide rod to those tabs which are not intended to take an impact. Instead of a spring we have, in effect, a solid cylinder.

If you look at prior posts some folks have reported that an aftermarket spring stopped the slide movement 1/16" less than when a factory spring is installed. This indicates that the spring is no longer acting as a spring, it's acting like a solid cylinder. So, instead of the slide being stopped by that beefy U, the slide is stopped by bashing the tabs, and ultimately that "takedown bar".

You will see the original failures which are reported are a bashed up or even a fallen takedown bar, in some cases the slide came off. In at least one other report the metal guide rod rear end was bashed up, apparently by hitting the takedown bar. You will also see posts which say that just one tab had failed, apparently on the way to the full failure.

I hope this makes sense. If you have a question, just scan through the posts and you will see that, taken as a whole, they point to the process described above.

This is first described in post 20. Subsequent posts include some measurements and other observations and some of my posts ask questions I need not have asked if I had looked more carefully at my own gun.