Nobody said a spring has to be used "as is". I'm sure that someone with the ability, and not afraid to experiment, can cut a coil or two off of an "overly strong" spring to achieve reliable function while maintaining ease of loading. For the rest I'd suggest you keep sending your pistols in to S&W until they correct the issue, and also add 911 on your phone's speed dial in the mean time.

Personally I don't really care if the EZ is easy to load (I have two Maglula loaders for that issue)...if the gun is not reliable, it's of little value to me... I'd buy these new springs in a heartbeat if they would fix the issue that Smith apparently can't or won't.

I recently came into an S&W 9mm EZ which a friend sold me at a bargain price because he hated it so much. He said the gun printed low left consistently(trigger pull problem) and stove-piped frequently(limp wrist). He tried to trade it off and the dealer wouldn't do it, sooo my door bell rang and I knew he was going to sell it to me. I paid $300. even for a lightly used gun.

I had a pretty good idea what the problems were: poor holding strength, limp wrist, improper sight alignment and trigger pull. He doesn't take well to corrective comments since he can out-shoot me if his gun runs.

I went to an indoor range with an assortment of factory 9mm ammo ranging from 115gr to 147gr. Once I learned what sight alignment shot POA at about 8 yds that problem was solved. My friend uses a cup and saucer hold he learned 40 yrs ago as a deputy sheriff and I hold hard two-hand isosceles which solved stove pipes. The only feeding problems were with Federal 147gr TMJ which is pretty mild and failed to feed the second round. I believe this is caused by mild ammo coupled with pressure on the slide from a full mag. After clearing that second round the rest of the mag fed correctly.

YMMV! I'm only diagnosing the problems with this gun, certain ammo and two guys' shooting style.

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Bob.
SWCA 1821

The new springs from Smith arrived. They are no different from what Smith sent to me last time or the time before that...same weak springs with the yellow paint on the first few coils. Very disappointing that there have been no improvements made to the springs after this long. Truly difficult to understand why it's so hard for Smith to provide a fix for this issue.

Ok, here is my latest idea regarding a potential fix for the magazine issue (until I can find a new, stronger spring to fit the EZ)... I have "double-springed" 4 of my EZ magazines with the weak S&W springs. In other words, I have interlaced two Smith springs in each of the magazines. Capacity of the magazines has been reduced to 7 rounds because of the extra spring taking up room when compressed, but the tension on the follower has increased nicely, especially on the last round. I'll give the magazines a try at the range next week... Certainly this is a bandaid fix, but I'm hopeful this might actually help minimize/eliminate the last live round stovepipe/ejection issue...We'll see.

Christak, Please take notice of how much wider the lips on mags. of the 380 are in comparison to 9mm mags. The EZ 380s ride higher in the mags. than 9mms. do. The 380 EZ also has a shorter area to contain a round in the top of the mag. I am awaiting the results of your double spring trick. Good luck! Quick

I had doubled spring recently, but did not get beyond my workbench. The doubled springs were incredibly strong and seemed to substantially resist feeding snapcaps, resulting in failures to return to battery.

Probably because the real fix involves redesigning the magazine bodies to resemble the 9 EZ items. That's expensive.

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Release the Kraken

Fyi, for results of my range testing see this post...

http://smith-wessonforum.com/140683634-post40.html

Results were very encouraging!