I posted this on another forum too. I bought a S&W 1911TA this weekend and I shot a 100 rounds of WWB, a 100 rounds of AE and a 50 round box of Federal Tactical Bonded +P. I really want to LOVE this gun, but I feel like I can get more out of it. What kind of minor upgrades can I make to it, i.e. recoil springs/poundage and such? I felt like it was very snappy for a full size steel 1911. I regularly shoot an M&P 45C and quite honestly feel like it's a lot smoother - maybe its me though! Does anyone know what spring poundage Smith uses on these TA's? I'm not entirely new to 1911s, but one thing I noticed was that the spring was really tough to get off the rod. It kind of tapers at the end and is a really tight fit.

Now, this is the part that concerned me the most. I've been researching this gun for the past month and one of the things I kept seeing was about Wilson 47D magazine issues. I ended up grabbing a 7 round 47C mag to try out to see for my self. The magazine and the stock magazines worked flawlessly with WWB. When I started shooting the Federal +P with the Wilson mag, I started to notice an issue - the slide stop traveled out and caused the slide to lock into place, after the last round had been fired.

This same problem occurred again with the AE ammo. At that point I decided to call it at a day with that mag and went back to the two ACT (I think?) mags. Those mags worked very well and there was no issues at all. Not sure if this is a fluke thing with the Wilson mags or if I should just replace the slide stop with another. If that's the case - which should I get?

Thanks!

The only thing I would do is shoot the heck out of it. My e-series was a bit tight at first but has broken in to a great 1911. Best of luck and hope it works out.

I would suggest not shooting +P ammo the advantage is minimal at best and the recoil makes it really not worth it.

I have shot for over 50 years and shot all kinds of calibers, rounds and +P.

IMHO +P is just a hot round and not much fun to shoot.

It's tight on the guide rod for a reason. You will notice that one end is smaller than the other so it stay in place on the rod.

It will be easier to remove if you turn the spring while you are taking it off.
Just turn it the right way.

It wouldn't hurt to deburr the inside end of the spring as well.

Bob