439 Ammo Question

[bronco45]

Just purchased a blue 439 that has been shot very little and has a bit of bluing missing on the right side of the slide near the muzzle.

Got it OTD for $290. As someone on this forum has been known to say: "Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while."

To the question: I would like to be able to shoot Speer Gold Dot 124gr+Ps as a carry round. Would I need to beef up the recoil springs on this weapon to do this?

I've had 2 39s before but I love this full adjustable rear sight and I will learn to live with the finger hook trigger guard.

 

[bronco45]

Just purchased a blue 439 that has been shot very little and has a bit of bluing missing on the right side of the slide near the muzzle.

Got it OTD for $290. As someone on this forum has been known to say: "Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while."

To the question: I would like to be able to shoot Speer Gold Dot 124gr+Ps as a carry round. Would I need to beef up the recoil springs on this weapon to do this?

I've had 2 39s before but I love this full adjustable rear sight and I will learn to live with the finger hook trigger guard.

 

[Erich]

I would go with a slightly increased power recoil spring for +P ammo. FWIW, when I carried a 439 (back in the '80s - man, I'm old!

), I carried it with 115-gr STHPs.

 

[bronco45]

Thanks for the reply Erich! Me too; I was a plain clothes cop in the 80s and carried a 39-2 with WW Silvertips. Got nervous about 9mm after the FBI shootout with those two hardcases in Miami.

Will contact Brownells gunsmithing and see what they recommend for a "higher power" recoil spring.

You're not old I was commissioned a LEO in 1971. Tht's old.

 

[Erich]

Whoa!

 

[Hoplophile]

The Miami incident had a lot more to do with tactics than equipment.

If we were to follow the Miami lessons to the letter, we'd be carrying Model 13s loaded with 158 gr LHP. (Not a bad choice if you're stuck with a wheel gun, IMHO.)

 

[Erich]

Quite.

 

[cxm]

Quite a few bad conclusions were drawn about the Miami shooting IMHO.

As you say, a lot of agencies dumped the 9mm in the wake of Maimi... an action not really justified by the facts... and ultimately Maimi can be said to have produced the wildly popular .40 S&W round.

The 9mm didn't really do too badly when it hit... but the EDs were pretty highly motivated and had nothing to lose by fighting to the end...

My view of Miami is guns and ammunition got blamed for bad results... results mostly caused by bad tactics, indifferent marksmanship and just plain bad luck.

In Maimi, most of the 9mm shooting was done at a bit longer range than the typical police shooting which probably contributed to the low number of hits. OTOH, at least one of the 9mm hits was a lethal wound even after passing through an arm before entering the ED's body... but it was not quickly lethal.

Ultimately, I see the major difficulty in the Miami shooting to have been shot placement more than anything else.

FWIW

Chuck

Originally posted by bronco45:
Thanks for the reply Erich! Me too; I was a plain clothes cop in the 80s and carried a 39-2 with WW Silvertips. Got nervous about 9mm after the FBI shootout with those two hardcases in Miami.

Will contact Brownells gunsmithing and see what they recommend for a "higher power" recoil spring.

You're not old I was commissioned a LEO in 1971. Tht's old.

 

[bronco45]

That Silvertip 9 penetrated but wasn't immediately lethal. Agent Dove lost his glasses and was out of the fight. Dove was the guy with the 9mm.

Granted when the adrenalin began to flow the Feds plan went out the window. Who hasn't had that happen.
One agent had his 357 on the car seat and it slid off on impact with another vehicle and he couldn't find the weapon and got shot.

But in the end it was Agent Morales with a 12ga Pump and a Model 13 loaded with 158grLSWCHPs that carried the day. My hat will always be off to Agent Morales.

I have used the 124gr Speer+P in a Sig and I liked the bullet weight and the velocity+ the Gold Dot design. Accuracy has always been excellent with Gold Dot products.

 

[BillCa]

I think you'll find that Brownell's will recommend a 16-lb spring (factory is 14-lb). That'll cost you $7.89 from Wolff springs.

My 39-2's are most accurate, it seems, with 115g ammo. My 3914 loves the 124g +P Speer Gold Dots and easily bounces a bowling pin around between 10 and 15 yards.

 

[shawn mccarver]

Originally posted by bronco45:
Just purchased a blue 439 that has been shot very little and has a bit of bluing missing on the right side of the slide near the muzzle.

Got it OTD for $290. As someone on this forum has been known to say: "Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while."

To the question: I would like to be able to shoot Speer Gold Dot 124gr+Ps as a carry round. Would I need to beef up the recoil springs on this weapon to do this?

I've had 2 39s before but I love this full adjustable rear sight and I will learn to live with the finger hook trigger guard.

No, as long as you use standard pressure most of the time and use the +Ps only occasionally. Remember, when you increase the power of the recoil spring, at least a couple of things can get out of time: (1) the slide velocity is increased coming forward which can batter the mechanism and (2) the faster the slide comes forward, the less time the top round has to get up into position to be picked up by the pick up rail of the slide in order to be fed into the magazine. Changing a spring in one place always causes an out-of-time effect somewhere else as the action and all parts of it are timed with certain weight springs at each point. This is one reason I just will not use over powered recoil springs on 1911s. I once knew a guy who thought he was saving his 1911 by putting in a 24 pound recoil spring. He battered it, it was REALLY hard to open the slide and he had all sorts of feeding failures. By changing the recoil spring, he also then had to look at stiffer magazine springs, which put so much upward pressure on his magazine feed lips that he had magazine issues. It went on and on from there. Best to leave the magazine weight issues to the factory engineers to work out. A slight change in weight will probably not cause it to bedome an unreliable piece of junk, but on the other hand, you are taking some of the fudge factor out of the system that is built in to compensate for weakening springs as the pistol gets used. Check and replace the extractor and its system first.