I put a set of Sprinco nested recoil springs in my 457 some time ago, but winter kept me from getting it to the range then. It was on my list with about a dozen other guns for range time when the weather broke and today was it's turn along with my 64-6 3".
I set up my standard 9" paper plate tactical targets at about 25 feet. The first shot from the 457 was almost dead center. Great, but from there it went downhill. The rest of the rounds all went low and left. Now, I tend to shoot left anyway, it's something I'm constantly working on with only partial success. This was worse however.
I move to a 10 foot target and after a couple of magazines, my accuracy improved. I think I was flinching a bit in anticipation of the recoil, which is strange. The 457 isn't very recoil intensive, so that shouldn't be happening.
I thought that maybe there was some issue with the recoil spring, but that makes not even a little bit of sense. I still think it's me, not the gun.
A couple of weird things happened. I was using an UPLULA to load the magazines and I was popping rounds in pretty quickly.
I was using an open box of WWB 230gr range ammo. The open part might be relevant. Anyway, about five magazines in a round went bang, but wouldn't extract. Great, I've broken the gun. I carefully pushed the empty casing out of the chamber and looked at it. I was bulged and split. Really, great, something went wrong with the gun and now it's likely to be junk.
Sigh.
Then I looked at the casing very carefully. It was a .40 S&W, not a .45ACP.
How did that happen? I don't own a .40 S&W gun and haven't in about 6 or 7 years. I had a Glock 23 and never liked the snappy recoil. So, it's not like I mixed the ammo up. It's also a Winchester round and what are the odds of that happening.
I really don't know how a 40 round got into the box, but I'm pretty sure that I didn't put it in there.
I looked the gun over and all seemed OK, so I loaded up more magazines and continued shooting.
Gradually, my point of impact started to pretty closely match my point of aim. That's progress and tells me that once every two years is not enough to shoot that nice 457. Point noted.
There was one other episode of weirdness. Twice the last round in the magazine loaded, but the gun didn't go back into battery. Hmmm. Once was definitely with a yellow follower magazine, the other time I'm not sure. Again, I don't think this is recoil spring related, but would like to hear some thoughts on that.
Oh, I field stripped the gun and launched the recoil guide about 20 feet downrange. Which wouldn't be funny except I found it when the range went cold. Whew.
When I got home I stripped and cleaned the gun and it sure seemed dry. I have to wonder if the last time I cleaned it, I just forgot to lube the slide and barrel lug. That would seem to explain the not going into battery problem. At least it would seem so. I made sure to lube it this time.
Predictably, I lost the Springco instructions. Can someone tell me which way the blue end of the springs goes? I think that's the wider end and goes towards the muzzle, but I could use some confirmation. Or correction.
I have a picture of the bulged and split .40 case if anyone wants me to post it.
I set up my standard 9" paper plate tactical targets at about 25 feet. The first shot from the 457 was almost dead center. Great, but from there it went downhill. The rest of the rounds all went low and left. Now, I tend to shoot left anyway, it's something I'm constantly working on with only partial success. This was worse however.
I move to a 10 foot target and after a couple of magazines, my accuracy improved. I think I was flinching a bit in anticipation of the recoil, which is strange. The 457 isn't very recoil intensive, so that shouldn't be happening.
I thought that maybe there was some issue with the recoil spring, but that makes not even a little bit of sense. I still think it's me, not the gun.
A couple of weird things happened. I was using an UPLULA to load the magazines and I was popping rounds in pretty quickly.
I was using an open box of WWB 230gr range ammo. The open part might be relevant. Anyway, about five magazines in a round went bang, but wouldn't extract. Great, I've broken the gun. I carefully pushed the empty casing out of the chamber and looked at it. I was bulged and split. Really, great, something went wrong with the gun and now it's likely to be junk.
Sigh.
Then I looked at the casing very carefully. It was a .40 S&W, not a .45ACP.
How did that happen? I don't own a .40 S&W gun and haven't in about 6 or 7 years. I had a Glock 23 and never liked the snappy recoil. So, it's not like I mixed the ammo up. It's also a Winchester round and what are the odds of that happening.
I really don't know how a 40 round got into the box, but I'm pretty sure that I didn't put it in there.
I looked the gun over and all seemed OK, so I loaded up more magazines and continued shooting.
Gradually, my point of impact started to pretty closely match my point of aim. That's progress and tells me that once every two years is not enough to shoot that nice 457. Point noted.
There was one other episode of weirdness. Twice the last round in the magazine loaded, but the gun didn't go back into battery. Hmmm. Once was definitely with a yellow follower magazine, the other time I'm not sure. Again, I don't think this is recoil spring related, but would like to hear some thoughts on that.
Oh, I field stripped the gun and launched the recoil guide about 20 feet downrange. Which wouldn't be funny except I found it when the range went cold. Whew.
When I got home I stripped and cleaned the gun and it sure seemed dry. I have to wonder if the last time I cleaned it, I just forgot to lube the slide and barrel lug. That would seem to explain the not going into battery problem. At least it would seem so. I made sure to lube it this time.
Predictably, I lost the Springco instructions. Can someone tell me which way the blue end of the springs goes? I think that's the wider end and goes towards the muzzle, but I could use some confirmation. Or correction.
I have a picture of the bulged and split .40 case if anyone wants me to post it.
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