Renewed life in the 6906

[Doc Savage]

Picked up a used 6906 a few years ago and loved it. Houge grips came with it and I like them. Used it as my carry piece and it was reliable to a fault. Ran a few handloads through it that seemed to hang up and keep the gun from fully going to battery. Only had that happen with the handloads, factory ammo was no problem. Well a little while after that I picked up a 4563TSW and retired the 6906 a bit over a year ago.

Wife is interested in picking up her pistol permit so I was pulling out the 6906 for her and took her to the range with it. Noticed even with factory ammo it was having major issues going into battery and even had a few FTE's where it looked like the slide was catching the spent shell before it could get clear. Got it home and checked everything. All looked good, but figured before sending it to a gunsmith, I'd try changing out the recoil spring.

Ordered one from Midway (along with a couple of small reloading parts I've been wanting to make the shipping worth the cost). Got it in and was suprised at the fact that the old spring was about 1/4 inch shorter than the new one. Took it to the range and it ran flawlessly. Seemed to have a slight bit more of a kick to it, but everything was operating perfectly. Nice to have the gun back to the reliability I've come to expect of 3rd gen Smiths.

 

[mlk18]

Sounds like that recoil spring was over due for replacement. The first thing I do when I buy a used 3rd Gen is replace the recoil spring. You can experiment with different weight springs to reduce felt recoil. Glad you got it taken care of and have the 6906 back in service. I am betting it will serve your wife nicely.

 

[SMSgt]

New springs are almost always longer than used ones, which take a "set" from being slightly compress when installed. That is not an issue in itself.