Rich Miranda
New member
I ordered a Wolff recoil spring to replace the one in my Ruger P89. The reason I did so was because compared to my other P89 (I have two), this one's slide would move more slowly, take longer to cycle, and occasionally "bottom out" during cycling.
I was almost certain the spring was not worn out as the gun looks excellent and shows no other obvious wear (though I suppose the recoil spring would be the first item to wear out, right?). And I have no way to tell if the spring was stock or not. The only other thing I could imagine was that the spring had been swapped out to a lower-power (weaker) spring at some point. I bought the gun used so anything is a possibility.
Anyhoo, the Wolff spring I bought is a 12-lb. "Extra-Power" version. I installed it today at the range. I tried shooting the gun both before and after the install, so that I could really get a good gauge for the difference. The difference is significant: recoil seems much reduced, as does muzzle flip. The gun feels like it cycles faster, making for faster follow-up shots. Even accuracy seems to have improved, though the gun was decently accurate before. The gun ran through about 100 WWB with no hiccups, so I'm guessing reliability is unaffected (this is a range gun, not an HD or CCW gun).
My question is: are my impressions accurate? Does a better recoil spring really improve all of the items I mentioned?
I was almost certain the spring was not worn out as the gun looks excellent and shows no other obvious wear (though I suppose the recoil spring would be the first item to wear out, right?). And I have no way to tell if the spring was stock or not. The only other thing I could imagine was that the spring had been swapped out to a lower-power (weaker) spring at some point. I bought the gun used so anything is a possibility.
Anyhoo, the Wolff spring I bought is a 12-lb. "Extra-Power" version. I installed it today at the range. I tried shooting the gun both before and after the install, so that I could really get a good gauge for the difference. The difference is significant: recoil seems much reduced, as does muzzle flip. The gun feels like it cycles faster, making for faster follow-up shots. Even accuracy seems to have improved, though the gun was decently accurate before. The gun ran through about 100 WWB with no hiccups, so I'm guessing reliability is unaffected (this is a range gun, not an HD or CCW gun).
My question is: are my impressions accurate? Does a better recoil spring really improve all of the items I mentioned?