P64 spring choice

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set2992hg
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P64 spring choice

Post by set2992hg »

How about some help guys. Picked up an awesome P64 recently. Love the gun but want to replace the recoil and hammer springs for the obvious reasons. Wolf offers recoil springs in 20 and 22 pound and hammer springs in 17, 18, 19, and 20 pound. Whats the best combo? I know many will say its personal taste, but come on, give me the real scoop with what people are actually running and how they like it. Thanks in advance and I'm really glad I found this site!!!
manicmechanic
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P64 spring choice

Post by manicmechanic »

Welcom set2992hg!
I run the 22# recoil and the 20# hammer in mine. I may try a 19# hammer later, but I've had good results with the other set up so far.
barnett3006
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P64 spring choice

Post by barnett3006 »

Welcome to the club!

I run the 22# recoil and 20# hammer spring in mine aswell. I have not tried nor do I plan on trying different springs, I just like this combo to much to try anything else.
davebaird
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P64 spring choice

Post by davebaird »

I went 20/20 and am pretty happy. If it wasn't for my older hands having more and more trouble opening smaller pistols I might have tried a 22 recoil. But.... >:(
doyle
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P64 spring choice

Post by doyle »

I went 20/18 in my first P-64. It loved that combination. In my 2nd P-64, the 18lb mainspring was still too much for a good trigger pull so I had to drop down to a 17lb.
olympus
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P64 spring choice

Post by olympus »

So since I'm a newb, I'll ask my questions in this thread instead of waiting until my pistol comes in and asking the same questions again.

I've looked at the Wolff website and from what I understand, the number of the spring is the poundage, correct? So a #20 spring would be a 20 pound spring, and so on. So then if we're talking about the recoil spring on the gun, the bigger the number, the heavier the spring and the heavier the spring, the more recoil that the spring absorbs, which should reduce felt recoil? Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's just how my mind reasons it out.

And the hammer spring should be the opposite then. Since the DA pull is so hard, that would indicate a heavy spring. So in order to lighten the DA pull, I would use a lighter spring which would make the trigger easier to pull? Am I getting any of this right or am I way off?
Last edited by olympus on December 2nd, 2008, 1:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
manicmechanic
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P64 spring choice

Post by manicmechanic »

You got it oly!
olympus
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P64 spring choice

Post by olympus »

Alright I just wanted to make sure. So what are the limitations of this? By that I mean, how stiff of a recoil spring can a person use before it's too stiff to let the slide cycle back and eject the case?

And by the same token, what the lightest hammer spring you can get before you start encountering problems there (don't really know what problems a too light hammer spring would cause).
set2992hg
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P64 spring choice

Post by set2992hg »

Thanks for all the great advice guys. If anyone else still wants to chime in with their thoughts I'm all ears. Thanks again!
davebaird
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P64 spring choice

Post by davebaird »

The stiffest recoil spring from Wolff is a 22 pound. That would lighten the recoil the most possible. The let-down is that some have had trouble re-installing the slide and need to file some off the spring.

The lightest hammer spring from Wolff is a 17 pound. That would lighten the trigger pull the most possible. The let-down is that since the spring also doubles as the magazine release some people have had their mags drop out the bottom of the gun when firing.

Dave
olympus
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P64 spring choice

Post by olympus »

How hard is it to file a little off the end of the spring? Is it that big of a deal that I'd want to consider the #20 instead? And on the hammer spring, would the #18 be stiff enough to not have problems with the mag falling out?
davebaird
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P64 spring choice

Post by davebaird »

I would doubt it would be that big of a problem to file down the 22 recoil spring. But, I just prefer not to do that myself. But, that's only me.

One fella did say that his mag dropped out using a 18 hammer spring. It was only one fella, but enough for me to use the 20.

JMHO!! Dave
manicmechanic
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P64 spring choice

Post by manicmechanic »

Getting the ends of the recoil spring flat like the original spring is really pretty simple. Just keep it cool and work slowly so the spring doesn't overheat. I used a dremel with a cutoff wheel and used it like a surface grinder and dipped it into a little container of ATF fluid to keep it cool. Then after matching the look of the original spring, took a round file to debur the inner and outer edges to get rid of the sharp edges.
Some slides don't even require the spring end modification, but two of my four have.
Here's a link to how Norm shows it being done.
http://p64.proboards67.com/index.cgi?bo ... hread=1218
olympus
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P64 spring choice

Post by olympus »

Thanks for the link with the picture! I didn't think it would have been too big of a deal. I could probably use a bench-mounted belt sander and flatten it out if I needed to.
03a3
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P64 spring choice

Post by 03a3 »

Good info, and a great site you have here. I just found this place yesterday and I'm glad of it.
Last month I picked up a nice P-64. I was looking for a Makarov at the time. I had never heard of a P-64 but I liked what I saw.
The trigger on mine is in need of attention. Thanks to you all I now know how to proceed.
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