How to properly "SPRING" a EAA Witness

[bobclevenger]

No, the only .40 I own is the small frame Witness Compact. It came with a single recoil spring
My 10mm came with dual recoil springs.

Sounds very frustrating.

[mrmackc]

Bob, Thanks for the interest, and the large frame Witness (your 10 mm) has the dual springs, and it is working fine?  If you know or get a chance let me know how long the dual springs are on the 10 mm and the number of coils each has. I will measure the ones on my pistol, and post that info.

I intend to take some pictures of the recoil system soon and post them so the Witness  But now that I have the springs cut to a length that will allow the slide to go back to latch the slide with the manual slide stop, and the slide works smoothly.  when the slide latch is released the slide goes into battery with a lot of force and the recoil springs do have a goodly amount of tension on the slide to hold it closed with the barrel well locked, It still takes a lot of pulling to cock the hammer unless I cock it first,  The hammer in full cock is pushed down more past full cock.  I suppose that is necessary in order for the hammer to engage the sear. Next is a trip to the range. We lost our local indoor range and I now have to drive 40 miles to the next one. It is run by an old  jerk that is even more grouchy and older than me, I'm 79.

[bobclevenger]

The factory outer spring for my 10mm Compact measures 5.15" long at rest and has 23 coils. Wire diameter is 0.0315". Spring outer diameter is 0.3955".
The factory inner spring measures 3.54" long and also has 23 coils. Wire diameter is also 0.0315". Spring outer diameter is 0.3245".

The pistol worked fine with these springs, but I changed them to get more protection against slide to frame hammering.

[mrmackc]

Great service Bob, Thanks a Brazillion! (how ever much a Brazillion is)
These numbers compare favorable to my .40 S&W Witness compac. your springs are close to 1/4 inch shorter than mine are after cutting off 4.5 coils from each spring. If need be I think I can cut them back to 23 coils without causing a problem.

The 10 mm is a bit more stout a round as far as I can determine, again, THANKS!

[bobclevenger]

Glad I could help. Yes, the 10mm is significantly stouter than the .40 S&W. I get a 135 gr. JHP moving out at 1600 fps at 10 feet from the muzzle of my compact. That's about 700 ft.-lbs. For some reason it sounds like you got sent the wrong spring set. Wolff should send you the correct one.

[mrmackc]

I looked up some info on differences in 10 mm and.40 S&W the Federal tables show muzzle velocith for 180gr. Federal MV to be 1030 for 10mm and 1000 for .40  Federal didn't  show muzzle energy

I intend to check Woolf's web page for more spring kits.  Thanks again

[bobclevenger]

A lot of factory loads for the 10mm are downloaded. The original Norma spec. for the 10mm was a 200 gr. bullet at 1200 fps. That was a bit optimistic, but not much.

[mrmackc]

Wolff does not sell a Dual recoil spring set for a Witness compac pistol.

[bobclevenger]

That's true. They sell -- or at least they used to sell -- a single spring for the Witness Compact. I used this at one time and it worked OK. I tried 18-20 lb. springs. That's one of the reasons I am using the DPM unit now.

[mrmackc]

I got a set of springs from Wolff and tried the 18# single spring. It needed some sort of bushing to take up the slack from the space used by the inner spring on the action spring rod, as the single spring was too large in diameter for the dual spring rod.

[jwc007]

I got a set of springs from Wolff and tried the 18# single spring. It needed some sort of bushing to take up the slack from the space used by the inner spring on the action spring rod, as the single spring was too large in diameter for the dual spring rod.

Measure the diameter of your Recoil Spring Guide Rod and call Wolf for the correct or most similar spring that can be adapted.

[bobclevenger]

I got a set of springs from Wolff and tried the 18# single spring. It needed some sort of bushing to take up the slack from the space used by the inner spring on the action spring rod, as the single spring was too large in diameter for the dual spring rod.

Measure the diameter of your Recoil Spring Guide Rod and call Wolf for the correct or most similar spring that can be adapted.

That should not be a problem. The guide rods for the dual springs and the single springs are the same. It doesn't need to be a close fit diametrically.

[mrmackc]

OK, just seemed to be a misfit, compared to how the Colt 1911 series 70 recoil spring fits.

[billthemarine2862]

Just want to say I am a proud new owner of a Stock 3 Elite in .45 ACP. This thread has been an amazing tool for my upgrades.  There is so little information out there specific to the.45 variant.  This thread really answered many of the questions I had where the solution used for a 9mm just won't work for the 45 version.
Thanks
Bill

[notjustanothermini]

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