This is derived from a collection of notes and posts I've made over the years on the subject of,
ack!, full-length recoil spring guide rods and other accessories in that area of the Colt's/Browning pattern pistol. I was one day going to make a
TGZ page out of it in a "primer" series I've been working on, but this is as good a place as any for a "core dump."
I admit to be nauseatingly predictable in this regard… full-length guide rods as replacements for factory non-full-length guide rods offer no practical benefit. In well-made self-loading pistols, recoil springs simply do
not "kink," as CeePee has already noted.
After-market recoil arresters or dampeners are a gimmicky accessory of dubious value and a lazy man's attempt to avoid learning and practicing the proper technique!
An
F³* x-purt once tried selling the notion:
A FLGR is an improvement to the 1911, but a small one. It makes the action a bit smoother, probably helps (in a small way) prevent the spring from getting weakened by "kinking," and puts a little extra weight out front.
Well, I guess if you "think" it helps you, then you probably will be helped… but, really, how much is that "extra weight?" And every time I hear that "K" word in this context, I am reminded of Jeff Cooper's API250 lecture on hardware in which he discussed full-length recoil spring guide rods and dismissed them with a solitary deadpan comment:
"They" say it prevents "kinking…" [pause] Imagine that."
Just so!
The argument is often made that:
Lots of custom guns come with them as standard issue and they don't seem to have any bad side-effects aside from being somewhat more difficult to disassemble.
'Smiths, and especially that appalling sub-species known as "parts-changers," make money on selling parts… hell, that's all the parts-changers really do.
But long before I ever heard Cooper's lecture, I'd made an informed decision that they weren't a good idea on a "working gun." The number of FLGR-enabled 1911-pattern pistols I've seen fail on my
home range during defensive pistolcraft courses instructed by John Farnam, Ken Hackathorn and Pat Rogers, had made a significant impression on me… especially since the removal of same invariably remedied the problem… well before I ever attended Gunsite where the walls of the
Donga were virtually littered with such accessories. (Places like Gunsite and Thunder Ranch are incredible proving grounds for one's equipment in additional to their obvious instructional value.)
A full-length recoil-spring guide-rod only buggers your pistol unless it is properly set up in a manner than no parts-changers and few kitchen-table do-it-yourselfers can do. And therein lies a crucial element of the FLGR "mystique." It is something the tyro can do on his own to add a distinctive "custom touch" to his new, non-Kimber, non-Charles Daly blaster, that little something extra that allows him to not only swagger a bit at the range, but help him get the girls.
And, as y'all may have noticed, competitive shooters like Robbie Leatham, Doug Koenig, Jerry Barnhart,
et al, all have properly set-up pistols!
The comment about "more difficult to disassemble" is curious. I have one FLGR in my battery, and that on a Caspian/Schuemann Hybrid slide which Jack Weigand fitted to "Rod, the Wonder Pistol" back in '91 as part of a "two-guns-in-one" project we were doing. It makes slide-swapping very easy… detail stripping, of course, is another issue altogether.
In my mind full-length recoil spring guide rods on non-race 1911s are like extended slide stops. Of no discernible benefit, and plenty of down sides! I'm with CeePee on this one… I'm just not as succinct about it.
I think Charlie's recollection of the Kimber comment is instructive… and not for nuthin', but that "added value" phrase is identical to what Charles Daly-owner Michael Kassner used in defending his own decision to incorporate same into his 1911 line.
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