Wilson Combat is pushing their flat wire recoil springs and magazines a lot lately. My only use of flat wire's has been in Commander length guns using buffers. Has any one tried their flat wire mags. If so, can you tell any difference.

I use the Wilson #47 mag and I don't think it has a flat wire in the mag. I did order the flat wire in my new Wilson Classic and I like the flat wire. I also use a shock buffer in the Wilson as it came with one. The Wilson works as smooth as silk. I've now fired about 650 rounds in that Wilson.

BTW: I do notice the difference between a standard wire and a flat wire when I rack back the slide.

Smoother?

More even loading?

I find that the slide racks back smoother. It starts out hard but than goes back real easy rather than starting out hard and stacking up like the standard spring. The flat wire operates more like a compound bow if you understand how they operate.

Yep,the 460 Rowland Hunter is smooth but it did not come with the flat spring. It is close to be broken in.

That just sounds like a progressive spring, those come in round also.

Goofy!!! Nevermind the fact that round wire springs have been working just fine for more than a century. Sounds like a slick salesman to me.

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe in a 8 Round mag with flush bottom. But I do not use them.

25% stronger using them in mags? If so they might help some people that are having feed problems on guns set up with high slide velocities. That is a gun balance problem though.

It maybe progressive I don't know but it's most definitely a flat wire spring. I have a round Wolfe 17 1/2 pound spring in my Wilson/Colt Gold cup but opted for the flat wire spring in my Wilson Classic. The flat wire is most definitely smoother than the round spring and it racks easier.

We'll see. The flat wire supposedly last longer than the round wire.

All springs are progressive, some are also variable rate. The latter are usually easy to spot due to the coil spacing being 'variable'.

A variable rate spring offers no advantage to a 5" 1911. I've used them in Commander-size and on compensated pistols.

The Wilson flat spring doesn't interest me because it requires a non-standard guide rod. The flat spring's inside diameter is smaller than standard.

Compression springs, be they recoil or magazine, are actually stressed in torsion. The wire twists as the spring compresses. There is a slight amount of bending, too, but in most cases it can be ignored.

The "life" of a spring needs to be clarified - life until fracture, or life until it loses tension (takes a set)? I think in most cases with guns we're talking set, or loss of tension.

The design of a spring depends on the space it has to fit in, the desired deflection, and the desired forces. The constraint is, if stress is too high for the material, the spring will take a set, regardless of processing, and lose tension.

The designer may in some cases be able to obtain a better design using flat wire, which could reduce the maximum stress, and thereby improve its life. A downside is the raw material normally requires a fairly large minimum order, and special tooling is required to make them. The machinery is special as well in the case of oval magazine springs.

I've kicked around ideas for gun springs. There are a few things that may be worth trying some day.

This is true. I have a non-standard guide rod. Not hard to put a standard guide rod in and go back to standard springs.

Yea, I have notes for all my 1911's on what springs to use with what load I am using. The guns are shooting fine and fully reliable. I think I will leave well enough alone. I have had very good luck with Wolf Springs when I need to replace any. I'll stay with them. They do know springs.

Gibby, I think that's a good idea. When I had my Wilson/Colt hybrid re-built with a new barrel I decided to stay with Wolfe 17 1/5 pound spring because the gun was working just fine.

However, when I had the Wilson Classic built I decided to go with 17 pound flat wire spring and the Classic is working just fine.

I'll stick with respective springs for each one.