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Sourcing gun springs

pdangerp

Red Skull Member
Joined
May 31, 2020
Member Number
1693
Messages
145
Loc
Iowa
Has anyone had luck sourcing replacement springs for pistols from places like McMaster? I have a broken slide stop plunger spring on a Star BM pistol that I’m trying to replace.

Is there anything special about gun springs that prevents me from using something similar from McMaster?
I measured the OD of the spring at 0.091” and the wire thickness is 0.013”. Can I just buy a length of spring coil and cut to fit/function in the pistol?
It’s part 35 in this diagram
 

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For that spring I would have no problem using whatever spring that I could find that would work. Recoil springs, trigger springs and hammer springs are "special" but control springs, sighting springs, etc. anything is fair game. Last AR build I used a retractable ball-point pen spring, bicycle spoke and associated nipple to construct a front sight post detent for an A2 sight block that I forgot I cannibalized a few builds ago and it was free.
 
I have done that on older firearms. No problem on a piece like that.

Since I don't know the OE spring rate I buy one a little longer so I can clip it down as needed to achieve the spring rate and tension I desire.

Things like recoil springs of course are more sensitive.
 
Sorry
Looks to be a detent spring from a 1911
This got me thinking. I don’t have a 1911 detent spring, but I do have an ar spring kit. The takedown pin detent spring is a little narrow, but it fit over the plunger stem. I trimmed it a few times until I could put the locking pin back in, but still have good spring tension on the detent. Seems to work pretty good. Here’s the original spring, the slide lock plunger, and the ar15 detent spring. Not quite the same, but hopefully it does the trick.
The issue I was having is the slide would lock back prematurely. Reading about these on the internet led me to believe I had a sticky plunger or weak spring. It’s common on these pistols.
 

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I have used McMaster springs on firearms I use frequently and don’t have any problems yet, so I’d say go for it.
 
Try Brownells. I can check my stash. I have several of brownells asst spring packs and several tubes of spring steel wire and thousands of misc springs in a box.
 
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