I have been told, "Run an 18.5 recoil with a 25 mainspring and a flat bottom firing pin stop. This combination has been shown in empirical testing to result in a final slide velocity on par with a 1911 in standard form in 45 acp running 230 ball."  I already have the flat bottom FPS, got one from EGW. I wanted to come here and ask, since I know nothing about springs. Are these the right ones to get? I am guessing these are the ones I want to get and not the variable power ones, but I honestly don't know.

Recoil:
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/535991/wolff-recoil-spring-1911-government
Main:
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/157936/wolff-hammer-spring-1911-government-commander

If these are the right ones, what are the variable power springs for?

Quote from: Kenk on February 23 2019 10:36:01 PM MST
Hi Mouse, and welcome to the forum. I have a Rock Ultra HC as well, and have been totally impressed in all areas. It is a solid weapon, has performed well in my reliability testing, and has been a straight shooter. I have shot a variety of hand loads through it, as well as many of Underwood's offerings without issue. Unless I just got an extra nice one, I think you will like yours as well. Lastly, it's kind of  beast for warm weather carry, unless you dress around it as I do.

Thanks

Ken

Yeah I don't think I'll be able to carry the HC one for concealed carry, except maybe backpack. Speaking of which, what holster do you have in that picture?

QuoteBut it meters great, delivers tight groups and is quite economical.

If Blue Dot meters well and is economical I may end up going this route if it's in the same ballpark as long shot, thanks for the input there.

QuoteI always install a flat bottom firing pin stop in 1911 10mm's.

I had read about these, but kept seeing people complain about them causing the hammer pin hole to elongate. Never any mention of the firearm brand that this happened to but it made me worry enough to second guess putting one in. If you have had these in your RIA 1911s though without any issue I may pick one up to try out. coule of questions I have about fitting though, do I need to radius the bottom at all, is it intended to be straight square, or just hit it enough to removed any burs? What do you use to fit it? just some standard files from the hardware store or do I need something more dedicated to gunsmith work?

QuoteI have a Rock Ultra HC

It's funny that you mention that, I actually ended up finding one of those for 550$ used that came with 3 mags and a box of ammo... I may have a problem explaining that one to my wife but I'm sure she'll love it once she shoots it.

Just got me a brand new RIA in 10mm because it's impossible to find any used. Here she is in all her beauty, but I won't go into the looks right now since this is the reloading section. Been lurking here for years wanting a 10mm and now I finally got one after scraping up all my pennies and skipping lunch for a few months

Direct link if the above image doesn't load: https://i.imgur.com/XGKKogL.jpg?1

Anyway, on to the meat of the subject. I got this because I wanted to be able to load warm/hott loads in the 10mm and everyone seemed to agree that the RIA had enough chamber support to do that. My goal isn't to go nuclear or anything, I am wanting a 200gr. bullet at about 1200 FPS. Since double tap has a 200gr hard cast bullet doing 1300 out of a Glock that has less chamber support I figured that this would be an obtainable goal for the RIA without having to worry about damaging it. While at the same time satisfying my desire to blow up the evil water jugs that invade the gun range, and getting the steel spinner to make a full turn in a single mag.

From what I have read, it seems that most people have had best luck with long shot as a powder for pushing the heavy bullets fast while maintaining accuracy. So my plan is to use these components.
Brass: Sig 10mm(new un-fired)
Primer: CCI LP
Bullet: cast lead 200 gr RNFP
Powder: Long shot, starting at 7.5 grains and working up to velocity watching for pressure signs and degrading accuracy.

I am interested to know if anyone else has had luck with a similar load in the RIA, or powders used to achieve similar results.

My second question is if anyone who purchased an RIA recently had to switch out any springs to run the hotter loads. RIA has listed on their website that they suggest a 20Ib recoil with a 25Ib main(Hammerspring), which is what I understood you wanted to have if you were going to shoot the hotter stuff. So my plan was to just shoot the gun in it's stock configuration since it seems like they are shipping them with proper spring weights now.

My third and final question, pressure signs. I know how to watch primers for pressure signs after years of loading rifle rounds but I know that that can't be a reliable way to measure handgun pressures. From what I understand case head expansion is what I want to watch for, so the threshold of to much pressure will be between 0003" and .00035" of expansion with the goal being to keep it below 0003" and more in the 0002"-00025" range. Though these are numbers I am just guessing at based on the max pressures I am seeing for the 10mm at 33k PSI. If anyone has some good reading material on case head expansion measuring for pressure signs for individual cartridges or pressures I would be interested in seeing those, all I have right now that I have found is this from the Hodgens website:http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/reloading-education/tips-and-tricks/simple-trick-monitoring-pressure-your-rifle-reloads. This is for rifle loading though, and I couldn't find anything specific for handgun. Or am I just wasting my time worrying about that with the load goal that I have?