My New Kimber Eclipse Custom

[proudpirate]

Howdy Everyone,

I'm new to the forum and new to 10mm!  So I decided to buy myself a new Kimber Eclipse Custom.  Have not taken it to the range yet.  But I had a question on the ammo I should and could shoot.  The design specs state it has an 18.5 pound recoil spring.  I am guessing given that spring weight this pistol was designed to shoot the FBI Light loads.  My intention is too shoot the full power loads from Underwood, Sig, Fiochi, and Double Tap.  With that said I've done some research and found that I should do the following upgrades:

25 pound main spring
23 pound recoil spring
Flat Bottom Firing Pin Stop

Is there anything else I am missing or would these three do the trick?  Also if I do these upgrades and start shooting full power loads should I be concerned about peening the internals?  Thank you.

[Trapper6L]

I have an R1 Long slide that was giving me fits with throwing brass into the next county. The recoil of the full house loads was pretty violent. I changed to a 25lb hammer spring, flat bottom firing pin stop, and the strongest recoil spring Wolff had for my Longslide. It took the violent recoil out of the gun which was unexpected. Did not effect the trigger at all. I am a very happy camper with the changes. Only issue with it is it takes a man to rack the slide- it's pretty stiff. I usually cock the hammer, lock the slide back, then put a mag in the gun. Much easier like that.

Went shooting yesterday at my gun club range which is in smalltown Texas. I had 2 of my family with me who also like to shoot. At the range, there are 4 stations per 25 yd range, 5 ranges total across the acreage for a total of 20 shooters at 25 yds. There was a young man at the range we stopped at who was shooting various pistols. After some small talk, he said he just bought a Colt Elite 10mm but was unhappy with it due to the violent recoil with the 180gr factory ammo he bought for it. I loaded up a mag of my handloads which is a max load of 2400 powder under the 180gr HST bullet. He one handed the gun while standing and proceeded to shoot clays at 25 yds. He shot 8 times in about 10 seconds and never missed a clay with my gun. If he wasn't impressed, I certainly was. After he emptied the gun, he looked at it, looked at me and asked if the gun was for sale. Obviously not. While we both understand the mass difference between his Elite and my Longslide, he couldn't believe the difference the changing of the springs made in the gun. He said he was going home to order parts. My money says I'll run into him again and he'll be shooting a Colt Elite with all of the above changes or he'll be shooting a Longslide 10mm with the above spring changes. Made a huge difference that I'm glad someone else can say that yes, it really is worth the money to make the changes. You and your gun will appreciate the heavier springs and flat bottom stop.

[Graybeard]

Your new Kimber will handle any full power factory loads as is. Anything you decide to change is a matter of personal taste and desire, not necessity. I often chronograph my own hot handloads out of my Delta Elite, 25lb mainspring, 23lb recoil spring, FLGR, original firing pin stop, vs my Kimber TLE II stone stock. The Kimber regularly delivers a little more velocity with the same loads.

I wouldn't consider Fiochi or Sig full power loads. The Sig stuff is warm, but Double Tap and definitely Underwood are full power loads.

I'm not disagreeing with Trapper6L. All the changes he made had the desired effects he was after. The only downside is the difficulty racking the slide. The slide on my DE is harder to rack than my Kimber, too. The felt recoil between the two is really about the same, to me. The flat bottom FPS is the only thing I've considered changing on my Kimber and I haven't gotten around to that because it's not that punishing to shoot.

My advice would be shoot it through the break in period with a variety of ammo and then decide if you want to change something.

[4949shooter]

I am running a 22 pound spring on my Kimber Eclipse.

An armorer noticed some slide battering from use by the previous owner. It worked fine with the stock spring, but the heavier spring is better in my opinion.

[TODDXUSMC]

I went up to a #23 lb recoil spring in my Kimber Stainless Target II and it still threw brass farther than I could find it. The only conclusion I came to was to shorten the ejector (although I haven't yet had time to do this as it will require some range time and we just hit 40+ degrees in NE WI). I will be ordering a flat bottom firing pin stop along with doing the ejector mod to help with brass flight.
After reading 1911 Tuner on Rangehot and really digging into what he was saying, I took out the 23# and compromised  to a 20# recoil spring. Based on what I learned from him in his analysis as well as really studying the design; the 18.5 will be just fine with all factory loads or reloads that do not exceed the pressure limits of the cartridge design(I don't have my original spring but had the 20# laying around). The barrel lug is designed to engage the frame and there is alot of steel there, the link in comparison as well as the slide stop pin are not as strong. They even linked a YouTube video where they shot a 1911 multiple times without a recoil spring with no damage to the weapon. In further study and in speaking with some 1911 gunsmiths I think I would have to agree that the original intent of the recoil spring was to do nothing more than return the slide into battery, recoil reduction is secondary and is not as pronounced as people think. Some bullseye competitors with 1911(.45 albeit) I've spoken with will shorten their springs a bit at a time until they get the smoothest slide return with minimal muzzle drop.
Im not sure where I sit on some of the double spring options or recoil reduction systems such as Sprinco yet. I do think going to a flatwire spring can help with smoothness of the slide(and they last longer according to WC).


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[spaniel]

I have an Eclipse Custom II and it is my favorite pistol.  Out of the box full 10mm loads sent brass into low Earth orbit.  I went to a 22lb recoil spring, 25lb hammer spring, and flat bottom FP stop.  More manageable, but you just need to accept a 10mm 1911 is never going to throw brass like a 45.

Over-powering the recoil spring can also batter the gun.