Springs Debunked

“Awareness is the greatest agent for change.”  -Eckhart Tolle

The goal of experimenting with recoil springs is to arrive at 100% reliability.

Regardless of the spring’s weight, the sights naturally re-align as each shot fires.

To prove that, do this… Assume your freestyle shooting position, aimed at the center of a target at 15 yards. Close your eyes, then fire the shot. Open your eyes and check the sight alignment. 

Repeat the drill with various weights of recoil springs.

With any spring, if the sights do not re-align accurately, you are “adding” something during recoil. A non-neutral grip is usually the culprit.

At 29, my first M1A. You talkin’ to me?!

When practicing the “Shooting Blind” drill, I could occasionally hit an 8″ plate at 15 yards up to 4 times in a row, with eyes closed the entire time. 

I preferred the lightest weight spring that provided 100% reliability; the pistol just felt softer in recoil.

This terrific drill, I learned from from Ronin Coleman (PACT Timer inventor), teaches the importance of a neutral stance and grip. Place two 10” steel plates at 25 yards, about 5 yards apart. Draw and shoot each plate once. If you miss, stop and start over.

Repeat that drill forever. Compare your time to how it felt—your entire upper body, grip, arms, torso—while doing it.

My goal was to slyly steer this topic from mechanical to conceptual, and then from conceptual to awareness.

Being aware is the key to everything good.

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Comments are welcome, and all questions will be answered.

I’ll post a new topic each Friday afternoon, in one of two categories. One will be on shooting, and the other will be on living. Or: how I learned to live from what I learned by competing.

Thanks for coming in.