When to replace recoil spring?

[xls177 0]

When to replace recoil spring?

 

How can you tell if it needs replacement?

 

I shoot mostly low brass 7.5 shot

 

[evlblkwpnz 3,418]

How many rounds do you have on the weapon?

[xls177 0]

i guess 5 to 600 but not sure

 

I don't see any battering on rear

 

just having a few feeding problems and wondered if recoil spring might need a change

[gunfun 3,931]

I have two S12s. The spring on one of them got tired at somewhere around 3-4K rounds. The other one is way above that and going strong.  Not sure what I should read into that.

[scattergun10 125]

Only 5-600 rounds of mostly low brass? There is no way the recoil spring already needs to be replaced. 

 

When did you start noticing the feeding issues? 

 

Make sure it's on the proper gas setting. (1) for full power loads (2) for low brass

 

Try cleaning out the gas ports - remove the gas puck and use the plastic brush that comes with the gun, run it down the gas tube and barrel several times where the ports are to remove any carbon build-up. Also clean the puck. 

[gunfun 3,931]

I swapped springs with the other gun, problem solved. Therefore It was the spring.

 

Also the spring can only cycle so far either way. Load power is 100% irrelevant to spring life, just # of cycles and degree of compression. Since all the loads all bump the carrier to the trunion at rear of travel, all cycles are equal to the spring. Ports are not clogged, ejection is and always has been strong. I could tell the spring was going soft because sometimes it soft stripped shells off drum mags and needed a little help to go into battery occasionally with rougher shells. Just a little sluggish. With a spring guide swap from the other gun, the problem disappeared.

 

As for why my spring had a short life? Who knows. That was an early EAA import. So to me it is plausible that OP has a bad spring too. With a possible combination of rough feedlips, and hammer friction slowing down forward bolt travel. Some shells have rough rims and brass too. All the little things add up.

It's also worth looking at feed angle, and whether the shells are sticky in the magazine.

 

If OP has a "reliability kit", those come with soft springs. Part of why I consider them to actually reduce reliability.

[evlblkwpnz 3,418]

i guess 5 to 600 but not sure

 

I don't see any battering on rear

 

just having a few feeding problems and wondered if recoil spring might need a change

Unless there is something very rare going on, you have a very long way to go. The SBS in the top of my avatar has over 10k rounds on it with the factory springs still in it. It is finally starting to feel like it might need new springs, but it still runs great. The carrier is quite a bit lighter than original, so I am sure that is a factor in them lasting so long. However, I am on the second extractor spring and the extractor is starting to egg a little where the pin goes through it, so I may need to replace that eventually. These use regular AK extractor springs.