[hueycrew]

Can someone tell me what # is a stock Para 16-40 recoil spring?

I think its a 16#

Thanks!

Huey

[Joe4d]

it's a 20lb

[Law_Man]

I just bought a para p16 and would like to know what would be a good recoil spring to go to "pounds and manufacture"?

[mike cyrwus]

if it were me, and I was loading to about 170pf, Id start out with a 14# ISMI recoil spring.

[Joe4d]

I ran American Eagle 165 FMJ and reloads that basically duplicated those factory loads including the shorter OAL than most reload for 40 as I shot it in an area where I couldnt reload. I think alot of the problems reported with Para's are people trying to light spring them like they are a custom hand fit gun. They are not. There is a reason they have heavy springs. I ran mine in USPSA with an 18lb spring and it would run and run and run. Dropping to a 16lb I would sometimes get a failure to chamber when the gun got dirty, usually on the first round from the mag. Now granted I was running the cut down 10 round mags which just barely fit 10 so maybe that had something to do with it. Also the extractor may needed to be loosened up a bit. But with a 18lb ISMI my gun ran all day everyday so I really didnt see any need to change.

[mike cyrwus]

good points.

[Kulas]

Law Man,

I am just talking from my observation here with my para 1640:

When you change recoil springs you should also change the mainspring. I put 14 lbs recoil spring in my 1640 and changed the mainspring with a 16lbs(from a stock 23lbs) and it started having FTRB problems occasionally with reloads(none with factory loads). I put 17.5lbs and no problems except for very light loads. After that I tried 15lbs recoil spring and the gun would fire and fire and fire, no malfunctions whatsoever. The problem is that muzzle rise is quite high. But I read in Brian's book that it doesn't matter how high the muzzle rise is, you just have to allow it to happen and it will come back to the target consistently if you have a neutral grip. This is true in my observation.

I was ready to accept that the para 16.40 was not as customizable as the other guns I see in the range (STI, for example), I would have to live with a gun that has so much muzzle rise. But as a last resort, I changed my mainspring from 16lbs to 15 lbs. just to check if it would make a difference or not. The result was amazing. Less felt recoil and muzzle rise was very minimal, like I just tamed a viscious animal. The gunsmith in my area told me that after a few hundred rounds occasional light strikes may happen, but that is another problem and not the topic here. Customize your para, just be safe and do the safety checks.

I think when you're using a weak recoil spring with a relatively stiff MS, the slide loses its velocity traveling backward, and fails to compress the springs fully, that when the slide goes forward to feed another round, it doesn't have enough power to fully chamber the round. Especially when you're using used brass, they tend to be a little tighter to fully seat in the chamber.

Again, this is just from my experience.

[Kulas]

Joe4d, on Aug 16 2009, 05:26 PM, said:

Also the extractor may needed to be loosened up a bit.

+1 on that. The extractor was way too stiff on mine when I got the gun.

[MisterB]

My son bought a used P16-40 Limited and I sent an email to Para and they responded that stock is 16#.

It runs good with it. Haven't tried any other weights.