shot my single stacks and Para, with 22# springs for years.... they take a set to about 18# over time....had to thumb cock the hammer, but never had a problem chambering a round ... I perceived that the heavier spring negated a lot of the muzzle flip, and came back on target quick YMMV.... I quit using shock buffs... was shooting a hand load 230 grain fmj at about 800fps

To heavy of a recoil spring will also cause the front sight to dip down low when the gun goes into battery, slowing your splits. I'd spring the gun for the ammo you shoot the most of.

On the advice of Hilton Yam, I threw an 18.5 Wolf Spring not my E Series 1911 TA and haven't had a malfunction of a kind for just over 1000 rounds of 230 grain FMJ including fifty rounds of Tula, plenty of Speer Lawman, but mostly PMC Bronze.

Previous spring was a 17.5 pound Wilson which ran perfectly for 950 rounds of Lawman and PMC Bronze.

The 16 pound OEM S&W springs lose their resistance in about 400 rounds which is too bad because I bought quite a few of them from Midway for about $2.89@.

I'm kinda leaning that way I think I'll just buy a new spring cause the factory one is over 30 years old...

Pick up a few Wolff 16s, you won't regret it.

I use 14 pound Wolff recoil springs in my 5 inch 1911's with 100% reliability.

The 18.5 isn't enough to degrade accuracy or speed over the 16 in a 5 inch gun shooting standard FMJ. If anything, it is a small bit of insurance that you may still have sufficient spring weight for the firearm to cycle in the case of inadvertently leaving one in long enough to have it start to go bad. We all want to change them on that magical 5000 round benchmark, but many of us forget, and sometimes springs don't decide to get weak on that 5000th round. Sometimes they go, even good ones, on 4000 or 4500, and some last much longer if you accidentally forget and put an extra 5000 thinking you changed it. Either way, if it weakens to a 16lb spring at 4500 rounds, you still have a functioning firearm, with a 16lb weakening to 14lbs you may have some not go into battery completely. Not something you want when you really need it. It won't be over sprung in a 2.5lb increment. A 20# might be.

I have run 18.5# for years on everything GI sized on recommendation from several smiths, locally, and nationally known. I don't think you can really hurt anything. There are two schools of thought on it, but in my personal experience, it has been a plus to run the 18.5lb.