o.k. I know that it is the compression and decompression of springs that ultimately wears them out, not leaving a spring compressed for a period of time. This discussion has been had about magazine springs quite a few times.

My question is, does this apply in a situation like the hammer spring on a 1911? If a 1911 was left cocked and locked for a long period of time, could it be possible that the hammer spring would lose it's strength enough that when the hammer drops on a live round the primer will not be impacted with enough force to set it off.

I figure that 1911s have been used and carried cocked and locked for so long that this is not a problem. I have just had my Kimber as my bedside gun for a while, and wondered if having that hammer cocked for such long periods of time was reducing my reliability.

Thanks all for your input!

drew

Standard 1911 mainspring (hammer spring) is 23LBS.  Many of us are using 19 pound springs with no misfires, even with a heavier than normal firing pin spring.  Even a very worn 23 pound mainspring would most likely never drop below 19 pounds.

FWIW; I run a 19 pound mainspring, a 18.5 pound recoil spring, and an extra power firing pin spring in my 1911's.

Modern springs of good quality steel will not fail due to normal use.  What will make them fail is to deform them past their elastic limit (either stretching or compressing them).

I wouldn't necessarily worry about the spring if the gun were kept cocked for a long time, but the other parts might be a different story.  Fire control parts weren't really intended to be kept under that kind of stress for years at a time, so as a general rule I uncock or dry-fire all my guns before storing them.