Keep Your Eye on These 3 Pistol Parts

Recoil and blowback-operated pistols are reliable enough and most of their parts will last for a long time. Plus, since most popular handgun cartridges are fairly low pressure, all things considered you may never shoot out a barrel, especially if your gun is chambered in something like 9mm. 

But there are still pistol parts you will want to keep your eye on, because some are more (and some are less) reliable than others.

For instance, here are 3 pistol parts to keep your eye on. They’ll likely falter before any others.

Recoil Springs 

The strength of your recoil spring and how much recoil your pistol produces will determine how long this gun part lasts, but nonetheless, it is one of the first that will fail on your pistol, and when it does, you won’t have a semi-auto anymore until you replace it. 

The recoil spring, regardless of whether the pistol utilizes direct blowback, roller-delayed blowback, or recoil operation, is responsible for returning the action to battery. When the spring fatigues, it either won’t return the action fully or won’t close it all. 

It’s one of the first pistol parts that will start to wear on your gun, and it puts up with a lot with every single cycle. It’s also critical to semi-automatic operation. 

The main sign you should look for is a sluggish return to battery. If your action doesn’t reset readily each time you fire, it could be that the recoil spring is starting to fatigue. Also, if your slide only partially returns and rounds get hung up partially stripped out of the mag, or on the edge of the chamber, that could be another sign.

Extractors

The extractor, in most handguns, is a claw-like component that hooks over the rim of a cartridge once it is chambered and which extracts it (hence the name) once the action opens after the round has been fired. 

Extractors are not necessarily fragile, but they are small components and if stressed they can crack, deform, or otherwise fail. Either way, extractors, like recoil springs, are prone to failure and if they do, you won’t be able to use your gun as a semi-auto until the component is replaced.

For this reason, it doesn’t hurt to have a gun kit with the parts you need, or at least a few spare extractors around so that you can rectify the problem should it materialize.

Also, before you assume the extractor needs to be replaced, make sure you check the area around the extractor as well as the chamber. If there is a lot of fouling in there, that can interfere with the extractor’s intended purpose. 

Extractor Springs

The extractor springs, which put pressure on the extractor and in turn on the cartridge rim, actually are more fragile and likely to fail than the extractor. This is because like all springs repeated compression and decompression cycles will cause them to fatigue after a while. 

If you experience issues with extraction, before you jump the gun and replace the extractor, check the extractor spring. It may be the culprit. 

Try chambering a snap cap. If the extractor engages the cartridge casing, but when you manually open the action, the extractor slips off the rim, it could be because the extractor spring can no longer apply the tension necessary to keep the extractor engaged with the cartridge. 

Bonus: Mag Feed Lips and Mag Springs 

While these are not pistol parts, they’re sort of adjacent to gun parts and could cause issues with cycling if something is wrong with them. 

First, the feed lips; rough handling can bend or otherwise deform the feed lips, which are carefully designed to orient cartridges so that they feed smoothly into the chamber. If the feed lips are not in proper order, you could experience issues with feeding. 

As for the magazine spring, that component of the pistol mag will be the first to fatigue. Several thousand compression and decompression cycles will eventually wear it out and it will no longer be able to apply the pressure necessary to feed rounds at the top of the mag. 

Sometimes, if you’re having an issue with a pistol magazine that doesn’t feed reliably any longer, you can turn it around by removing the old mag spring and replacing it, rather than getting a whole new mag. 

At the same time, it’s beneficial to have several pistol magazines in your range bag so you can cycle through them rather than just constantly using one all the time. That way, they will all last longer.

Explore These and Other Replacement Pistol Parts Here at SARCO, Inc. 

We carry the pistol parts mentioned here that you need to make repairs and replacements for many popular platforms, as well as gun parts for many popular rifles and shotguns. We also carry a wide range of parts kits. Check out our full catalog and if you have any questions get in touch with us directly.