1kPerDay said:
I have been storing it with the slide locked back so maybe the mainspring took a set or something.
Leaving coil springs compressed (if, when compressed, they're near their elastic limit) will lead to spring degradation. But whether that degradation affects performance will depend on the gun's design and how close to (or beyond) the spring's elastic limit (aka as DEIGN LIMIT) the spring is worked. Coil springs are especially vulnerable because of how the metal is affected when the springs are working -- the work done tends to be spread more-widely through the spring material than in a leaf spring. Leaf springs tend to work until they break; coil springs tend to weaken until they can no longer do the work... then you get problems that sometimes are hard to diagnose. This is especially true with a recoil spring and could be true with a coil hammer spring.
On another forum, we heard from a guy in the National Guard who talked about how the NCOIC responsible for their weapons left all of the unit's M9s stored with the slides locked fully to the rear, and when they went to the range in the spring, a significant number of their M9s just wouldn't function properly. (I don't remember whether it was only the recoil spring affected, or whether the hammer/main spring was affected,too.
On that forum and here on
THE HIGH ROAD, in extended discussions over a number of years, participants included a number of engineers (one of whom was Metallurgist, an engineer who specializes in metal applications) the discussions have confirmed that leaving springs compressed for long periods can lead to spring weakening. Note: just because a spring has weakened doesn't mean it can no longer do the work for which it was designed.
Here's a link from
THE FIRING LINE discussing this spring behavior in detail, with some examples:
https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=557865&highlight=springs . JohnKSa is an engineer, but not a Metallurgist. He is a knowledgeable handgunner and shooting enthusiast and familiar with spring-powered air guns, as well. He can and has cited other sources in his many contributions to that site, where he is now a moderator.
Locking the slide to the rear for long periods can degrade the recoil spring, and it MIGHT weaken the hammer spring a bit, too. That's MIGHT,
not WILL.
If I were you,I'd try a slightly heavier hammer spring before shipping the gun off to CGW. (As you probably already know, shipping can be very costly, especially if you can't get an FFL to use Priority Mail for you) to CGW. This might be very appropriate if the changes previously made to your gun included a lighter (or shortened) hammer spring.
If a heavier hammer spring doesn't improve things, then ship away!
