bolt spring life

[Lohman446]

Ok, is it normal for a bolt spring to have an extremely short life - like a month (or 10,000 - 12,000 balls, plus a couple thousand dry-fires).

Heres the thing, I was out with my X-valved mag today and it started leaking down the barrel, I pressed in on the bolt and heard it go clink - I figured at first the level 10 was too tight (#1), causing it to stick and upsized one, but got a leak - so went back there. On third or fourth tear down I looked at the spring (the stock spring, I shoot at 270-310 with it so works good) and noticed it had collapsed noticeably compared to the spare I carry. Swapped springs and no problems, is this normal for these to have this short (relatively speaking, if that many shots is short) of a life?

[Tunaman]

No...it is not normal. Usually they last almost forever. I know of a gun that hasn't been apart in 5 yrs and still shoots fine.

[athomas]

I used to have to replace the stock spring in my level 7 mag after about 10000 rds to guarrantee that I didn't get bolt stick due to a worn bolt spring.

I just replaced my medium spring from my level 10 after about 30000 rounds. Since it is stiffer and the level 10 works a bit different than the level 7, I suspect that is why it worked longer. It was noticably shorter and weakened when I took it out after I noticed the level 10 didn't reset properly on a breach obstruction.

I would say that nothing is out of the ordinary in your mag if you had to change the short spring after the amount of use you claim.