Originally Posted By: Chuck H
Since you put the fork in the road, I'll take it. grin
On the subject of coil springs vs. cantilevered leaf springs; I think there's enough evidence to say that the coil is a more easily designed and manufactured spring and resultantly more reliable spring.

I forget the exact date, something like 1915, the US military decreed that it would only accept guns that used coil springs. This resulted in many sporting arms doing internal changes to replace leaf springs. This was mainly driven by high volume manufacturing methods of the day.

Pete

http://www.damascus-barrels.com/Movie.html