I have looked at my P3-AT's and have assembled them with out the springs and with only one spring. I can not see why there would be the raised lip evenly around the slide. Is the smaller spring too long and being used as a slide stop? And thats why it will come out the end? Whar about making a slide buffer to cushion the slide to frame impact, has anyone looked at that? Why couldn't the slide end be hardend more? Just thoughts????