[denfoote]

Ok, I know about how many rounds you have to put through a PISTOL to consider IT realible, but how about the MAGS?? With all this talk about "My mag's better than yours", how many rounds do you have put through a magazine before you can consider IT realible??? I ask this because I bought two Chip McCormick "match grade" mags, and after about 25 rounds each, I experienced a 50% failure rate, ie. one of them failed to activate the slide stop!!! :cuss:

[Rob96]

I have one CMC Power Mag and two Shooting Stars. No problems whatsoever in my Colt.

[El Tejon]

den, number or mark your mags (or be like Skunk and give them girls' names). Keep watch am den Rhein while shooting. Throw those that do not function over berm (er, neatly in the trash).

Next, buy a railroad car full of mags and repeat.

[DMK]

I agree with El Tejon about numbering them to keep track. I scratch a number in all my magazines.

I'm pretty harsh on mags, especially cheap ones like 1911 mags. I don't keep a round count, but I shoot my defensive mags everytime I bring the gun to the range. I usually own four to six per gun. One failure and it gets intensive scrutiny. If it fails again, it gets sidelined and a mark gets scratched in it.

Later I may look at it and see if I can correct the failure with a new follower, spring or something. If it gets repaired, it becomes a range only mag(I know because of the mark I put on earlier), if not it gets red spray paint and it's a snap cap only mag.

[cordex]

Agree with El-T and Dave.

Mag fails me too often and it gets to sit downrange.

[Coltdriver]

Well that is an interesting question because a five dollar spring can make your gun into a useless heavy object.

I used wilson mags when shooting my .45 but I changed the springs regularly.

They function perfect with good springs. When the spring wears out, the mag would cause my gun to mis feed or hang a round.

I always kept a mag loaded with premium ammo by itself for carry. What wears out the spring is cycling it. Leaving it loaded will not wear out the spring.

Sounds like your chip mc c mags had cheap springs or maybe that is just a profit center for chip dealers:D

[355sigfan]

Keep watch am den Rhein while shooting. Throw those that do not function over berm (er, neatly in the trash).
END

I actually keep bad mags as range mags. It gives a good malfunction clearance practice.

I disagree with the statement that keeping mags loaded does not weaken the spring and that only cycling does. I have seen this to be false especially in Glock mags and 8 round 1911 mags. I have found its best to keep Glock hi cap mags down loaded by one and replace 8rd 1911 mag springs on a set interval of 6 months. Thats based on experience of having officers who never cycle ammo through their duty mags except when they have too. The mags are full and the springs go bad. If you down load the Hicap glock mags by one there seems to be no problems.
Pat

[Chris Rhines]

I number my magazines with a paint pen. Any mag-related failures, and the offending mag gets pulled aside and tweaked. Too many failures, and the mag either gets trashed or sold off.

On that note, don't be so quick to trash magazines that won't work in your gun; they may work in someone else's. Voice of experience.

- Chris

[10-Ring]

There was a time I was buying a mag a week. Then I figured out how to exchange the mag instead...settled on Wilsons' 7 or 8 rounders. For the most part, as long as they're new mags w/ fresh springs, I'll take them to the range for a good shooting session & if they work reliably, I'll give them a good clean & lube and I'm confident in them.

[C.R.Sam]

1911s...
I have had very good luck with genuine U.S.Military accepted (surplus) 1911 mags. I try to avoid buying mags that were first sold on the civillian market. They may be made of the right stuff and built correctly, but they don't have to be.

Sam

[1911Tuner]

The 1911 platform was ddsigned around a 7-round magazine. When an
extra round is added, things have to be adjusted, and that can bring
on function problems. No such thing as a free lunch, or so they tell me.
McCormick Shooting Star and Power mags are 8-rounders. Some pistols
like them, some don't. Same for the Wilson 47Ds...Some swear by
them, some swear at them. For one particular brand of magazine to
be fail-safe, all the magazines made by that company would need to
be exactly the same with NO differences....and all pistols would also
have to be exactly the same. In other words, perfect with no dimensional
diferences from the first unit made to the one millionth.

Since perfection exists only in the mind of God, we must live with the
differences. The good news is, that a misbehaving magazine can
usually be fixed, or tweaked for better function. In any last round
failure to feed in which the round stands up in a live-round stovepipe,
the spring is usually at fault...assuming that the slide isn't oversprung.
Install a new Wolff +5% power spring, and 90% of these will stop.
If not, bend the follower down just a tiny bit to get the butt-end
of the round up earlier.

Weak springs can also contribute to failure to lock on empty, though
it can also be that the follower is set at the wrong angle...the slidestop
shelf is bent too far inward or downward...or it could be that the stop's
lug isn't compatible with that particular follower. Another follower of
the same type may fix it.

First round nosedives when reloading from slidelock can also be the
follower angle, or the spring tension. It could also be feed ramp angle,
and a different magazine is sitting higher in the magwell and getting
around the real problem.

Failure to completely return to battery could be stem bind, and a different
magazine gets the round in at a shallower angle, which leads us to
believe that the magazine is at fault, when other things are at work.

If a pistol will only function with two or three magazines out of a
dozen, it's probably something besides a "bad" magazine. Most
magazine related issues occur on the last round, and then it's generally
the spring's fault. If they occur before then, they usually show up as
having a round escape the magazine, and feeding the next one under it.
That could be feed lip width, or inertia is moving the round forward and out
before the slide can get to it. Spring tension again. I had a slew of
GI magazines that began to give trouble. New Wolff springs returned them
all to 100% functional. Three Metalforms out of 50 gave some problems after installing the Wolff springs...Tweaking the follower angle set'em
right.

Throwing magazines downrange is expensive, since most of them can be
fixed. I found a Powermag last week that had been hurled over the berm.
Testing showed it to be "bad". I installed a new 7-round flat follower
and a Wolff spring, and it works fine in 8 different pistols, including
3 Commanders. I don't doubt that it will work in all the others, too.

Just food for thought...
Tuner

[Daniel T]

You are a veritable font of information, Tuner. I'm impressed, thanks.

I just stick with Wilson mags. Never had a failure in any of my 1911s with Wilson, even on my 1991A1 Compact. :)

[denfoote]

All of my 7 round mags work fine. I do know about the "mark the mag" thing and have done so. I also have been in contact with Chip McCormick and will send it back for replacement under the warrantee. I just wanted to know how many rounds it takes to "break in" a mag and if I continue to put any more rounds through this one, would the problem likely go away??? Sometimes, it does work as it should!!! :banghead:

The new 8 round Wilson will undergo extensive testing this coming weekend!! ;)

Thanks for all the replies, guys!! :D