BluesBear
member
Recently I stopped by a local moving sale. There among the old furniture and rusty garden tools was a box of miscellanious stuff marked FREE.
FREE! Certainly one of my favorite words.
So while digging through the hodge podge I spotted a familiar word.
It was the word DEVEL printed in white on an orange background peeking at me from inside a plastic bag.
Low and behold it was an 8rd DEVEL magazine still sealed in the package.
AND it was FREE!
. . .
As many of you know DEVEL designed the original eight round 1911 magazine.
After they ceased operation Chip McCormick bought the rights to the design and now markets the follower as the Shooting Star magazine follower.
Shooting Star followers are used in Colt, CMC and a few other brands of magazines.
Here's a photo of the DEVEL follower as well as the baseplate.
What I found interesting was the instruction sheet.
It tells how certain pistols need to be modified to better use the eight round magazine.
Now I have know for quite a while that some guns do well with 8rd mags and some do not. This information seems to shed some light on why this might be so.
from the DEVEL instruction sheet;
N O T I C E
Design changes have been incorporated in this new DEVEL 8rd MAGAZINE necessary to improve feed, function and durability. It is difficult to design for the numerous manufacturing variables that exist in the pistols for which DEVEL 8rd MAGAZINES are intended; however, we believe this new magazine will provide satisfactory performance in a vast majority of production standard pistols.
Customized pistols that deviate from factory specification present a completely new set of variables to be taken into account.
It should be noted that a potential problem exists with custom pistols fitted with the long Commander ejector (or Commander-type ejectors).
It is necessary to relieve the bottom front surface of the ejector to create sufficient clearance for the top round in a loaded magazine.
The diagram shows the area of the ejector that may need relief. The following procedure should be followed to obtain the desired result:
1. Remove the slide-barrel assembly from the pistol receiver (frame).
2. Place your DEVEL 8rd MAGAZINE with a round loaded into same in the pistol frame until the magazine catch locks the magazine in place.
3. Note any interference that may exist between the top of the cartridge case rim and bottom front surface of the ejector.
If there is not sufficient clearance, the bottom of the ejector will have to be relieved to provide adequate clearance.
4. By using a file with a safety edge (so that material will not be removed from the vertical surface at the front of the ejector), carefully remove material from the bottom horizonal surface of the ejector until there is adequate clearance.
Another critical item to be checked on accurized custom pistols is the clearance in the magazine well of the receiver (frame). The peening of the frame rails to insure tight fit often results in the deformation of the magazine well walls at the top inside of the pistol frame. It is important to relieve the sides of the magazine well after peening to provide sufficient clearance for the magazine. A minimum safe tolerance for the magazine well width is .553". Anything less than .553" will prevent the free fall of the magazine from the pistol.
The trigger draw bar clearance can also restrict the free travel of the magazine into and out of the pistol. This also must be checked (even on standard non-customized pistols) to insure a satisfactory result.
I thought this information might be interesting for those who have 1911 pattern pistols that have issues with 8rd magazines.
Perhaps this modification could be used to make those guns more compatable with newer magazines?
FREE! Certainly one of my favorite words.
So while digging through the hodge podge I spotted a familiar word.
It was the word DEVEL printed in white on an orange background peeking at me from inside a plastic bag.
Low and behold it was an 8rd DEVEL magazine still sealed in the package.
AND it was FREE!
As many of you know DEVEL designed the original eight round 1911 magazine.
After they ceased operation Chip McCormick bought the rights to the design and now markets the follower as the Shooting Star magazine follower.
Shooting Star followers are used in Colt, CMC and a few other brands of magazines.
Here's a photo of the DEVEL follower as well as the baseplate.
What I found interesting was the instruction sheet.
It tells how certain pistols need to be modified to better use the eight round magazine.
Now I have know for quite a while that some guns do well with 8rd mags and some do not. This information seems to shed some light on why this might be so.
from the DEVEL instruction sheet;
N O T I C E
Design changes have been incorporated in this new DEVEL 8rd MAGAZINE necessary to improve feed, function and durability. It is difficult to design for the numerous manufacturing variables that exist in the pistols for which DEVEL 8rd MAGAZINES are intended; however, we believe this new magazine will provide satisfactory performance in a vast majority of production standard pistols.
Customized pistols that deviate from factory specification present a completely new set of variables to be taken into account.
It should be noted that a potential problem exists with custom pistols fitted with the long Commander ejector (or Commander-type ejectors).
It is necessary to relieve the bottom front surface of the ejector to create sufficient clearance for the top round in a loaded magazine.
The diagram shows the area of the ejector that may need relief. The following procedure should be followed to obtain the desired result:
1. Remove the slide-barrel assembly from the pistol receiver (frame).
2. Place your DEVEL 8rd MAGAZINE with a round loaded into same in the pistol frame until the magazine catch locks the magazine in place.
3. Note any interference that may exist between the top of the cartridge case rim and bottom front surface of the ejector.
If there is not sufficient clearance, the bottom of the ejector will have to be relieved to provide adequate clearance.
4. By using a file with a safety edge (so that material will not be removed from the vertical surface at the front of the ejector), carefully remove material from the bottom horizonal surface of the ejector until there is adequate clearance.
Another critical item to be checked on accurized custom pistols is the clearance in the magazine well of the receiver (frame). The peening of the frame rails to insure tight fit often results in the deformation of the magazine well walls at the top inside of the pistol frame. It is important to relieve the sides of the magazine well after peening to provide sufficient clearance for the magazine. A minimum safe tolerance for the magazine well width is .553". Anything less than .553" will prevent the free fall of the magazine from the pistol.
The trigger draw bar clearance can also restrict the free travel of the magazine into and out of the pistol. This also must be checked (even on standard non-customized pistols) to insure a satisfactory result.
I thought this information might be interesting for those who have 1911 pattern pistols that have issues with 8rd magazines.
Perhaps this modification could be used to make those guns more compatable with newer magazines?
