.40 cal and 9mm mags the same?

[Lobotomy Boy]

A fellow at a gunshow in Minneapolis offered to sell me a couple of high-cap Ruger .40 cal factory mags for a reasonable price. He said they would work in a 9mm. I've heard this before about other brands. I'd like to take this guy up on his offer but I thought I'd check it out first. Anyone have any experiences with using 9mm in .40 caliber mags?

 

[PO2Hammer]

Yeah, they work, but I would only trust them at the range. There is a slight difference in feed lip dimensions, but they work in my PC-9 carbine, and seem to be more available.

 

[RH45]

I've done it with my Glock, but, as has been said, don't trust your life on it. The feed lips, on the .40 are a little wider, and sometimes the 9mms will pop right through.

 

[stans]

I agree with the above posts. You can also get 10mm rounds to feed from 45 ACP mags, but it is not a really great arrangement.

 

[tc300mag1]

I know people with xd's do.. what about tightening up the feedlips so the 9mm will be held in the correct position?

 

[Longbow]

In my experience, Ruger P series .40 cal mags does take 9mm with no effect in reliability. So does CZ's. I don't know about other brands.

 

[pyblood]

How much was he charging you for the mags? I ask this becasue Ruger factory hi-caps are only $29 at www.cdnninvestments.com. I think that they are so cheap because they only hold 1 more round. One of my friends who has a Ruger 9mm has used some of my Ruger .40cal mags before.

 

[Lobotomy Boy]

Thanks Pyblood. CDNN was charging $59.99 for the factory preban 15-round 9mm mags until they ran out of stock. Tbe preban .40 cal mags they are selling for $28.99 are 11 rounds for .40 cal, but will hold 15 rounds of 9mm ammo. In fact, except for slight variation in the lips they appear identical to the preban 9mm mags. The guy at the gun show was asking $30 per mag, but I believe I could have got a Sunday afternoon special if I had been seriously interested. Instead I bought a factory 15-rounder for $40.

I'm seriously considering one of their MecGar 20-rounders for my PC9. I plan to buy a P89 or P95 this spring and if I buy new I'll get two 10-round mags. At that point I'll have standard-sized Ruger mags coming out the old wazzoo so it might be fun to have a long 20-rounder.

 

[Walt Sherrill]

With some guns, the .40 and 9mm mags are virutally identical; with other guns, there are differences.

Adjusting the feed lips is not difficult, and the guns will typically still feed .40 after you've done it. (That means they're still legal -- if they work in the gun for which they were originally designed.)

But tweaking feedlips is a routine part of mag maintenance, anyway.

My CZs like Witness .40 mags holding 9mm rounds, but factory CZ mags sometimes need to have the feed lips adjusted.

My Star Firestar Plus (9mm) likes .40 mags. No modifications generally required.

My .40 DaeWoo (for which finding mags is almost impossible) will accept Mec-Gar S&W 59s with just a bit of tweaking, and they still work in the 9mm guns.

You never know until you try...

 

[clipse]

I have 5 .40 cal mags for my CZ 75 P-01. All have fed and ejected perfectly fine. Only problem is the mag springs i think are wearing out. It want lock the slide back.


clipse

 

[Omaha-BeenGlockin]

NO NO NO----those Ruger mags are not the same.

I have about 10 of the .40 cal pre ban factory mags---figuring I could use them in the new P89 I picked up this weekend--and at worst just have to replace the followers.

No dice----there is enough of a slight variance to make them not interchange. I put a .40 mag in my new pistol and it hung up---thinking it was just the follower difference---was going to call Ruger on monday and order new followers.

So then I get to thinkin----I took out the follower and spring and then put back on the plastic base plate on the mag shell----inserted it in the pistol-----still hung up as before.

Also you have to give the .40 mags a good slap to make them seat properly----no such problems with the 9mm mag.

The .40 cal mags will hold a 9mm in the feed lips-----but it still won't work.

The .40 cal mags are a hair longer as to not make them a viable option in a 9mm pistol.