Best 1911 magazine??

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The one that works with your 1911 best. You gotta fit the shoe to the foot. Cheap Mecgars may work just as well as high end Wilson Combats and Checkmates.
 
Shmackey said:
Hilton knows his stuff:
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a strong spring that resists a set when left loaded
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Not this myth again...



Magazines for the 1911 need to be considered an expendable asset, much like the GI aluminum M16 mag. I expect an average service cycle of 12-24 months, and I will not hesitate to replace them the moment one fails to feed or drop free.
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He also sells magazines.
:scrutiny:




I've had good luck with Chip McCormick's magazines.
 
CMC does make good mags, with one exception. The eight round "Shooting Star" mags.

I've also used MecGar, Colt and a few others I can't think of right now.

What I've stuck to the last few years have been MetalForm. They work in all my 1911s and seem to last very well when dropped, tossed or stepped on in training.
 
No reason the cheap Springfield mags shouldn't work just fine....But if you have an aluminum frame, be sure to get a mag with the correct follower, like in Tripp mags.
 
Never had a single problem with either Wilson or Chip Mcormick. Even the 8 round Shooting Star mags. All have worked 100% from multiple guns. Since the CMC mags seem to work just as well and are about 1/2 the cost of Wilsons I have more of them. If you read enough you will probably find more folks claiming the Wilson as the best.
 
Power mags, Wilson 7rd/8rd mags, and Colt 7rd mags for work for me. I have been wanting to try Tripp Mags for a while, but can't justify the price.
 
Mecgars have always worked for me in every platform I own....No excuses they work.
 
best price performer has to be the mentioned CMC power mags, for the money there isn't one better.
 
The truth is that because no 2 companies making 1911s really make them to the same specs, there isn't one right answer. It's not like 1 gun made by 1 company to 1 set of specs with 1 magazine designed to match like a Glock.

The cheapest consistently reliable magazine in my experience is the Checkmate 7 round "hybrid" mag. They're around $20 and are basically an updated Colt 7 round design with feed lips that work well with a wide variety of bullet shapes. They don't look cool or tactical or whatever, but they work well.

The nicest 7 round magazine I've come across is the new Ed Brown. It's a traditional design but made with a heavier stainless steel body and a slick coating on the follower. They feed with unreal, magnificent smoothness.

As for 8 rounders...none of them have been consistently good for me. Wilson 47Ds work well out of the box, but the springs in them are weak and get weaker quickly. The Tripp CobraMags I've tried were simply bad, ramming rounds into the feed ramp at a bad angle. Flush-fit 8 round Shooting Stars and Metalforms I tried were just bad mags that never worked right.

If I was try try 8 rounders again, I'd take a look at the new Ed Browns, since they look like their great 7 round design, just with an extended tube for that +1 round. But I've kind of lost interest in them.
 
Any magazine will fail if you use it long enough. I swapped springs in two dozen 47Ds last weekend. Mags still fed, but didn't always lock back the slide. The springs I removed were about three inches shorter than the replacements.

The worst failure I've experienced was with a CMC Power Mag. Happened within the last month. During a match I performed a slidelock reload. I hit the slide stop and nothing happened. I tried a tap rack, still nothing. Tried to pull the mag from the frame - stuck. Looking at the top round I noticed it had move slightly forward in the mag, but the slide was still locked all the way. Ultimately, I had to use a squib rod to drive the mag from the gun. It was tight all the way out. Later, I emptied the mag and it worked fine. Reloaded it and it worked fine. I can only guess the round being out of position slightly swelled the sides.

I have since relegated the CMCs to practice mags.
 
 
I like Wilson Combat, Chip McCormick (including the shooting star), Kimber, Mec-Gar, and Colt, in no particular order. They've all worked well for me shooting ball or JHP or semi-wadcutters. GI mags are useful for failure drills.
 
I use 7 shot mil spec mags (no name, gun show, <$10) and my 7 shot Springfield mags that I ordered after getting the pistol, and I've never had a failure with either. I do shoot exclusively 230 gr ball, so that helps reliability.
RT
 
Sean Smith said:
The truth is that because no 2 companies making 1911s really make them to the same specs, there isn't one right answer. It's not like 1 gun made by 1 company to 1 set of specs with 1 magazine designed to match like a Glock.

The cheapest consistently reliable magazine in my experience is the Checkmate 7 round "hybrid" mag. They're around $20 and are basically an updated Colt 7 round design with feed lips that work well with a wide variety of bullet shapes. They don't look cool or tactical or whatever, but they work well.

The nicest 7 round magazine I've come across is the new Ed Brown. It's a traditional design but made with a heavier stainless steel body and a slick coating on the follower. They feed with unreal, magnificent smoothness.

As for 8 rounders...none of them have been consistently good for me. Wilson 47Ds work well out of the box, but the springs in them are weak and get weaker quickly. The Tripp CobraMags I've tried were simply bad, ramming rounds into the feed ramp at a bad angle. Flush-fit 8 round Shooting Stars and Metalforms I tried were just bad mags that never worked right.

If I was try try 8 rounders again, I'd take a look at the new Ed Browns, since they look like their great 7 round design, just with an extended tube for that +1 round. But I've kind of lost interest in them.
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I just saw those mags from Ed brown, they look to be Checkmate mags. They look nice but I wonder how they work. I bought two Checkmate 8rd mags that look very similar to those from Ed brown and one of them did not work properly. I send them back to Checkmate and they supposedly fixed them, but I have not tried them yet.
 
I can't speak to the 8 rounders, but I have Ed Brown and Checkmate 7 rounders side-by-side and they are clearly NOT the same magazine. The Ed Brown magazine body is made of heavier steel than the Checkmate, has slightly different feed lips and a coated follower instead of bare steel. If Checkmate makes them for Ed Brown then they're using different specs for Ed Brown than the ones sold under the Checkmate name.

For what it's worth Ed Browns standard 7 round magazine used to be just a re-branded Metalform with a rounded metal follower.
 
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