I violated the Gospel According to JMB

[Fishslayer]

Verse 4: And the profaning of the internal parts didst render it unworkable when the dust of the land fell upon it, and these profaners didst try and fit more rounds of ammunition into the magazines than the holy number of seven, appointed for the .45.

Well... I'm a big fan of the Checkmate 7 rounders with hybrid lips & heavy springs so decided to try out their 8 rounders.

RN ammo, flawless. X-treme SWC, not so much. Just slammed the first round into the feed ramp. To be fair, if a round is going to give me problems it's always been the X-treme SWC. They have a long nose with a sharp edge.

So I guess I'll do what I've done with every other 8 round 1911 magazine I've ever tried, including the vaunted WC 47D. Yank out the spring & stick in a 7 round one.

Ignore the teachings of John Moses Browning at your own peril.:banghead:

 

[Certaindeaf]

Ouch. Well, at least the sevens work!

 

[David E]

I'd put in an Ed Brown mag release, first.

All my .45 1911's run 8 rd mags just fine.

 

[1911Tuner]

The new Check Mate 8 round magazines are much improved over the early flush-fit 8 rounders. They extended the length of the tube so they could get a good spring in it and put skirts on the Devel followers to stabilize it...and that goes a long way toward making it reliable. As the AR15 heads discovered...a stable follower is paramount to feed reliability.

I haven't seen any lately, but I hear through the grapevine that Chip McCormick has jumped on the bandwagon, and has started using CMI's "Bull Nose" follower in his magazines. No word on whether the Powermag is now extended length with a false slam pad to cover the extra length...but I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[Fishslayer]

The new Check Mate 8 round magazines are much improved over the early flush-fit 8 rounders. They extended the length of the tube so they could get a good spring in it and put skirts on the Devel followers to stabilize it....

These have the dimpled skirted followers. They actually fit below flush in the well. Once I get a round chambered they function fine with the SWC. It's just releasing the slide on the first round that causes problems. Think I'll run a few hundred RN through 'em & try the SWC again. I'm also gonna try 'em with my Bear Creek & Berry's SWC ammo & see how they do.
The springs are noticably softer than their high performance 7 round springs. Those things make me glad for my Uplula loader.

I shoot probably 75% SWC at the range. Maybe I should just go ahead & try out the wadcutter feed lip type.

 

[1911Tuner]

These have the dimpled skirted followers.

Yep. It took a little convincing, but I finally got'em to punch that little speed bump and collaborate with Wolff for their springs.

I like your sigline, by the way. Kudos!

 

[buckhorn_cortez]

Ignore the teachings of John Moses Browning at your own peril.

Pfffttt....I run 8 round ETM's in all of my 1911's except the Officer's size...which has 7 round magazines. In the Les Baer Heavyweight Monolith I use Chip McCormick 10 round magazines for competition - you may live by your belief in JMB - I use what works for me.

 

[jblackfish]

I was lovin the 8 round McCormick until I tried to change the old style devel follower to the Checkmate hybrid which won't allow the 8th round to go into the magazine. See this: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=674497

 

[JTQ]

jblackfish wrote,
I tried to change the old style devel follower to the Checkmate hybrid which won't allow the 8th round to go into the magazine.

For clarity, the CheckMate follower is called the Patented CheckMate Follower (CMF) or the bullnose follower. CheckMate has hybrid feed lips, but not a hybrid follower.

Tripp Research, on the other hand does have a hybrid follower, which is a combination of polymer and metal.
http://www.trippresearch.com/store/store_1911.html

The Wilson follower you have pictured in your link is possibly the 7 round follower. It is possible you could get 8 rounds in your Chip McCormick PowerMag with the Wilson 8 round follower.

The McCormick follower is really only a problem if you are having problems with it. If it is working, why not use it?

 

[jblackfish]

Sorry for the Checkmate terminology error. I thought it was the hybrid follower.

On the other hand, the WC follower pictured IS the 8-round follower. I ordered 10 replacements for worn followers in my 47D's.

Lastly, you're right - the devel followers are only a problem IF I have a problem with them. However, reading a few horror stories as to what can happen WHEN you have a problem was enough to make me want to change.

Oh, and the Tripp follower skirts appear to be as long as the Checkmate - in fact, Tripp has one that appears to be THE Checkmate follower. I'm actually thinking the issue may be the McCormick spring combined with the follower. Just comparing the McCormick spring with the Wilson Combat spring, Mcormick's spring is quite a bit bigger and "beefier."

 

[CZguy]

Pfffttt....I run 8 round ETM's in all of my 1911's except the Officer's size...which has 7 round magazines. In the Les Baer Heavyweight Monolith I use Chip McCormick 10 round magazines for competition - you may live by your belief in JMB - I use what works for me.

It really is a personal choice, but a word of caution. "Gun hell, is no where near full." Don't say latter on, that you weren't warned.

 

[JTQ]

Well, if you want a "warm fuzzy" on your McCormick PowerMags, here's an article from Hilton Yam at 10-8 Performance.

http://www.10-8performance.com/pages/1911-Magazines.html

 

[jblackfish]

Well, if you want a "warm fuzzy" on your McCormick PowerMags, here's an article from Hilton Yam at 10-8 Performance.

http://www.10-8performance.com/pages/1911-Magazines.html

Thanks, JTQ. I had seen that article about a week ago from some other reference. Even though I saw it long after I bought the Powermags, it again made me concerned about the Powermag's tendency to "jump forward" as it feeds the last round. I wanted to make the change primarily because of that - I like for the follower to "stay put" all the time. So in order to use the Powermag, it appears that I'll either have to 1) go to a different spring (which defeats the purpose of switching to the Powermag IMO,) 2) return to the original follower (I can't see any particular advantage in switching to the Power+ follower and they're $11 each!) or just go back to the WC 47D's which I still use in other pistols anyway.

Of course I could get the Checkmate springs that will work with their follower in the 8-round tube but I don't know if their spring is any stronger than the WC spring, which BTW, is turning out to be the weakest magazine spring in my current "collection" of magazines. I feel like I'm "nickle and diming" myself to death with $100 dollar bills being the nickles in this case. Experimenting is expensive!