I like USGI magazines...the real ones, and not gunshow fakes. The best aftermarket magazines I've found thus far are the ones that Check-Mate Industries and Metalform make for Colt. I refer to'em as "Hybrids" because they combine the gradual, later release of the GI hardball mags and the timed release point of the wadcutter-type magazines. Very often, using these magazines and doing nothing else to the gun has cured many a feeding/return to battery issue. Not on all guns...but on a large percentage. They're made by the vendors to Colt's specifications. OKAY Industries also supplies Colt with the same magazine, but their quality isn't quite up to the standards of the other two.
Metalform won't sell the magazines unless they have an overrun on a Colt contract. Check-Mate will...and they're a little cheaper than Metalform. They also offer a sizeable discount for orders of 50 or more...and the price per unit drops agains at a hundred, and again at 250. The springs are apparently as good as Wolff's 11-pounders.
Now for the 8-round fans:
Check-Mate has designed and redesigned a follower and spring that offers the best promise of a flush-fit, 8-round magazine that is as reliable as a 7-round stick...or at least it's seemed so in fairly extensive testing by myself and a few other people...and they're available with the hybrid type lips OR the early/abrupt release wadcutter type. The price is the same.
Testing hasn't proven to be definitive as yet. They haven't been on the market long enough to make that call...but it looks very promising so far.
My pistols are so utterly reliable that they really can't be a litmus test for the magazines...but many other people who have used them in off-the-rack pistols report the same things. Smoother feeding...completely reliable feeding with a variety of bullet shapes...reliable slidelock on empty...and only one has reported a failure of the magazine to drop free on release...and that was with one magazine. Check-Mate replaced it without question.
They enlisted my help in the follower design, and used my suggestions. If that sounds like a little braggin'...Guilty. I'm proud to have been a part of it, and my only payment was 6 free magazines to keep after my part of the evaluation was over. it was a completely fun, interesting, and satisfying endeavor...and even though I've scoffed at 8-round magazines since before WW1...I may be forced to eat my own words in another year. I sincerely hope so.
2. Tuner-mags (8-rounders, CM45-8-S-H) –
http://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?t=40795
CheckMate 8-round magazines in stainless steel, with hybrid lips, welded, drilled and tapped floor plates, Tuner-approved, skirted, dimpled followers and high-performance springs.
It's a Colt design, and one that I've seen on OEM Colt 7-round magazines and 6-round OM-length magazines. Pictured below is a comparison between the hybrid's feed lips and the USGI design.
Dana...The "Hybrid" lips that are being described is the design that Colt went to after their supply of full-tapered "Hardball" or USGI-type magazines ran out. They have the taper of the GI mag, with a timed release point that occurs a little later than what we see on the aftermarket mags today.
And to clarify further...A comparison between the hybrid design and what we see today in the aftermarket magazines...which I refer to as the "Wadcutter" magazine. Note the earlier, more abrupt release point of the one in the middle...a Metalform. The two examples on the flanks are one each, produced by Check-Mate and Metalform.
FWIW...Full GI-spec magazine feed lips sometimes need adjusting for the correct release point. I've run into it in about 10% of the unused magazines I've bought over the years...and when I got a few of Check-Mate's end run of their last contract, I found the same to be true.
The "Hybrid" style lips provide the later, more gradual release of the GI mag, with a timed release point in the correct place. It's a Colt design, and CMI makes the magazines to Colt's specs. A little more versatile in most guns..and they come pre-tweaked. The price is the same.
Farscott...nope. By a happy coincidence, Metalform and Checkmate's 7-round mags made to Colt's specs actually provide the best of both worlds. Tapered lips that effect a more gradual release, and a timed release point that is more abrupt than the GI mag design, but still less so than the typical aftermarket wadcutter lips. Interestingly, some of the OEM magazines that come with Norinco pistols share that feature.
If the gun is within spec...and the magazine spring is up to the task...and the follower angle is correct...the round doesn't dive steeply into the ramp before making the upward turn toward the chamber. It should dip, strike the ramp high, glance off and glide over the corner of the barrel ramp rather than hitting it and again glancing up. The over-the-corner glide is important to smooth feeding because it holds the barrel down in the bed instead of pushing it forward. When the barrel moves forward, it also moves up...increasing the angle that the round has to overcome during the horizontal breakover.
The tapered lip magazine promotes that occurrence because...as the round strikes the frame ramp and starts to angle up, it's moved forward far enough for the butt-end to start to move up, so that by the time the nose of the bullet starts to glide over the corner of the barrel ramp, the rim has also moved higher onto the breechface. The angle is shallower, so the breakover to horizontal is easier and smoother.
By the time the bullet ogive is on top of the barrel ramp, the barrel is trapped in the bed...the extractor has picked up the rim...and the case is nearly centered on the breechface. All that's left is for the round to finish straightening up in the chamber...and for the slide to strike the barrel hood, and move the barrel forward and up into battery.
The parallel lip, early/abrupt release holds the rim down until the last instant, and releases it during the angled transition. Works well for very short OAL SWC ammo...below 1.190 inch...but not at all for longer rounds from 1.200-1.260 inch, even though they work reasonably well with longer ammo in many guns...but not all the time in all the guns. Again...it does require that the springs are strong enough, and the followers are set at the correct angle to prevent nose-diving deep into the ramp.
In short...The tapered design works for the same reasons that the new "High Cartridge Presentation" magazines work. They lower the angle of entry into the chamber after striking the feed ramp. They just do it by a different method. Nothing new under the sun, it seems. Oftentimes, these wonderous, new inventions were already in place many years before the modern inventor was born. The problem lies in the fact that many have either forgotten...or they've been innundated for so long with the modern that they've neglected to consider why the old was done like it was. Simply not enough faith in the genius who gave us the gun. Think. If the early, abrupt release magazines had enhanced feed reliability...don't you think that he would implemented it long ago? I have no doubt that it didn't escape his attention, and was likely tried during the development process..."Just to see what would happen."
)) that your gun is a .45acp)
