Sig p365xl mag loading trouble?

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becket

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Picked up a Sig p365xl today. Loading up the 12-round mags using thumbs (no plastic cheater) the last 3 are very, very hard to get in
Took the mags apart and all seemed well; a drop of oil smeared around inside and put back together, but same trouble. Yes they are 12 round mags, and my hand strength is just fine. Loaded a bazillion mags in my life without this much trouble. Anyone else had this prob without using a loader? They shucked out and fed fine once in the Mag also.
 
I've had the same problem with some new 1911 mags recently. Tough to load the last 2 rounds but function just fine. I'm hoping it will get easier after a few hundred fills.
 
Thx all: I had been thinking this past few minutes that maybe somebody put a longer follower from a reg 265 mag in it by mistake! I’ll get the loader, thanks again
 
ontarget said:
I've had the same problem with some new 1911 mags recently. Tough to load the last 2 rounds but function just fine. I'm hoping it will get easier after a few hundred fills.
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We're about to veer away from the P365 but this may be applicable. Are your tough-to-load 1911 magazines the flush fit variety? If yes, does the manufacturer advertise them as having an 8 round capacity? If yes then this LINK may shed some light on why they're difficult to load.

In a nutshell, the design compromises that must be made to stuff 8 rounds of .45 into a magazine originally designed for 7 rounds often lead to extreme difficulty in loading the last round into the mag. Although I have no first hand experience with the P365, I suspect SIG decided they needed to stuff just one more round into its magazine to help sales. Back in the day we referred to this as "Keeping up with the Jones".
 
I don't have any experience loading Sig mags, but my Hellcat's 15 round mags are an epic p.i.t.a. to load. The last round is so hard to get in that my Uplula actually put a tiny dent in the side of the case. Next on the to-try list is an ETS cam loader. I really hope it works better.
 
George P said:
That's the one I have - works great for Glocks, SIGs, HKs, 1911s, etc
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Yep...I have a Makershot that's 'eh okay..got a couple of loaders with my HK's.. they're allright...then I got an UpLula with a 1911 adaptor for single stack mags..no contest..it is by far the fastest and easiest working loader I've ever used
 
SwampWolf said:
Thanks WheelGunMan for the helpful link (though I'm not sure why revolver men need them ;)). I probably missed it but what do these things cost?
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Aaaah yes....a dated screen name. Though I have a collection of revolvers... I'm a bottom feeder lover to. AnyGunMan would be a more appropriate description.
 
The 12 round problem is known widely now in SIG circles. The mag has a high floor plate and it severely restricts a new spring from fully collapsing. As for hard to load magazines, my 938 was that, pretty much ruined my appreciation for it. it was going to take an Uplula to get 6 rounds in, might as well get the SIG for 10. I sold it.

Now, the Kahr .380 I had was no problem, enjoyable, shoot the whole box kind of range day. What I discovered is that as you shorten the barrel on a 9mm yet still use the full power 5" barrel ammo the slide speed doesn't slow down enough to pick up the next round getting pushed up the column. It takes an even stiffer spring to get it to arrive in the shorter time a 3" barrel has - faster cyclic speed and smaller window. A lot of the small 9's have stiffer springs because of it. In that regard, the SIG 365 ten shot mag is easier than the 938 six shot. But not by much and certainly not the last round.

Leaving the 12 shot loaded will reduce the effort after a few months, it's reported that using them a lot makes it happen sooner. If you have that kind of ammo budget these days. We used to talk about shooting a new CCW 500 rounds to get the kinks out and proof it for carry. Now, it's another $250 + - and a lot of folks aren't so willing to do that. We wind up carrying a gun with fewer rounds thru it than we may like. We've picked up a lot of new shooters in the last few years, they weren't connected to this information then. So, it bears repeating.
 
They used to be around $25 for the standard pistol Maglula Uplula which works on everything I own except .22s. Likely more now but if you shoot much they’re well worth it.

Several of my 365 mags had the follower hang on the mag catch cut when they were new, on the 5th cartridge iirc. Gently deburring the inside of the hole helps.

btw I seldom bother cramming that last shell or 2 into the mags. Yes it can be done as the mfgs claim, and fairly easily with the lula, but it really stresses everything to, for me at least, little purpose.
 
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I concur with the others that you need a magazine loader. The clear favorite is the Magula UpLula, especially if you have more than one brand of pistol to load. However, if you are only using a P365/X/XL/SAS, the Makershot loader is smaller, 1/3 the cost, and still works well. I wanted even smaller so I cut off the front and rear lip of the loader so it would fit into my lockbox along with a P365X and Three 12 rd magazines.
Makershot Angle.jpg
It should be noted that the 12rd Magazine for the P365 is even more difficult to load than the 12rd magazine for the XL, because the P365 magazine's floorplate causes the magazine spring to sit 0.042" higher than on the XL floorplate, and the spring is even more compressed when the mag is loaded to capacity.

I've been doing some magazine spring testing and found that after cycling the magazine spring 500 times, the new, magazine spring strength was about 11% higher. But this doesn't take into account any reduction in spring strength caused by being compressed in a magazine for months at a time.
 
When hole a punched in sheet metal there is often a burr on the exit side of the sheet metal. After punching the holes in the sheet metal, the magazine shells are formed. The burrs are supposed to be on the OUTSIDE of the magazine shell where they aren't likely to cause a problem. Sometimes they screw up and the burrs around the holes are on the inside of the magazine shell where the follower can hang up on the burrs. So check your magazines to make sure that there are not any burrs on the inside. If burrs are present on the inside you can file them smooth with a needle file or use a deburring tool. You can even wrap sandpaper around a Q-Tip shaft or some other small round object such as a wooden kabob skewer and use that to deburr the hole edges.
 
Alllen Bundy said:
So check your magazines to make sure that there are not any burrs on the inside.
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Quite right.

In addition, check the top of the magazine for a burr which can stop the follower from moving up into contact with the feed lips which can result in a failure-to-lock-open on the last round. Sometimes the heat treat step can go awry resulting in one or both sides of the mag tube bent inward just enough in a spot or two to make the follower hesitate as it travels up the tube. This can result in inertia feeds.

Here's a LINK that contains more information on the subject.

One other thing to watch for is whether or not the mag spring hangs up on the magazine catch.
 
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