Springfield Mags.....worth the money?

[Patriotme]

I recently bought a Springfield Loaded (9mm) and was wondering what you opinion is of Springfield's magazines. I have a coupon for more mags at $25 each ($10 shipping for $50, $12 for $100).
Unfortunately the gun wouldn't run reliably and had to go back to the factory. The mags worked fine in my Kimber though.
So....how do their magazines rate compared to their competition?

 

[rcmodel]

Thier 9mm mag is one of the most relable made.

See this about that:
http://www.dillonprecision.com/docs/march_07_metalform_mags.pdf

rc

 

[JTQ]

Good find rcmodel. I remember that article from Duane Thomas, and would have been able to remember what he said about the 9MM mags from Springfield, but wouldn't have been able to find it.

 

[psyopspec]

I hope Springfield takes care of the gun. I like the 1911 I have from them, and came to the brand after repeated bad experiences with Kimber products.

For my .45 mags, I chose to go after market since the only Springer mags I could get on sale were 7-rounders and I prefer 8s. I'll leave the specific mags you're asking about to other posters.

 

[cpirtle]

I found out the hard way that the Springfield/Metalform mag's are vastly better than those offered by Wilson. (I know, you didn't ask for the comparison, but that's what else I have experience with)

My first 9mm 1911 was a Smith & Wesson that ships with Wilsons. So I ordered 8 more Wilsons to round out the package. Love the gun, love the mags.

Then I purchased a custom Springfield 9mm from Benchmark Precision, the factory Springfield mag's ran fine but I had random trouble with the slide locking back on the Wilson Mag's. Luckily I had not sold the S&W yet so I set out to find out why.

Long story short, Wilson uses a plastic follower with an open loop of plastic to engage the slide stop, metalform uses a steel follower and a much larger steel tab for stop activation. On the Springfield/BP the wilson frequently slid past the slide stop under recoil and would fail to lock the slide.

I thought for a moment the stop on the Springer was out of spec and compared it to about 5 of my other 1911's and they were all the same. Pulled the stop on the S&W and found that it's activation button is about 20% longer than standard, obviously a change Smith made to overcome the shortcoming of the Wilson mag's.

So, all of the Wilson's are gone and now replaced with Metalform/Springfield mag's from my loaded coupon.

Good luck with your repair, I'm sure they will take care of you and you'll be very happy with the pistol in the end. They will probably include a couple of more mag's when they return it.

 

[Patriotme]

The pistol is back and I hope to get it out to the range in a few days. They really had a quick turnaround on the gun. It was back in a week. According to the invoice they fitted the slide and barrel. I don't know how well it works yet but I know that it definately feels smoother.
I'll update in a couple of days about how well it works now. The issue that I had before was that the slide wasn't coming far enough to the rear to extract and eject the spent case. It was moving foward and rechambering the empty case. I would have to rack the slide after every shot.
Hopefully they got it right. It's a beautiful gun and my wife and daughter monopolize my Kimber at the range so I need another M1911.

 

[tnelson31]

I use the Springfield mags in my RIA 9mm and they work great!

 

[Patriotme]

Well, as I said earlier the pistol is back. The turnaround was very quick and the invoice stated that the barrel was fitted to the slide and the slide was fitted to the frame. It was also test fired according to the invoice.
No mags or anything were included to offset the inconvenience of a brand new $850 pistol not working correctly or the inconvenience of having to drive across town to ship it off.
Anyway, I got out to a local range one evening and put about 70 rnds through the gun. I used the Springfield mags and shot about 50 rnds of Speer lawman (I believe) and about 20 rnds or so of WWB. The gun worked fine and I had no complaints.
A week later I went to the range that I'm a member of and shot about 200 rnds of WWB. I started off using the Springfield magazines but noticed that I was getting some double feeds with one of the mags. My wife was shooting my Kimber Stainless Target II so I grabbed one of the Kimber mags. I now started having double double feeds with both the Kimber mag and one of the Springfield magazines. Both mags went to her station and she had no issues with them in the Kimber.
I estimate that I had 6-8 double feeds during the day.
The gun was not cleaned before that range trip as it only had 70 rnds through it before going out there. I don't consider a gun with 70 rnds through it as dirty. I did put a little lube on the rails before leaving for the range though.
A week later I shot a match with my daughter (who hogs my Kimber btw). Unfortunately due to her being ill we only got to shoot 2 out of 4 stages. I only put about 50 rnds through the gun this day and had one double feed. Just to be different I used Remington 115gr.
As usual the Kimber ran perfectly with boring regularity.
Sooo.....I'm going to consider the break in period as starting when the gun was returned to me. It has a little over 300 rnds through it since then. Oddly enough it seems less reliable then it was during the first range trip. I'll put another 100-200 rnds through it and then give SA another shot at it if it's still malfunctioning.

 

[wally]

When you say "double feed" is the round in the chamber live or an empty from the shot that jammed?

If its an empty from the previous shot, odds are you got an extractor or ejector problem.

Since the mags worked in the Kimber, odds are it is not a magazine issue.

 

[Patriotme]

When you say "double feed" is the round in the chamber live or an empty from the shot that jammed?

If its an empty from the previous shot, odds are you got an extractor or ejector problem.

Since the mags worked in the Kimber, odds are it is not a magazine issue.

Spent casing in the chamber and a jam from the top of the mag.
I think that the mags are fine. The Kimber gets shot a lot and all of the mags work fine in it. Even the new SA mags that came with the loaded are gtg with it.
I think it's the extractor too. I heard somewhere that the claw on the SA extractors are a little different than most and can be an issue. I don't know if it's true or not.
Like I said, I'll put a few more rnds through it just to make sure that it's out of the break in period. I hate playing 20 questions with customer service so I like being able to say that it's out of the break in period, 5 brands of ammo were used and several different mags were tried. It cuts out the BS.
When I first got the gun it wouldn't cycle. I would load the first rnd by hand, pull the trigger and the slide would not cycle far enough to the rear to extract and eject the spent case. It also wouldn't move far enough to the rear to strip a fresh rnd off of the magazine. The next trigger squeeze would result in a click instead of a bang. I'd rack the slide by hand and this would be repeated.
Believe it or not I put 2 boxes of ammo through it like this before returning it. It kind of sucked but it probably helped my trigger squeeze. Bang, click, rack, bang, click, rack, etc.
I'll probably get to the range tomorrow for an hour or two. I'd like to get it sent out and back before the next match. I am kind of disappointed in SA though. I stayed away from their M1911's for years because I got a POS from them in the late 1990's. Here I am again wondering if this gun will be unreliable after several trips to the factory.
I guess the lesson is to do my research. I had researched and was looking for an STI Spartan. I couldn't find one in my area so I took a chance on the Loaded based on Springfield's rep. Live and learn.

 

[Kiln]

I only fired a Springfield 1911 once and it ran flawlessly.

I own two XDM's and they both work flawlessly, though the magazines are made in Croatia I believe.

 

[aliveisalive]

My springfield mags sucked... However my tripp mags are a dream

 

[smalls]

I now started having double double feeds with both the Kimber mag and one of the Springfield magazines. Both mags went to her station and she had no issues with them in the Kimber.

,

The 9mm cartridge barely has any rim to it at all. Which means it needs a lot of extractor hook and tension to grab the spent casing out. My guess is either you don't have enough hook, or your tension is too loose. My extractor tension has to be extremely tight for it to grab the rim.

 

[fallout mike]

I thought metalform made the mags for Springfield? Regardless, my have functioned flawlessly.

 

[Patriotme]

I'm back from another range trip. The Loaded had a lot of double feeds. I used the SA mags and some trusted (and pretty new) Kimber mags. I tried WWB, Federal and Blazer Brass.
The gun had a lot of double feeds, an occasional stovepipe and for some reason stopped locking open on an empty mag at the end of the day.
The gun and mags were cleaned before the range trip. Over 100 rnds were put through it today before I finally gave up in disgust.
I let the wife shoot it some just to eliminate me from the mix. Same results.
So back it goes. I call SA tomorrow and give them another shot at it.

When comparing the Loaded to the Kimber I noticed a couple of differences. The most obvious is that the Kimber works. Something less obvious is that the extractor on the Springfield seems to have less tension.

 

[BP-1911]

Patriotme - I feel your frustration. Like a few of the guys here mentioned, if a case is stuck in the chamber while a second round is strpped from the mag, that's likely an extractor issue. But the extractor wouldn't cause your slide not to lock back. Interestingly, I've seen a handful of Springfield loaded 9mm's that suffered from a geometry/interference issue between the barrel and slide, causing a significant binding condition and erratic performance. Out of curiosity and if you have a chance, remove the slide from your pistol and pull the barrel. Once the barrel's out, turn it upside down with the link pointing upward and look for signs of scoring on the sides of the chamber region of the barrel on either side of the lower lugs.

 

[Patriotme]

Man, I forgot about this thread.
The gun has been back for quite a while. The second return seemed to have done the trick. I've put about 600 rnds of ball through the pistol and have had no issues. Most of it has been WWB and Federal. I did run a box of Tulammo through it lately just to see how it would handle steel cased ammo.
I guess it's been to the range 4 or 5 times since the second return. It got cleaned after coming back from the factory but I haven't touched it since then (Other than a few drops of Break Free).
It looks like Springfield took care of it and they took out that POS ILS system for me at no cost. I'm much happier with the regular mainspring housing.
If I can find the invoices I'll update this. What I can remember is that they fitted the barrel to the slide and the slide to the frame on the first return.
On the second I believe that they replaced the extractor and ejector. Ejector was pinned.
The mainspring housing with the ILS was replaced with a standard part.

I still believe that the ILS had something to do with my problems. The slide would sometimes seem to drag or hang up when racking it. The lock in the mainspring housing would be in the correct position but when I would turn it on and off a few times it would seem to catch and then the slide would seem to move more freely for a while.

Thanks to everyone that chimed in with the good info.