Fine Tuning Magazines For Reliable Feeding

While some magazines remain affordable, there are some that are pretty pricey and others that are hard to come by. Just this last week, I ordered a Heckler & Koch P7 magazine for $60, and I’ve had a Walther PPK/S .22 magazine on back order for four weeks. Thus, it seems, whatever we can do to keep older magazines working is well worth the effort. A look at the construction of the typical magazine tells the tale.

While some are better made than others, they’re all made of stamped sheetmetal, which is never going to last as long as a carefully forged firearm. The magazine’s lips are subject to wear and damage, and its spring has a finite service life, so it’s not unusual for a magazine to need repair or replacement before any other part of the handgun begins to give trouble. Lets look at the construction of the magazine. Sheetmetal forms the walls of the magazine.

Inside, the follower controls the feeding of cartridges, while the follower spring or magazine spring provides the energy for feeding. The magazine spring must work properly from almost no compression with one round loaded to full compression with 15 or more rounds’which is not an easy job for a spring to do. While the mag spring provides tension, the feed lips keep the cartridges in line, ready to be bumped into the feed ramp by the automatic pistol’s loading block.

A weak magazine spring can allow the bullets to be jolted downwards in recoil. The slide will then travel forward and not load around into the chamber. Likewise, too heavy a spring can result in too much pressure against the feed lips and a reluctance to feed. Spring and follower problems can even result in gouges in the feed ramp if the follower jumps forward in recoil. Also, a weak spring might not properly feed the last round from the magazine.

Most of these problems can be addressed and repaired by the knowledgeable pistolsmith. Whether to repair or replace a magazine is a decision that should be made with several criteria in mind. Availability is probably the first consideration, and cost is the second. How the magazine is used is also a consideration. The competition shooter will probably prefer to repair an expensive magazine rather than replace it. When a failure-to-feed problem is encountered, the magazine is the first thing to look at.

Sometimes, magazine problems are more obvious, such as a mag that fails to hold and falls out of the pistol. I’ve seen this in several The standard magazine (bottom), the Wilson Combat mag (center), and the Cobra magazine (top) all differ slightly in overall length. pistols in the past few months. Let’s look at failures to feed first. As a general rule, a bullet that butts into the feed ramp and fails to feed is being released too early. This is a magazine-related problem.

If the magazine lips are too close together, the bottom of the feed ramp is struck. If they’re too far apart, the bullet strikes near the top of the chamber. The cartridge should drag a little on the feed lips but not too much. For example, magazines for High Standard .22 automatics are usually set with a .236- to .238-inch width between the lips. And with any magazine, the lips must be symmetrical. The feed lips must be opened if the bottom of the ramp is being struck, and closed a bit if the top of the

chamber is being hit. Working the feed lips demands a bit of finesse. For opening lips, I’ve been using my Caspian gunsmith tool lately. Pliers with sharp needle noses are also well suited for close work. When closing the lips, I use a Quinetics bullet puller. Unconventional sure, but for a very slight movement, this light and handy tool works just fine. It’s made of a lightweight synthetic material, and the handle offers excellent control. When using the pliers, go slowly and carefully, working a little at a time.

Some magazines are not properly tempered and the lips will snap. The most recent surgery of this type I performed was on a Browning Buckmark magazine. I’m certain the problem was caused by leaving the magazine loaded for long periods of time, and/or by slamming a loaded magazine home on a closed bolt. Loading the magazine into a pistol with the bolt or slide locked back helps to limit wear on the magazine, especially if fully loaded high-capacity magazines are used.

Of course, few .22-caliber magazines can be considered "service grade," and the Buckmark’s units are no exception. In this particular case, one magazine worked just fine, While designed primarily for working with the M1911, this tool is helpful with many other types of handguns. Note the integral bushing wrench. while the other had been damaged. Fortunately, I had a "template" to use in the form of the serviceable magazine. The repair was a simple matter of raising one lip and then the other almost imperceptibly.

Most of these problems are perfectly visible in dryfire with dummy rounds, and once cured, dry-fire analysis shows the improvement. Don’t overlook the fact that only one lip may be damaged. This is especially true with heavier magazines that are dropped. When a loaded magazine is dropped, there is much more force exerted on the feed ramp lips. It may land on only one side and the other be undamaged.

Double-stack magazines are supposed to be more durable, with stronger lips to withstand the pressure of the strong follower spring, but they’re not immune to damage. Recently, I examined a Glock magazine with a substantial nick at the very top. I carefully trimmed the polymer away and smoothed the magazine. The owner informed me that a handload had ruptured, blowing the case head out, and ejecting the magazine. He was fortunate that a slightly damaged magazine was the sum of his problems.

Polymer magazines are not exempt from damage. There are also the occasional nicks and burrs on feed lips of all types of magazines that cause problems. These can be isolated and repaired. Sometimes magazine problems are not what they seem. Grip screws that are too long or a magazine riding on the trigger stirrup can produce drag. Feed problems may be related to the cartridge overall length (OAL) or improper sizing. These need to be eliminated.

A problem seldom encountered with quality magazines but once the bane of GI magazines is still encountered with Star, Llama, Astra, and Tokarev pistols. The follower may run forward. When under pressure, it’s fine. But when there is no longer any pressure on the follower, it will protrude forward from the magazine. This can cause a problem when removing the magazine and the sheetmetal follower may even take a gouge out of the aluminum feed ramp on certain pistols.

The follower most often will rise too high in the front. In this case, the follower can be bent and adjusted for the proper attitude. Dents in the magazine can also impede the follower’s movement. If the dent isn’t deep enough to affect the cartridges, the follower can be trimmed a bit, as I did once on an ancient Ruby magazine with good results. In many cases, it’s easier to file the follower than to remove a dent from a magazine body. Working on feed lips doesn’t usu-

22-caliber magazine has feed lips that recurve and can present a challenge to the gunsmith. Above center: The magazine follower can sometimes protrude from the magazine. If the follower is actually loose, it can snag on the feed ramp. 22-caliber magazine feeds at a slightly high angle. A spare magazine of proper proportions is a good aid when reshaping a magazine. ally require the magazine to be completely disassembled.

You can depress the follower with a dowel, and then run a punch through the magazine’s witness holes (on magazines with such openings). Since it’s best to bend a little and check feeding after each "tweak," it’s much easier to pin the follower than to completely disassemble the magazine several times. Simply stripping and cleaning a magazine can often work wonders. I’ve used a product from Krunch Products called Mag Slick with good results. As a bonus a certain lubrication is added.

Testing a magazine spring is difficult to do by feel, unless the spring has truly gone south. Whenever possible, comparing a used spring to anew spring is the best way to reveal a loss of length or strength. A loss of an inch or more means the spring is well worn. I order my springs from W. C. Wolff at gunsprings.com. On the subject of springs, a too strong or too weak recoil spring can confuse the issue. An 18-pound Commander .45 spring is normal, as is a 16-pound Government Model .45 spring.

When it comes to other types, consult the manufacturer or W. C. Wolff for the proper spring weight. Mismatched springs can be a nightmare. While you can tune a pistol for +P loads or for light loads, you want to be certain the piece functions with standard loads and standard springs first. Won’t Stay In/Won’t Come Out Over the past year, I have seen several pistols with problems related to the magazine release.

An ex-German-police Walther PP in .32 ACP worked fine with one magazine, but the second magazine occasionally bolted from the magazine well. The problem was a wallowed-out magazine-catch cutout. I welded the notch up slightly, and polished it to factory specs, using the working magazine as a template. It was not a pretty solution, but it worked. The second example was a Star Super that dropped the magazine every three rounds or so.

The owner didn’t want to spend any money on this one, and I assume it was probably dumped at a gun show and became someone else’s problem. In another case, a 1911 that was built at considerable expense, with a first-class frame and slide and a Bar Sto barrel, dropped the magazine the first time it fired. Another similar pistol refused to drop the magazine until I exerted extraordinary force on both the latch and the magazine.

Sometimes, the magazine catch will be worn or of poor quality and will press the magazine sideways, resulting in poor retention. You need to carefully and slowly move the magazine in the well and press the latch to determine if this is the case. Usually this or an adjustment of the magazine-catch tension screw will help remove a stuck magazine.

A cure for a magazine latch that bites too deeply into the magazine cutout is to file or polish the catch on the opposite side of the button where the latch captures the magazine. That’s the little spot on the inside where it meets the magazine. M1911 Magazines Magazines for the 1911 are plentiful, and range in quality from dismal to outstanding. Three types of followers are used’t he flat, the convex, and the rounded style, with the latter two being the most desirable.

GI magazines seldom feed semi-wadcutter or jacketed hollowpoint ammunition acceptably. Work on the feed lips can help sometimes, but is not always a reliable cure-all. The worst reliability problems come from standard magazines that have been modified with cut and weakened springs to accommodate an eighth round. Personally, I don’t believe a seven-round magazine can be successfully modified to retain an eighth round.

The Wilson Combat magazine set the standard for modern magazines, with a stainless-steel body that’s .1 inch longer than the GI magazine and an eleven-coil magazine spring. The Virgil Tripp Cobra maga-

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zine is even longer".3 inch longer than the Wilson Combat body’and has a thirteen-coil spring. While the Cobra mag looks promising, the Wilson Combat magazine is easily the most proven 1911 magazine ever made. Extended Magazines and Others I’ve spent considerable time experimenting with 10-round extended magazines, including the Metalform units. In short, I’ve found them to be reliable and to work fine in all applications.

I think that the longer magazine with a stronger spring helps to solve the 1911 mag’s basic engineering problem. However, the extra magazine length causes problems of its own. I’ve tested several eight-round 1911 magazines that lock in fine and extend only slightly from the magazine well’not much more than the GI mag’and are sometimes a bit tight. I noticed under intense light and magnification that they put a bit of a polish on the ejector.

While they functioned, I’m certain that contact with the ejector can’t be a good thing. Extended magazine pads are another matter. These are often the sole cause of Glock magazine problems. I’ve lost count of the magazine extensions I have seen break or come loose. The factory H&K pads seems to be fine, but most of the others I’ve seen are problematic. Adding two rounds while retaining the original spring seems a bit of a stretch to me. When testing a magazine, I like to keep a standard of comparison on hand.

For example, I recently tested a custom 1911 a friend was thinking about purchasing. The pistol featured two original magazines that had been modified with a spring kit and follower. When the loaded magazines were inserted and the slide dropped, there was a "ka-chung" sound, combined with what seemed to me like heavy and slow travel. At about the third round in hand cycling, the sound gave way to the familiar effortless 1911 cycling.

I took two Checkmate magazines, which are about as close to GI/Colt specifications as you can get, and loaded these with the same Winchester ball ammunition. This time, the cycling was almost as smooth as if I were racking the slide with no magazine and ammunition at all. My point is that’before you waste time evaluating any cycling problem’it’s good to try a benchmark magazine of known performance for comparison purposes. When working with magazines, consider the ammunition to be used.

A handgun should run with all good factory ammunition, and the 1911 runs well with GI magazines and the standard 1.230-inch overall length cartridge. Shorter rounds such as deepseated 200-grain SWC bullets and especially the 185-grain bullets are the ones that give trouble. Our work would be easier without such ammunition. Recently, I’ve noted a problem that seems to be specific to SIG pistols. SIG magazines, in both .38 Super and .45 ACP, tend to be very tight with regard to overall cartridge length.

I tested the first batch of a major company’s 230-grain JHP, and the SIG P220 magazine would only hold three cartridges. More than three and the length of the cartridge impeded function. The company changed the OAL of the cartridge soon afterwards. SIG magazines seem to be durable, but after hard use, the single-column mags for the P220 and the P225 tend to begin failing to lock the slide open with the last shot. The dimensions don’t allow a simple cure that I’m aware of.

The Desert Eagle has demonstrated a similar problem, but the DE magazines seem to respond well to standard repair techniques. The knob or protrusion on the Desert Eagle that locks into the slide lock may need to be peened in ordered for the slide lock to work properly. As a final note, let me share my latest experience with magazine troubleshooting. On this pistol, cases were dropping into the magazine well, mostly on the last shot, making it appear as if the magazine was producing a problem on the last round.

The real culprit turned out to be a recalcitrant extractor. I had to fiddle for awhile with this one. Fortunately, most cycling problems’t he ones that are magazine-related, anyway’are relatively simple and straightforward to repair. I