1911 Magazine Talk

[The Red Hot Rider]

Here's the situation:

Today, I traded for a Colt Series 80 Commander 1911. It was in good shape, from appearances. It also shot accurately when I got it home.

Here's the trouble...at first, it would not feed my Hornady XTP bullets well at all. "Well, no problem", I thought, "it IS a big, wide hollow point bullet, and I would not feel at all uncomfortable shooting FMJ and carrying FMJ". So, I load up the clip with Federal 230 grain FMJ, and...you guessed it...failures to feed and fire.

Then, I remembered 1911 Tuner saying most problems with 1911's are related to the magazine. Off I tromp into the ole' gun cabinet and retrieve some Wilson Combat magazines, load 'em up...voila!! Everything I put in the gun fed and ejected great from that point on.

Now, the magazine that came with the gun was an actual Colt magazine, which leads to my question(s).

1. Why in the world would the gun not shoot consistently with the magazines provided from its own factory?

2. What is different about magazines like Wilson Combat that makes them so much better and so much more reliable than factory magazines?

3. Since Colt, amongst others, are, in my opinion, "kind of" high dollar guns, why do they not create magazines of the same quality of Wilson Combat and others to send along with their guns in the first place? My first guess would be to keep costs down, but I would just as soon pay a little more for the gun up front and get quality mags than have to buy them aftermarket. I compared the magazines provided with my Colt Government, Colt New Agent, and Colt Commander with the Wilsons, and they (the Colt magazines) seemed kind of flimsy in comparison. I will say that I also have a Smith and Wesson S&W 1911, and the magazines provided appear to be of a quality level comparable with the Wilsons.

I would like to hear the opinions of those of you who are knowledgable about 1911's.

I swear I will say bad things about the parental lineage of anyone who says "you should've bought a Glock"...lol. I have had 3 of them and traded them off. I am officially a quality wheelgun and 1911 man for life. I only have one plastic gun left...a FNP45...man, what a gun.

Thank you in advance for any insights.

 

[ljnowell]

Probably a good chance your colt mag was just old and needed a new spring.

 

[Auto426]

Colt does not actually make the magazines they include with their guns, like the majority of other gun manufacturers today. Colt outsources magazine production to companies like Mec Gar and Checkmate, and they usually work pretty well. You will get the occasional stinker, and sometimes you just need to work the spring a little bit for it to take a set and work properly.

There's also a problem with counterfeit Colt magazines sold by unscrupulous dealers at gunshows. Just because it's stamped Colt and has a pony on it doesn't mean it's an actual Colt magazine.

 

[The Red Hot Rider]

I did not know that. I guess you learn something every day.

 

[Okie45]

I ran into a similar problem with my original colt mag, I would get a failure to feed everytime with gold dots, usually on about the 5th round. My other mag also stamped colt would feed them no problem. Needless to say, I no longer have that original magazine. It was trashed and replaced with Wilson combat mags.

 

[1911Tuner]

Could be one of several reasons. Maybe a weak spring. Maybe simply a bad magazine. Anything that's mass-produced is subject to the law of probabilities and results in lemon every so often. Nature of the beast.

 

[rcmodel]

It was in good shape, from appearances.

If you bought a used gun, you have no assurance the first owner didn't do a little magazine feed lip tweeking with his trusty Channel-Lock pliers.

It's also possible he took the mag apart to tweek it, and put the spring in backwards when he put it back together.

rc

 

[Edarnold]

Or the previous owner may have participated in one of the gun games, where dropping the ejected magazine on the ground when reloading is considered good manners...
Do that often enough and you get to be a supporter of the aftermarket magazine vendors, who, oddly enough, are often sponsors of these games. Kind of makes you wonder where some of these rules come from...

 

[1KPerDay]

Or the previous owner may have participated in one of the gun games, where dropping the ejected magazine on the ground when reloading is considered good manners...

How gauche!!

 

[45_auto]

Or the previous owner may have participated in one of the gun games, where dropping the ejected magazine on the ground when reloading is considered good manners...
Do that often enough and you get to be a supporter of the aftermarket magazine vendors, who, oddly enough, are often sponsors of these games. Kind of makes you wonder where some of these rules come from...

What gun game has rules requiring you to drop an expended magazine on the ground? I shoot about every gun game you can think of and I don't know of ANY requiring you to let a magazine hit the ground. You're entirely free to carefully control and place the expended magazine anywhere you like.

You won't win, but you'll just have to decide what's more important to you.

 

[Edarnold]

Sorry, my bad for trying to be witty. The point I was making was that in almost every TV show on competition or training, the ejected mag 'drops free' (which is always mentioned in reviews as a plus) and hits the dirt, pebbles or concrete. No, not 'required' by rules, but seems to be almost universal practice. I can't believe that the result is not a percentage of damaged magazines.
IMHO

 

[Skylerbone]

I know it's nothing more than a WAG but did this Colt come with the new 8-round mags. and your previous three with 7-rounders?

Last Colt I bought (2012 for an anniversary rollmark) came with a pair of flush-fit 8-rounders with springs so weak I tossed em back in the case.

 

[gunner69]

I carry a Kimber .45ACP and occasionally had feed problems with the factory Kimber magazines. I thought it was the gun..... well I was wrong.

My son carries a Willson Colt Combat and has been using the Wilson mags exclusively. The last range session we had together he noticed my fustration with jamming problems. He had four wilson magazines loaded and shot all four out of my gun without a jam. Hmmmmm, so I loaded up the four magazines he had and had the same result. I now use Wilson magazines and (knock on wood) have 300 rounds shot without a jam. Buy wilson and don't look back.

 

[TonyT]

With 1911's I use the Metalform magazines in 9mm, 38 Super, 40 S&W and 45 ACP. They all feed reliably in my 1911's.

 

[loadedround]

Just a bit of history...the 1911 pistol and magazine were designed to be fired with the 230 gr JRN bullet. SWC and HP bullets were not available back back in those days. Just to humor me, try firing some military ball ammo (230 gr JRN) thru your 1911 and the suspect magazine. Bet you a beer that it will fuction properly.

 

[JTQ]

loadedround wrote,
Just to humor me, try firing some military ball ammo (230 gr JRN) thru your 1911 and the suspect magazine. Bet you a beer that it will fuction properly.

In the original post,

The Red Hot Rider wrote,
So, I load up the clip with Federal 230 grain FMJ, and...you guessed it...failures to feed and fire.

 

[Skylerbone]

Send one Iron City to the following address.

 

[loadedround]

Sorry, guess I didn't read the whole post.

 

[Robert101]

I believe the manufacturers should provide and be responsible for the magazines they provide. If the gun malfunctions and is linked to a faulty magazine then shame on the manufacturer. I do not agree with the position that some take in saying, its the magazine and not the gun. Darn it, the maganize is part of the gun - no difference.

 

[The Red Hot Rider]

Already done that before I tried the Wilson Combat. It jammed on those as well with the factory magazine....I prefer Bud longnecks, icey cold please, my friend.

 

[The Red Hot Rider]

I believe the manufacturers should provide and be responsible for the magazines they provide. If the gun malfunctions and is linked to a faulty magazine then shame on the manufacturer. I do not agree with the position that some take in saying, its the magazine and not the gun. Darn it, the maganize is part of the gun - no difference.

+ 1

 

[ljnowell]

I believe the manufacturers should provide and be responsible for the magazines they provide. If the gun malfunctions and is linked to a faulty magazine then shame on the manufacturer. I do not agree with the position that some take in saying, its the magazine and not the gun. Darn it, the maganize is part of the gun - no difference.

ON a new gun, absolutely. In my mind, there is no difference between a new gun with a bad mag and a new gun with a bad night sight. Now, if its an old gun, thats a whole nother story. Springs do eventually wear out.

 

[VAPOPO]

The heavier mag springs in the Wilson or Powermags tend to mask other issues like an extractor that is out of adjustment. Check the extractor tension first before throwing away mags.

 

[powder]

Magazines are prone to failure like any other aspect of the firearm-even new ones from the factory can come loaded with crap on the interior.

Take me apart, clean out the body, wipe off the springs and components. With a very light film of oil on your fingertips coat the spring, reassemble.

Hilton Yam has a great tutorial on 1911 magazines at his 10-8 blog. Check it out.

This is one reason I'm not a "brand name" guy: Wilson's are a decent product, but there may be nothing too awful wrong with what you have-disassemble, inspect, and clean.

Yes, the FNP 45s are outstanding pistols.

 

[918v]

How do you take one apart? The floorplate is tac welded to the body.