Shooting Star followers

[ken grant]

Found the info on angles for these followers---www.biggerhammer.net/patents.
Also the Patent said to use spring steel for these followers because they act as as a spring[don't think the Shooting Stars are]. Maybe that is why the angles on mine are all over the map! I have both Blue and Stainless Steel followers.
I don't see how these followers can hold their angles when you have the spring pushing up and 8 rds. pushing down.Seems as if the space between the leafs would change.Maybe that is why the spaces on all of mine are different.

 

[Dave Sample]

Could this just be a case of Phollower Phobia, Tuner?

 

[BEARMAN]

How do they function? Or are you just concerned because when they are spread out side by side they are different. I have shooting star mags, colt mags with shooting star followers and colt and military mags with some DEVEL ( where I believe CHIP got his idea or patent rights) followers that I bought from NUMRICH GUN PARTS years ago. All these mags hold their 8 rounds and work great. Only problems I have had ,are , mil. mags starting to crack at back of feed lips, a couple of mags got stepped on and now still work but don't drop free and I had some springs go soft after about 5 years, so replaced all the springs with a Wolfe spring kit from Brownell. For ME shooting star mags have been pretty good.

 

[ken grant]

S.S. followers

I have about 20 of these and all worked great for awhile---then BAM--I had 6 FTF last rd.[live rd. stovepipe] No set pattern of which ones failed.
Next time out I had 4 FTF---changed to Wolf springs---no difference--last time out I had 5 FTF.
Started checking followers and found angles were all over the map! Even the ones that have not failed.
I don't think these are made of spring steel as called for in the Patent and I don't see how they can keep their angles if they are not.

Dave,maybe I should spent a couple of thousand dollars with you to purty up my pistol and then have you to tell me to use 7 rd. mags in it

 

[ken grant]

1911's

I'm kinda like Tuner and Fuff----old[66 come Nov.] don't have any ego left in me. Purty don't mean crap[even in ladies at my age] and I like the plain and simple stuff.I even like Norincos and old 1911s. All I want in a 1911 is for it to be stainless and have stainless mags AND WORK.
I know that stainless doesn't jive with old but I like to have something that holds up under all conditions---rain,sweat,saltwater,under truck seat and in boatlocker. I dont always have an oily rag around in my pocket

 

[Dave Sample]

I have not heard a thing about the 1911 you are having trouble with. It may not be magazine related. I have been using those followers for a long time in dozens of CMC mags and have yet to have a problem with any of them ecxept we broke a SS one by dropping on some cement at the State Patrol Range up in Colorado. I have taken those mags apart and cleaned them, installed new springs in them when I thought they were old enough to stand a change, but never because they didn't work. I am not looking for work. I am retired unless you want the best single action tune up in the business. Then you can find me at www.CaptainEagle.us. Your problem will be solved before it is over, as Tuner may have some good ideas about what is causing these malfunctions. If I had your gun and magazines here, I could tell you in about 5 minutes.

 

[ken grant]

FOUND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have found a way to make any 1911s work anytime and anywhere,from Charles Daly's to Wilson to Brown.

TRADE FOR A GLOCK

Hiding out now! Let the firing begin

 

[Old Fuff]

Ken:

If you are having trouble with last round, or second-to-last round jams, try (gasp!) some good quality 7 round magazines with a conventional follower like John Browning designed. They just might work - at least with hardball - reliability with orther loads often depends on how the lips are formed. If these don't cure the problem you need to start looking for other things - perhaps a loose ejector or an extractor that's not tensioned like it used to be. When stuff that's have been working suddenly stop there has to be a reason.

As for your Glock. Try putting ivory grips on it.

 

[ken grant]

Glock Grips

Old FUFF-----bet ROBAR could figure out a way to put Ivory grips on a Glock

My pistol does work with 7 rders but I want to try to make it work with 8 rders. It used to do it 100%. I have 8 Colt S.S.----8 S.S. CMC--4 blue CMC.
All the problems began at one time-----Live rd. stove pipe,last rd.
First time 6 FTF,then 3 FTF,then 1FTf,then 5 FTF,last time 1 FTF---all random pattern with mags. I DO HAVE THEM NUMBERED.
Somewhere in the middle I changed to wolf springs and still have FTF.
Same ammo,clean pistol.
I'm setting angles on followers now to what the Patent said they should be and will try again.
The Patent also said the followers should be made of Spring Steel as they act as a spring.

 

[Old Fuff]

>> Old FUFF-----bet ROBAR could figure out a way to put Ivory grips on a Glock <<

Robbie might, but Gaston would have a cow ....

The purpose in using spring stock in the followers is because when you squeeze in that 8th round the follower has to come together to make room for that 8th cartridge. After the first round is fed into the chamber the follower opens up to assist the remaining seven rounds as they are pushed up the magazine body. So what happens if you only load 7 rounds in the magazines? Do they still jam or do they feed?

I admit I am limited here. I personally don’t use 8 round magazines, and my experience is based on what I’ve seen happen with others. I would expect that if your followers were not made of spring stock they would eventually take a set. You can bend them back to the correct form, but it won’t be long before they take a set again. It would also seem strange that they would all fail at the same time unless they’d all seen equal use. I have had magazines go bad – usually because of cracked or spread lips, but I’ve never seen a case where several went bad at the same time unless the problem was caused by something other then magazines. The best advise I can give you is to use 7 round magazines that have a proven track record until you figure out what is going on with the others.

One last suggestion: remove the springs; stretch them, and them put them back. This won’t work for long because the springs will take a set again, but if they work in the short term you’ll have a clue about what is going on.

 

[ken grant]

Ivory

Speaking of Ivory,several years back I was in Kinshasa,Zaire at the Ivory market. Amazing what I could have bought for little or nothing.Ivory galore!
I did buy 30 bracelets made from elephant tail hair and some leopard teeth for $6.50. Wish I could have brought back some of the Ivory

 

[Old Fuff]

Oh darn!!!

 

[19112XS]

The CMC DEVEL type followers in my mags also collapsed. (They rolled forward and encouraged nosedives too.) I'm trying plastic Wilson followers, some in Wilson 8x SS mags now. So far, no nosedives.

 

[Wichaka]

I use Wilson 8 rounders exclusively, and have replaced all the guts of the mags that came with my SA's. Not one malfunction............

Hey Old Fuff, the only mags that have never given me a problem are original Colt mags........you know..........when Colt still made their own mags.
Geez........how long has that been now?????!!!!!