Multiple failures with Magazines

[eng208]

Hey, had a chance to shoot my old Springfield Armory Mil-Spec Champion this evening. I have some 10 rd Chip McCormick Power Mags and a couple of the 8rd Shooting Star mags. They have never been used, even though they are about 5-6 years old (Really can't remember how old they are). I have never had any failures in this pistol out of about 400 rounds. It is a 95-96 model, bought new by me but I never really shot it much, sold it to a friend that bought the mags, then I got it back from him recently with the mags. He never shot it much either. I have always used the SA mags that came with the pistol until tonight.

Everything went fine on the first mag until I got to the last round. It hung up in the feed ramp, and the slide closed on the case with the round sticking up. The bullet was just barely in the throat of the chamber. I put another two rounds in the mag and same thing happened. Twice. I checked the spring tension on the mag spring and it felt much weaker than the 7 rd SA. This was the shooting star 8 rd. The follower would also tilt forwar a good bit. Actually, all of the CMC mags followers would tilt forward with just a little pressure. The next one I tried was another 8 rd SS. Same thing. Then came the Power Mags, 3 out of the 6 did the same thing. I also had a few premature slide locks on the next to last round. I was getting worried about my pistol by this time, and tried the SA mags. Flawless, never missed a beat. The springs on these mags are pretty stiff, and the followers do not seem to tilt. They also fit in the mag well much tighter. The CMC mags seem real loose.
What can be done to make these new/old mags reliable. This has shaken me up a little, and questioned the reliability of my .45. I have never had a pistol fail that belonged to me.

By the way, I am meticulous about cleaning after every shooting session. I had this thing clean, and lubed well with Weapon Shield. It is so smooth it feels like a TRP when you rack the slide.
Any help on what to do would be appreciated. I am going to post this on several different message boards to get as much info as possible.
Thanks,
Eng208

[John_Wayne777]

My personal experience is that shooting star mags, especially the 8 rounders, suck. I've seen perfectly fine 1911s choke when using those magazines. I've also had very little success as far as feeding goes from any of the 10 rounders on the market save for the Wilson 10 rounders.

My suggestion would be to ditch those magazines and use Wilson magazines or genuine USGI magazines.

Again, that's my personal experience with the shooting star mags and ten rounders. I'm not a 1911 expert or anything, so other guys with more experience might tell you something different.

Most anyone in the 1911 world, however, will tell you that Wilsons are pretty much the standard for 1911 magazines. I would strongly encourage you to get a couple of them and run them in your pistol to see if your pistol likes them. (I have yet to see a 1911 that won't run just fine with Wilsons in it, but I'm sure there's at least 1 out there somewhere so I always encourage people to test the equipment.) If your pistol works fine with them, I would either trash or sell the other mags and stick with Wilsons for the rest of my life.

:D

Magazines are one of the most problematic area for 1911s, and given your description it sounds like your weapon is telling you it doesn't like those other magazines.

[HolyRoller]

In my limited personal experience, Wilson mags are no better than any others, and I will not buy any more. It could be that YOUR gun works well with them so give them a try.

It also seems that a lot of 1911 trouble results from trying to make a 7+1 design work with 8+1, when that energy would be much better directed toward learning to hit with the first 7+1 and quickly reloading. Here's what you do with the Chip McCormicks: rip out the innards, being careful not to damage the feed lips, and replace with springs and followers from Tripp Industries. You will have 7+1 rounds that will very likely feed correctly. In about a thousand rounds with this arrangement, my TRP has had one stovepipe, which I reduced in under three seconds and then noticed crud under the extractor beak, so I cleaned that off and also began lubing generously and regularly. No stoppages, malfunctions, jams, or failures of any sort have happened since April, although I don't shoot as often as I should.

I got this suggestion from www.10-8forums.com, which is in my opinion THE home of the fighting 1911. The guys there believe in the 1911 and also recognize its limitations. They have a huge FAQ section with many pics of 1911 failure modes and what causes/cures them.

You know, I haven't even noticed whether my TRP feels smooth when you cycle the slide. Probably the reason the stock TRP feels smooth is that full length guide rod, which of course was the first thing to come off my TRP. FLGRs are in my opinion no-go items on a serious 1911 because they contribute nothing positive to accuracy or reliability, but they make fieldstripping difficult, and push-down slide racking impossible. St. John of Browning designed it with a short guide rod and oddly enough it seems to work rather well in that configuration.

[OD*]

eng208,

Another thought, make the 8 round magazine 7 rounders with the correct spring and followers, F-FLT-C or F-FLT-S
https://www.metalformmagazines.com/Magazine.asp?RID=9

springs
http://gunsprings.com/SemiAuto/Colt.html#MagazineSprings

and replace the spring and follower in the 10 rounder.

[eng208]

Thanks for the reference to 10-8 forum. It shows the exact problem. Type II High Angle. Refers to it as a spring problem. My knowlege of how things work kind of figured that. I think the follower contributes also due to it being unsupported. As that last round is pushed forward and strikes the feedramp, the rear of the case loses all support and "falls", resulting in the angle becoming too steep to feed. I still don't know what is causing the premature slide lock though. It happens on the next to the last round. I pulled the springs and followers trying to come up with a way to make them tighter, and decided that you're right. They just plain suck!:mad: The mag cases seem nice enough, but the design of the followers and the weak springs, I can't believe these things get good praise. Now, I am stuck with about 160 bucks worth of bad mags. I have 8 of them. I guess I could try to replace the springs and followers.

[RD62]

I have a few mags of different manufacture for my 1911. I have a few Wilson 47D's that I have never had a problem with.

I picked up some CMC Power Mag 8 rounders a few months ago. I too noticed the ease with which the follower nose dives, but after loading and firing have suffered zero malfunctions. They have so far been just as reliable as my wilson mags and a much more reasonable price.

I picked up a CMC Power Mag 10 rounder with Brownell's gift cert I got for my B-Day. It has so far displayed the same follower nose dive tendancy but also zero malfunctions. This is a Shit's and Giggle's mag though and hasn't seen many rounds.

I also have my factory MetalForm 7rnd mags that were flawless from the factory. After adding a S&A magwell their shorter length made them difficult to seat or strip if the need arose. I therefore converted them to 8rnd using Wilson conversion kits and added rubber slam pads to the bottom. After the conversion I have still had no problems and they are much easier to seat.

This is only my personal expereince, and represents a relatively small sample size. I like the design of the Wilson follower over that of the CMC but both seem to work fine in my 1911. I have heard reports of the Wilson polymer follower wearing and then failing to lock the slide back, but have not experienced this. Wilson has some new 8rnd mags out but I haven't had an opportunity to try them yet. Tripp has a mag conversion kit and complete mag that uses a follower of similar design to the Wislon but with a metal reinforcement to reduce wear and prevent the mag from failing to engage the slide stop. I haven't used these, but they have gotten good reports, althought I believe they limit capacity to 7rnds. For now the CMC Power 8's are my mag of choice because of their reliability, their price allows me to buy many more, and I like that they come with different base plates to use.

FYI, I keep all my 8rnd 1911 mags loaded pretty much at all times. I have done this with the Wilsons the longest, and have thus far experienced no spring set or feed lip spreading problems.

Good luck resolving your issues. I would look into some rebuild kits or replace with new CMC Power Mags.

-RD62

[Bushytale]

eng208.

the Shooting Star mag bodies are not worth any effort on your part. The bases are spot welded and tend to come loose at the worst possible time. The Powermag bodies are possibly the best on the market. Good luck.

Billy

[williejc]

Ditto on the poor quality of the Shooting Star Magazines. Pull up Tripp Research web site and check out their stuff. Also, see ammo man who has some real GI mags in the wrapper.

Williejc

[eng208]

Thanks all, You guys have bee a great help with this. I have looked at the Tripp followers and springs and really like that design. I will probably go with some of there conversion kits if I don't here anything from CMC. I will just drop down to 7 rd on the 8rd SStar mags and go 9rd on the 10 rd Power Mags I have. I thing the cases will last a long time. I don't make a habit out of dropping the mags on the ground, so that shouldn't be much of an issue.
Thanks again.
Eng208

[Bigun]

Ditto on the poor quality of the Shooting Star Magazines. Pull up Tripp Research web site and check out their stuff. Also, see ammo man who has some real GI mags in the wrapper.

Williejc Both my Kimber and Springfield love the shooting star mags and have thousands of rounds through them without a single problem.

[rhino]

If a gun won't function properly with CMC 8-rd power mags, I would look for problems with the gun.

[BigEd63]

I bought a couple of those CMC/Shooting Star mags once about 8-9 years ago.

Multiple feed problems.

So I took them home and let the hammer down on'em...an 8lb sledge hammer.

Never again and I cannot recommend them.:mad:

[eng208]

Finally ordered the Tripp rebuild kits. Will give a report back on how it works out. I pulled the springs on the CMCs and stretched them some. It seemed to work to stabilize the followers pretty good, which just reenforces what I thought to start with. Poor design with weak springs.
Eng208