1911 Mags

[NickSS]

I used to be into 1911 pistols big time but sold all of them in the early 90s. Well today I just got back into them with a Kimber 1911. The pistol is nice and has some features that my old colts never had. Also I have been looking at picking up a couple of extra magazines and am confused by the shear number of different ones available. What is a good brand to buy for cast lead shooting?

[Lloyd Smale]

I like wilsons and chip mccormick.

[35remington]

What bullets? What cartridge overall length are you using?

Generally, the .45 ACP (if that's what you have) is best served with a cartridge length longer than 1.20" and having a rounded bullet profile.

Several different magazine designs are available, with some having features that address the weaknesses of trying to stuff 8 shots in a magazine space designed for 7. In some guns the eight shot "seven shotters" are less satisfactory and reliable than they could be.

That's why they're coming out with upgrades in several brands, and why Chip's "upgrading" his magazines to something "even more reliable" for those guys who really, really need reliability.

As if they didn't before.

Re: Wilson ETM
McCormick "Enhanced Power Mag."

These are intended to address weaknesses of their earlier designs, and to better compete with the Tripps and original Colt seven shot magazines. It's also an opportunity to charge you extra money for their product.

At least they're responding to complaints, so look at it from that perspective when buying. Buy one of each and evaluate to see if your gun will run with them.

[colbyjack]

i run chips in my IPSC matches, theres a Group Buy on 7 round check mates in the GB section. -chris

[Lloyd Smale]

i stick to 7 round designs.

[hotwheelz]

I shoot ipsc and steel plate matches I run the chip mccormick 10rd mags no issue's they work great, I also have used some wilson 10rd mags work great but the little metal clip on the bottom to keep you from seating the mag to far seem to break after alot of use probably from my hard push when changing mags but work great until they break. Both of them work great in the 7-8 rnd mags welcome back to 1911 ranks

[Dave Berryhill]

What bullets? What cartridge overall length are you using?.......Buy one of each and evaluate to see if your gun will run with them.

Good advice. Different pistols seem to prefer different mags not to mention the different bullet shapes and cartridge OALs. Also, you may be able to tolerate an occasional failure to feed in a range-only pistol but that's not acceptable for a duty or self defense pistol. Only by testing will you find what mags your pistol really likes.

[colbyjack]

in my 8 round chips i got thousands a rounds thru them. it'll feed silver tips, round ball, SWC and any store bought ammo ive tried. i havent broke my chips yet. but if they do send them in lifetime warrenty thru them.

im using mine in a springfield 1911 -chris

[NSP64]

I have been using Colt 7rounders, They have short lips and feed the Lee 200GR swc GREAT.I get them at the gunshow 2/$15.00

[Dale53]

I have a bunch of original GI mags for my 1911's. They work well. I also have a couple of Wilson 8rd clips. They also work well. I got in on the group buy for McCormick's. I will be trying them soon.

When I say "They work well", that means No problems whatsoever.

Dale53

[nicholst55]

Here's a 'must-read' for anyone who shoots 1911s.

http://how-i-did-it.org/magazines/

[JIMinPHX]

1911 mags vary greatly in both quality & design. The design variations are subtle to the casual observer, but small changes in feed lips make big changes in performance. I’ve found that there really isn’t a particular magazine that is good for cast boolits over j-word bullets as much as there are magazines that prefer particular boolit designs. The original design of magazine works very well with round nose ammo, be it hardball or cast RN. Wadcutters seem to like the mags that have the notches in the lips. The wadcutter mags will usually also feed ball ammo well, but not the other way around unless the mag is tuned by a competent smith. That kind of tuning is a genuine art form.

You can spend a bunch of money on very expensive mags & results will usually be good. You can spend less than $10 on cheap mags & most of them will crack at the rear of the lips after a little use. If you look around & have an eye for quality, you can find good-feeding durable mags for under $15 at gun shows in my area. Those are the ones that I usually use.

[Dale53]

When I was shooting IPSC I had a couple of mags crack in the back at the junction of the feed lip portion of the magazine and the mag body. If you will drill a very small hole at the junction that removes a "stress riser" and eliminates any future mag failures. You MUST do it before it cracks to be effective.

Dale53

[KCSO]

If I have a 1911 that has feeding probllems I try a Wilson mag in it first. 9 out of 10 times the Wilsonn's will work where the others don't. They are all I carry in my duty rig. I just checked my drawer and I havve 1911's by McCormick, pro Mag, S/A, Colt, GI surplus from 1945, Pachmayers, and Wilson's. The worst magazines i have are COLT from the 1980's.

[Dark Helmet]

CMC 10 rd. Power Mags and factory Kimbers in my Compact.:mrgreen:

[35remington]

Many COLT branded magazines are fakes, and have given that particular design a bad name. Usually they have inferior springs and improperly designed feed lips. Look at the floor plate, as the way it is stamped and the characters it has (or does not have) tell whether it is a fake or not.

Sometime I need to make a post about the various magazines designs, how they differ and what they do (or don't do) to improve feeding. Many are not what they could be. The eight shot flush fit straight lip "wadcutter" magazines are thought by many to have no downside, but they most certainly do. In trying to feed a particular nonstandard ammunition type (short target wadcutters) other essential features are compromised. This leads to other problems.

Truly, there ain't no free lunch.

[monadnock#5]

When I was shooting IPSC I had a couple of mags crack in the back at the junction of the feed lip portion of the magazine and the mag body. If you will drill a very small hole at the junction that removes a "stress riser" and eliminates any future mag failures. You MUST do it before it cracks to be effective.

Dale53

I had a Pachmayer mag that "worked very well" right up to the point that one of the lips sheared off. I didn't know to look for cracks back then. If so inclined Dale, I am in hopes that you might post a picture of your modification.

[imashooter2]

I run Chip McCormick 8's and 10's depending on the game I'm playing. That's in a steel framed Kimber Stainless Target II. If your pistol has an alloy frame beware of the McCormick follower doing this:

http://theindoorrange.com/fun_files/McKimber.jpg

Much discussion here:

http://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=61318

[nicholst55]

Many COLT branded magazines are fakes, and have given that particular design a bad name. Usually they have inferior springs and improperly designed feed lips. Look at the floor plate, as the way it is stamped and the characters it has (or does not have) tell whether it is a fake or not.

Sometime I need to make a post about the various magazines designs, how they differ and what they do (or don't do) to improve feeding. Many are not what they could be. The eight shot flush fit "wadcutter" magazines are thought by many to have no downside, but they most certainly do. In trying to feed a particular nonstandard ammunition type (short target wadcutters) other essential features are compromised.

35remington: my post, above, has a link to a pretty good article that details different feed lip and follower designs, and what each does.

[35remington]

Yep, and a good post it is.

But it could be blunter. I'm not so shy about pointing out the downsides. Of everything. No matter who makes what.

[ra_balke]

The plain truth is, I like the origonal Colt mags.
They are looser, eaiser to load, not stiff, easy to put up in to the gun, and they work fine.

[NickSS]

Thanks guys for the info. I picked up a couple different mags in the form of springfield, Mag Gar, Wilson and Kimber. So far they all work well in my Kimber but I have issues with all but the Wilson in my Auto Ordinance 1911A1. I think the later pistol is a little rough just like a New GI WWII pistol I owned years ago. It mut wear in till it is more reliable. I am mostly shooting Lyman 225 gr RN slugs in them seated to factory hard ball length. Most jams I have had is the round sticking in the chamber and holding the slid open or the case stove piping. These jams occur only in my Auto Ordinance as the Kimber seams to be Free of them using the same ammo.

[NickSS]

Thanks for all the good imput. I decided on some Chip Mac Corminc 8 rounders and some Springfield 7 rounders. So far they work fine with RNL and hard ball which is all I have used in my guns to date. I plan to try some HP and cast SWC soon as soon as I get a chance to do some more loading.

[10-x]

+ 1 for the link, link posted by nicholist55.
.45 mags are almost like women, never know what you are going to get.[smilie=1:

On the serious side, Colt .45 ACP's have been around for almost 100 years, faithfully served this country's armed forces for over 75, are still prefered by many for CCW and IMHO are the best all round target pistol ever.
Regardless of personal preference or opinion any pistol or revolver is a man made machine, only as good as it's designer and manufacture.
Only as accurate as it's shooter's ability.
John Browning was and is still "King "of firearms designers.
Everything else is just a "copy".

Whats the old saying, "imiation is the most sincere form of flattery" (or something like that):drinks:

[oldroger]

My take on M1911 magazines for what that is worth.
IMO telling us something is MIL-SPEC, tells us very little. The specs. For the 1911 were generous. Some makers now tell us that they are making pistols which are “nominal” or “blueprinted”. That is they are not using the tolerances allowed in the MIL-SPEC.
The first M1911 A1s I shot in 1953 at the request of the US Army were sloppy. They functioned fine, but especially considering the sights were not capable of nor intended for fine marksmanship. The divisional armorer did a lot of work removing tolerances on pistols used competitively.
I have 6 or 8 magazines from that era, that is none newer than 1955, most I suspect considerably older. They feed Ball well in most pistols. They do not feed what we used to call the “Ideal” boolet (now Lyman 452460) very well in many pistols.
I have a number of Wilson 47D mags. They feed most everything in most anything. They are very widely used and recommended. They certainly are not the newest fad. I have McCormick’s (old), shooting Stars (old), and Act-Mag (S&W original eq.) all work fine.
I needed some mags for my Kimber 10mm-1911 and was advised to try Tripp-CobraMags they are excellent. I am now using Tripp’s 10mm and 45acp mags mixed with the rest.
If someone is having failures to feed w/Ball and a quality newer design mag, IMO they have a pistol problem, see a good M1911 smith. If they have problems with The “Ideal Boolet”, hollowpoints or the many strange boolet shapes on the market, a 47D, McCormick, or CobraMag may just fix the problem.