GUNSMITHING 1911 mag question

[IndyGunworks]

The red, is the chamfer i am talking about, maybe a thousand or two removed at most, just enough to knock the sharp edge off.

The blue is an area that you want to make sure the barrel does not hang out past the feed ramp portion of the frame.

 

[Hornett]

No one has mentioned this so I am putting on my flame suit.
I don't like CM shooting star mags for Kimber or any other aluminum framed 1911.
The follower on these mags will move forward enough on the last round to contact the aluminum feed ramp part of your frame.
Over the course of time it will chew up the feed ramp.
If you take your empty mag and push the follower outward, you will see what I mean.
Original Colt Officers mags have a tapered follower that will not move forward past the end of the magazine, even on the last round.
Wilson magazines have a redesigned follower that can't go past the front of the mag body.
I use Wilsons for my Kimber Compact
Or if you want the best magazine on the market today (IMHO of course) get a Tripp Cobra mag with the hybrid follower.

 

[68_F100]

I would stretch the spring first. It wont hurt anything, and will help keep more upward pressure on the rounds to better judge what kind of a differance tweaking the feed lips is making. 1911's like upward pressure on the rounds, as long as its not so much that it drastically increased the friction of the round leaving the mag, which 3-5 inches will not effect.

If these are used mags, then there is a good chance they were kept loaded, and just stretching the spring will be the cure all anyways.

I always stretch the springs on EVERY used mag of unknown history that i buy. I doesnt hurt, and its just common sense to start from a known point.

I pulled the mags apart and the top of the spting was flat. I bent it up and problem looks to be solved. I think I am going to order some more springs for these mags.

No one has mentioned this so I am putting on my flame suit.
I don't like CM shooting star mags for Kimber or any other aluminum framed 1911.
The follower on these mags will move forward enough on the last round to contact the aluminum feed ramp part of your frame.
Over the course of time it will chew up the feed ramp.
If you take your empty mag and push the follower outward, you will see what I mean.
Original Colt Officers mags have a tapered follower that will not move forward past the end of the magazine, even on the last round.
Wilson magazines have a redesigned follower that can't go past the front of the mag body.
I use Wilsons for my Kimber Compact
Or if you want the best magazine on the market today (IMHO of course) get a Tripp Cobra mag with the hybrid follower.

I agree and my factory Kimber mags are the exact same way. I am looking at the Tripp upgrade kits for my mags.

 

[IndyGunworks]

I pulled the mags apart and the top of the spting was flat. I bent it up and problem looks to be solved. I think I am going to order some more springs for these mags.

And yet i have still not recieved any rep

 

[68_F100]

And yet i have still not recieved any rep

I forget about that most of the time. Sorry.

 

[Hop]

/Flamesuit on!

I don't think it's ever a good idea to stretch a spring. A poorly designed/made/material spring will take a set and it's overall length becomes less. What you are supposed to do is add preload at the bottom. When you stretch a spring like that you are going past it's designed elastic limit point and it can cause breakage. It won't heal itself after that ever. If it's been stretched then get rid of it. A good spring life expectancy should be thousands of cycles & last tens of years even fully compressed.

 

[IndyGunworks]

/Flamesuit on!

I don't think it's ever a good idea to stretch a spring. A poorly designed/made/material spring will take a set and it's overall length becomes less. What you are supposed to do is add preload at the bottom. When you stretch a spring like that you are going past it's designed elastic limit point and it can cause breakage. It won't heal itself after that ever. If it's been stretched then get rid of it. A good spring life expectancy should be thousands of cycles & last tens of years even fully compressed.

Only in a perfect world my friend.

I have been stretching springs for years, and i learned it from other gunsmiths who have been doing it for decades w/out any issue.

To each their own i suppose. I will still stretch mine.

In this case a spring replacement would be ideal even though i doubt its tens of years old. Also in this case, stretching it appeared to have worked, at least for the time being, so its a good skill to have and got nonfunctional magazines functional again.

 

[68_F100]

I did manage to stretch on a little far. Getting that 7th round in is hard and it tries to drag the next round out when you chamber one. Trial and error.

 

[Hop]

Well it's hard to argue with what works sometimes. I got my info from an old German MP44 loaded & stored mag spring test. The things were kept topped off for 50 years and still worked. There's also a Springfield M1A mag test online somewhere too that did just about the same thing only they exercised the springs to the point of failure. It took 10,000+ cycles to get them weaker than the required 4.5 lbs. @ 5.5" compressed length pressure.

[I can Google & find references to the M14 mag tests but can't verify it's authenticity - YMMV ]