How do you deal with your unreliable magazine? - Page 3

Auto5 · October 18, 2014, 07:26 AM

I have a 15 rd aftermarket mag for my BHP that I don't completely trust. It doesn't malfunction consistently, just often enough that I've designated it for range use only.

10mm4ever · October 18, 2014, 01:26 PM

If it needs more than a new spring replaced, chuck it.

gbclarkson · October 19, 2014, 08:08 AM

I don't want them back into circulation so I stomp on them and then throw them as far as I can. (I get ****** off first, obviously)

Bill DeShivs · October 19, 2014, 02:50 PM

I'm sorry, but most of the replies here are insane!

Magazines are very simple machines. Most of the time they can be easily repaired. Even if you can't fix them yourself, there are people who would gladly take them and repair them. Just mark them and put them away until you find someone who wants them.
Crushing, stomping, destroying them might even indicate that you have an anger problem.

orionengnr · October 19, 2014, 09:32 PM

Honestly, I have not had any mag problems.
I have owned probably 50 magazine-fed pistols through the years (at least half of them 1911s).
I have had a few pistols that I could never get to function satisfactorily (all of them Kel-Tecs, total of four) and even though I bought additional new mags and various types of ammo, (and performed the legendary Fluff and Buff) they never came good. So I really doubt it was a magazine problem, but rather a pistol design/execution problem. Similarly designed LCPs (two so far) functioned perfectly....

So honestly, I dealt with the Kel-Tec issue by selling each with full disclosure (or, in one case, by giving it away). And I won't buy another. Don't care how cheap it is or how cool it looks.

hemiram · October 20, 2014, 01:14 AM

The ones I've had were always able to be fixed without a lot of work, deburring a follower, cleaning a ton of unburned powder out of it, replacing a messed up spring, or tweaking the feed lips, and that's about it. I've never had one that I had to trash. Not even the junky Pro-Mag Beretta 92 mags that didn't work very well in a 92 worked fine in my Kel-Tec SUB-2000 without any tweaking, and afterwards are 100% ok in a 92 now. They all had the same issues, followers that were pretty badly molded and after a little sanding/filing, they were fine. They do sound very "boingy" when they hit the ground though.

Lost Sheep · October 20, 2014, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HP-Sauce

Most of the time the body itself is fine and the problem stems from Spring/Follower/Base pad issues.

None had problems with the lips?

Before I disposed of any, I would tinker with them, most definitely. I would even try my hand at making replacement parts (I almost never succeed, but do like a challenge). Only after I completely ruined it and all its component parts would I throw one away.

But that's just me.

Lost Sheep

Walt Sherrill · October 20, 2014, 07:01 PM

If a mag is somehow worn thin, I may keep the follower and spring (if fairly fresh) and trash the rest. I've never encountered THAT problem with a mag.

If the spring has lost it's zest, I get a new spring. They're NOT expensive.

If the follower is bad -- not a common problem for a mag that was previously sound and functional -- I get a new follower. They're not expensive.

If the mag tube is dented, parts are retained and the tube is tossed.

I've had and shot a lot of guns over the past 25 years, but I've never had that many problems with good quality or factory mags. Springs are the one part that can wear out unexpectedly. As Bill notes, above, they're pretty simple machines.

If you just throw them away, you have more money to spare than I do.

gwpercle · October 21, 2014, 04:32 PM

I got tired of the magazine working/not working in which of three 1911 45's song and dance. Had a box with thirty magazines that might work all depending on the phase of the moon.
Bought a 45 acp revolver.....Oh Lord is it nice! If it fits in the cylinder , it will shoot and eject! No more fickle magazines and no more chasing brass all over creation.
Tired of tinkering....Gary

DavidG. · October 22, 2014, 01:31 AM

Unreliable magazine? Is this not what a warranty is for?

lee n. field · October 22, 2014, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Unreliable magazine? Is this not what a warranty is for?

Some random gunshow 1911 mag or cheap "Korea Military" glock mag? Naaaah. Not worth the trouble, usually.

Depends how much the magazine cost, and if it's a factory mag or not.

dwhite · October 24, 2014, 02:28 PM

I have four mags for my Taurus PT-22, three I bought used from someone.

Of those three one has the lips out of location so bad I cannot get the thing to function reliably. Others are flawless.

The bad one is going to the great smelter in the sky. I've spent too much time working on it already.

All the Best,
D. White

TXAZ · October 24, 2014, 02:55 PM

agent109 · October 24, 2014, 10:32 PM

^^^^^

Yup you got it......the trash bin is a sure cure for flaky magazines!

banditgriot · October 25, 2014, 11:16 AM

Spare parts for my other mags of same manufacture...I got a bad Glock 21/41 magazine with the purchase of my G-41. The retention slot is too loose and the magazine drops from the gun if you look at it wrong. Springs, base plate and follower are now spares.

xtrarnds · October 26, 2014, 08:38 PM

I change the mag spring. If that doesn't work, I throw it away.

Geh3333 · October 27, 2014, 12:21 AM

I have 8 mags for my full size rock island 45 1911 . Other then the two 8 rd Novak mags that came with my 1911 I've only ever bought the cheaper 7 rd all steel mags , 2 colt , 3 " some type of gov issue mags" . I also have a cheap 15rd promag . I've noticed that all of the cheap mags needed some dremel work to reshape the top of the mag so that the rds fed smooth without getting caught up . After I did some dremel work they all work perfect even the 15 rd promag . My wife just recently bought a compact RIA 1911 45 Acp and while we were buying a couple new mags we noticed that it took a good smack to get the mag inserted " unlike the mags that came with the 1911" . The guy at the counter said " that's normal with 1911's , you have to smack them in" It was just like the Novak mags with the plastic bottom plate . I looked at her Novaks plastic plate and noticed the part that fit into the notch at the bottom front of the grip was longer on all the mags they were selling . So I bought one and filed the plastic down about 1/16 of an inch and it slid in and snapped in without having to smack it in . I was kinda shocked that they thought that was normal to have to smack the mag in to get it to catch . I just look at these cheap mags as unfinished , I'll save some money and finish them myself .

S&W-Keeper · October 27, 2014, 07:11 PM

I tape a dime to them,and throw them away,then I can say thnat I lost something.

mr bolo · October 27, 2014, 08:16 PM

I salvage usable parts and keep them for spare parts

I once had a Tokarev magazine that wouldnt fit my pistol, the mag body fit too tight, so I tried to flatten it down a little and it was still a poor fit, so I saved the magazine spring, the follower, the floor plate and tossed the defective mag body

a few years later I got some new Tokarev 9mm mags with a cheap plastic floor plate, so the extra steel floor plate I saved came in handy as a replacement part.

had some GI M1911 mags with broken stress cracked feed lip lips, I saved the followers and the mag springs

I reused the mag spring to fix another mag with a bad spring

I replaced all my GI black plastic followers in my 30 rd AR15 mags with the improved green non tilt followers and saved my original black followers as spares

Nanuk · October 28, 2014, 11:34 AM

Quote:

I trash them. I don't want anything to do with defective mags.

This. Magazines are expendable items.

DavidAGO · October 28, 2014, 12:20 PM

The mag that was with the Star super in 9mm Largo I acquired would not stay latched in the magazine well. The latch was worn and the edge of the magazine notch were worn. I had a friend who has a laser welder build up the edge of the notch and the edge of the catch with a chrome cobalt alloy so that it worked. I would think that most of us could outthink a piece of metal or acrylic.

David

Bill DeShivs · October 28, 2014, 02:07 PM

David,
Apparently not!

Hook686 · October 28, 2014, 05:20 PM

I replace them. If you cannot afford to and this is a gun you rely upon for personal defense, then maybe you can not afford to own a gun. I think you need to have full confidence in the gun you are going to bet your life, or your family's life on. It might be wise to sell the gun and buy another weapon.

tahunua001 · October 28, 2014, 05:25 PM

I either use them for practice only, throw them away, or sell them to someone willing to deal with a faulty mag.

suppressedisbest · October 29, 2014, 05:16 PM

Cut an X deep into it and use it for training...

October 18, 2014, 07:26 AM	#51
Auto5 Senior Member Join Date: March 18, 2013 Location: Chicago suburbs Posts: 662	I have a 15 rd aftermarket mag for my BHP that I don't completely trust. It doesn't malfunction consistently, just often enough that I've designated it for range use only. __________________ At the young age of five, a bear told me that I was the only person who could prevent forest fires. Why I was chosen, I'll never know.

October 19, 2014, 08:08 AM	#53
gbclarkson Senior Member Join Date: January 4, 2014 Location: None of yer business, sonny Posts: 440	Agree with Kraig I don't want them back into circulation so I stomp on them and then throw them as far as I can. (I get ****** off first, obviously)

October 19, 2014, 02:50 PM	#54
Bill DeShivs Senior Member Join Date: April 7, 2006 Posts: 10,981	I'm sorry, but most of the replies here are insane! Magazines are very simple machines. Most of the time they can be easily repaired. Even if you can't fix them yourself, there are people who would gladly take them and repair them. Just mark them and put them away until you find someone who wants them. Crushing, stomping, destroying them might even indicate that you have an anger problem. __________________ Bill DeShivs, Master Cutler www.billdeshivs.com

October 20, 2014, 07:01 PM	#58
Walt Sherrill Senior Member Join Date: February 15, 1999 Location: Winston-Salem, NC USA Posts: 6,348	If a mag is somehow worn thin, I may keep the follower and spring (if fairly fresh) and trash the rest. I've never encountered THAT problem with a mag. If the spring has lost it's zest, I get a new spring. They're NOT expensive. If the follower is bad -- not a common problem for a mag that was previously sound and functional -- I get a new follower. They're not expensive. If the mag tube is dented, parts are retained and the tube is tossed. I've had and shot a lot of guns over the past 25 years, but I've never had that many problems with good quality or factory mags. Springs are the one part that can wear out unexpectedly. As Bill notes, above, they're pretty simple machines. If you just throw them away, you have more money to spare than I do.

October 24, 2014, 02:28 PM	#62
dwhite Senior Member Join Date: September 2, 2007 Location: Wake County, N. Carolina Posts: 379	I have four mags for my Taurus PT-22, three I bought used from someone. Of those three one has the lips out of location so bad I cannot get the thing to function reliably. Others are flawless. The bad one is going to the great smelter in the sky. I've spent too much time working on it already. All the Best, D. White __________________ 10th Amendment - The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

October 18, 2014, 01:26 PM	#52
10mm4ever Senior Member Join Date: December 11, 2005 Location: SW Ohio Posts: 808	If it needs more than a new spring replaced, chuck it.

October 19, 2014, 09:32 PM	#55
orionengnr Senior Member Join Date: July 9, 2004 Posts: 5,173	Honestly, I have not had any mag problems. I have owned probably 50 magazine-fed pistols through the years (at least half of them 1911s). I have had a few pistols that I could never get to function satisfactorily (all of them Kel-Tecs, total of four) and even though I bought additional new mags and various types of ammo, (and performed the legendary Fluff and Buff) they never came good. So I really doubt it was a magazine problem, but rather a pistol design/execution problem. Similarly designed LCPs (two so far) functioned perfectly.... So honestly, I dealt with the Kel-Tec issue by selling each with full disclosure (or, in one case, by giving it away). And I won't buy another. Don't care how cheap it is or how cool it looks.

October 20, 2014, 01:14 AM	#56
hemiram Senior Member Join Date: November 6, 2005 Location: Toledo, ohio Posts: 762	The ones I've had were always able to be fixed without a lot of work, deburring a follower, cleaning a ton of unburned powder out of it, replacing a messed up spring, or tweaking the feed lips, and that's about it. I've never had one that I had to trash. Not even the junky Pro-Mag Beretta 92 mags that didn't work very well in a 92 worked fine in my Kel-Tec SUB-2000 without any tweaking, and afterwards are 100% ok in a 92 now. They all had the same issues, followers that were pretty badly molded and after a little sanding/filing, they were fine. They do sound very "boingy" when they hit the ground though.

October 21, 2014, 04:32 PM	#59
gwpercle Senior Member Join Date: November 30, 2012 Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana Posts: 1,752	I got tired of the magazine working/not working in which of three 1911 45's song and dance. Had a box with thirty magazines that might work all depending on the phase of the moon. Bought a 45 acp revolver.....Oh Lord is it nice! If it fits in the cylinder , it will shoot and eject! No more fickle magazines and no more chasing brass all over creation. Tired of tinkering....Gary

October 22, 2014, 01:31 AM	#60
DavidG. Member Join Date: August 17, 2011 Location: Mat-Su Valley, Alaska Posts: 25	Unreliable magazine? Is this not what a warranty is for?

October 24, 2014, 02:55 PM	#63
TXAZ Senior Member Join Date: September 5, 2010 Location: McMurdo Sound Texas Posts: 4,322	__________________ Cave illos in guns et backhoes

October 24, 2014, 10:32 PM	#64
agent109 Junior member Join Date: October 18, 2014 Posts: 81	^^^^^ Yup you got it......the trash bin is a sure cure for flaky magazines!

October 25, 2014, 11:16 AM	#65
banditgriot Senior Member Join Date: June 26, 2005 Location: Colorado Posts: 132	Spare parts for my other mags of same manufacture...I got a bad Glock 21/41 magazine with the purchase of my G-41. The retention slot is too loose and the magazine drops from the gun if you look at it wrong. Springs, base plate and follower are now spares.

October 26, 2014, 08:38 PM	#66
xtrarnds Senior Member Join Date: January 1, 2000 Location: Deep in Enemy Territory Posts: 206	I change the mag spring. If that doesn't work, I throw it away.

October 27, 2014, 12:21 AM	#67
Geh3333 Junior Member Join Date: October 10, 2014 Posts: 8	I have 8 mags for my full size rock island 45 1911 . Other then the two 8 rd Novak mags that came with my 1911 I've only ever bought the cheaper 7 rd all steel mags , 2 colt , 3 " some type of gov issue mags" . I also have a cheap 15rd promag . I've noticed that all of the cheap mags needed some dremel work to reshape the top of the mag so that the rds fed smooth without getting caught up . After I did some dremel work they all work perfect even the 15 rd promag . My wife just recently bought a compact RIA 1911 45 Acp and while we were buying a couple new mags we noticed that it took a good smack to get the mag inserted " unlike the mags that came with the 1911" . The guy at the counter said " that's normal with 1911's , you have to smack them in" It was just like the Novak mags with the plastic bottom plate . I looked at her Novaks plastic plate and noticed the part that fit into the notch at the bottom front of the grip was longer on all the mags they were selling . So I bought one and filed the plastic down about 1/16 of an inch and it slid in and snapped in without having to smack it in . I was kinda shocked that they thought that was normal to have to smack the mag in to get it to catch . I just look at these cheap mags as unfinished , I'll save some money and finish them myself .

October 27, 2014, 07:11 PM	#68
S&W-Keeper Senior Member Join Date: February 6, 2009 Location: SE-SC Posts: 443	I tape a dime to them,and throw them away,then I can say thnat I lost something.

October 27, 2014, 08:16 PM	#69
mr bolo Senior Member Join Date: November 19, 2012 Posts: 432	unreliable mags I salvage usable parts and keep them for spare parts I once had a Tokarev magazine that wouldnt fit my pistol, the mag body fit too tight, so I tried to flatten it down a little and it was still a poor fit, so I saved the magazine spring, the follower, the floor plate and tossed the defective mag body a few years later I got some new Tokarev 9mm mags with a cheap plastic floor plate, so the extra steel floor plate I saved came in handy as a replacement part. had some GI M1911 mags with broken stress cracked feed lip lips, I saved the followers and the mag springs I reused the mag spring to fix another mag with a bad spring I replaced all my GI black plastic followers in my 30 rd AR15 mags with the improved green non tilt followers and saved my original black followers as spares

October 28, 2014, 12:20 PM	#71
DavidAGO Senior Member Join Date: October 7, 2008 Location: Magnolia, AR Posts: 340	The mag that was with the Star super in 9mm Largo I acquired would not stay latched in the magazine well. The latch was worn and the edge of the magazine notch were worn. I had a friend who has a laser welder build up the edge of the notch and the edge of the catch with a chrome cobalt alloy so that it worked. I would think that most of us could outthink a piece of metal or acrylic. David

October 28, 2014, 02:07 PM	#72
Bill DeShivs Senior Member Join Date: April 7, 2006 Posts: 10,981	David, Apparently not! __________________ Bill DeShivs, Master Cutler www.billdeshivs.com

October 28, 2014, 05:20 PM	#73
Hook686 Senior Member Join Date: May 22, 2005 Location: USA The Great State of California Posts: 2,090	I replace them. If you cannot afford to and this is a gun you rely upon for personal defense, then maybe you can not afford to own a gun. I think you need to have full confidence in the gun you are going to bet your life, or your family's life on. It might be wise to sell the gun and buy another weapon. __________________ Hook686 When the number of people in institutions reaches 51%, we change sides.

October 28, 2014, 05:25 PM	#74
tahunua001 Senior Member Join Date: July 21, 2011 Location: Idaho Posts: 7,839	I either use them for practice only, throw them away, or sell them to someone willing to deal with a faulty mag. __________________ ignore my complete lack of capitalization. I still have no problem correcting your grammar. I never said half the stuff people said I did-Albert Einstein You can't believe everything you read on the internet-Benjamin Franklin

October 29, 2014, 05:16 PM	#75
suppressedisbest Junior Member Join Date: October 13, 2014 Location: Hiram, GA Posts: 14	Cut an X deep into it and use it for training... __________________ "When a wrong is unavenged, the heavens look down on us in shame."