M1911 magazines

[ffs1942]

I bought a GI spec Auto Ordnance M1911A1. I need spare mags and want to be as close to GI as possible. Can't seem to find GI magazines though.

AO offers parkerized mags with removable and non removable floor plates. The mag with the gun doesn't seem parkerized though, so I'm rather doubting the spares will be.

Removable floor plates would be nice, but I don't recall the GI mags being like that. I also don't remember drain holes. Were GI mags like that?

I found some nice Kimber mags, but they have a huge Kimber on the bottom and they are shiny blue. Cheap @ $18 bucks though.

Anyone know about this?

Also, anybody know where I can get GI .45 mags?

Sorry if this seems a bit anal, but I got this more out of a sense of nostalgia, than getting the latest slickest .45 racegun. I'm even planning to get an old leather holster and lanyard for it, even though we damned both.

Brian
Des Moines

[polyphemus]

Except for you nobody else knows what's inside of that frame.
And if the magazines you have feed your pistol well then keep on using them.

[RickB]

The only G.I.-spec mags on the market, of which I'm aware, are made by Check-mate Industries. I'd provide a link, but Check-Mate is apparently so swamped that they've taken their catalog off the website (they make M9 and M14 mags for the government). You want the blued steel tube with full-length tapered feedlips.
I don't think they make a mag with a combination of the full-length tapered feedlips and removeable baseplate.
I prefer their "hybrid" feedlip design, which combines the taper of G.I. mags, with the release point of parallel-feedlip mags; the best of both worlds. You can get hybrid-lipped mags with welded or removeable baseplates.

[KyJim]

This is the Checkmate GI mag you want, in stock from TopGun Supply -- http://www.topgunsupply.com/check-ma...-magazine.html

BTW, by "drain holes" do you mean the witness holes on the sides? This is for round count. The Checkmates I linked to above may look different but they are the same in critical areas -- type of feed lips, type of follower.

[polyphemus]

"BTW, by "drain holes" do you mean the witness holes on the sides?"
Some magazines come with threaded holes on the bottom,for the pads.
I think that is what op means.AO's ship with wadcutter lip Metalforms a
little weak in the spring dept. but if they work why change the setup?.

[RickB]

You might ask that question of Metalform?

[Aguila Blanca]

I like Check-Mate, and Brownells now sells some Check-Mate magazines. However, they may not be the GI design.

Wilson Combat also has introduced a magazine that they claim is "GI style." Looks right from the outside, but I don't know if it really has a GI-type follower. Also available at Brownells.

[thedudeabides]

Get a mag that works rather than one that looks authentic.

[polyphemus]

"You might ask that question of Metalform?"
Hello Metalform?
Your magazines work in my pistol should I replace them?

[polyphemus]

Mr. Blanca
CM magazines are as faithful a replica as they get,right down to the raised
bump,they also have an optional follower CMF.
Again I think they are a little weak in the spring dept.but extra power springs
make them nice loaders.

[Aguila Blanca]

Originally Posted by Polyphemus

Mr. Blanca
CM magazines are as faithful a replica as they get,right down to the raised
bump,they also have an optional follower CMF.

I am well aware that Check-Mate makes an authentic reproduction of the original, Browning-designed GI magazine. They offer it in both blued and stainless steel. But Check-Mate has something like fifty different permutations and combinations of magazine available from their web site. I'm certain that Brownells doesn't carry all these variations, and I don't know if the one or two choices Brownells offers are the GI configuration.

The Check-Mate Follower (CMF) is not a GI configuration. It is a variant of the Devel-style follower, improved by the addition of a skirt to the front that acts to prevent the tip of the follower from nose-diving into the feed ramp -- which can gouge the ramp in an aluminum pistol.

Check-Mates are my magazine of choice, but only the 7-round version with the original GI-style follower. The other types all have their adherents, but the GI-style are what have proven to work for me.

[James K]

I checked late last year and there are still a fair number of WWII GI mags around the gun shows, for reasonable prices, especially if you don't mind a little rust in exchange for reliability. But you have to know what you are looking at. Don't take the dealer's word that a magazine is "GI"; there are plenty of bad magazines around, some in what appear to be brown paper GI wrapping. These are best avoided.

Jim

[1911Tuner]

The Check-Mate Follower (CMF) is not a GI configuration. It is a variant of the Devel-style follower, improved by the addition of a skirt to the front that acts to prevent the tip of the follower from nose-diving into the feed ramp

That's only true of the 8-round magazines. Called the "Bull Nose" follower, it's a great improvement over the original Devel design. They also threw in the towel on flush-fit 8 round magazines and extended the length so a full-length spring could be used, and covered the extension...first with a flase slam pad...and later with a pad with a very thin floor.

Check Mate's GI line is a true reproduction...follower and all...and 11-pound springs are a nominal cost option for all their 7-round magazines. The extra power spring is standard in the 8-round sticks.