MAGAZINES

A side note on magazines: Having recently gotten great deals on 2 Beretta 9mm pistols (APX/92) I found it extremely difficult to load the last few rounds into the new magazines. I broke down and bought an Uplula magazine loader and now wish I’d gotten it years ago. Game changer for sure.

I used to carry an Officer’s-size Springfield Micro-Compact and found that the tiny little 3″ barrel and slide required Wilson Combat Officer’s 7-round magazines to work properly. It cycled so fast that you need REALLY strong mag springs to reliably feed. I ended up with 2 dozen of them.

When I switched over to a Sig C3 (Officer’s-size grip frame with Commander-length 4.25″ barrel and slide) I found that with the longer slide (and slower cycle time) it could use regular 8-round (McCormick PowerMags) but still carry with the 7-round mags. When I was testing it for carry reliability I fired 700 rounds of every kind of .45 ammo I had (3 different bullet types, a bunch of different manufacturers) and had exactly three (3) failures running through all 24 mags. All three of those were with a single magazine.

Sadly that magazine didn’t make it home. Somehow it got flattened under my boot heel at the range.

I go to the range every couple of months and shoot off my three magazines of carry ammo. Then I typically switch over to a .22 (Ruger 22/45) to save money. I always bring three magazines with me that are already loaded with good 230-grain HP’s; I cycle through all of the magazines doing this eventually. I’ve found that putting a number on the basepad with a silver-colored “Sharpie” permanent marker helps me keep track of them…it also helped me remember which one didn’t work well.

Mr. Ayoob, I also want to mention that I put at least a half-dozen loads of a couple of different brands of carry ammo through any NEW magazine that I get, just to make sure that the pistol/ammo/magazine combination works reliably.

I live in Boston and cops are not allowed backup guns. Recently saw a BPD officer carrying 4 extra magazines on his vest (an externally worn vest)

With a capacity limit pending, I’d ordered a few factory neutered mags for one of my handguns. I discovered that they want to make absolutely, positively sure you can’t get more than the limited number required into that mag. I’d always laughed at the mag loaders but darn if they don’t have a purpose after all. The springs do let down after some cycling, but the widgets aren’t a bad investment.

After ordering a maglula device, I discovered that S&W makes a much cheaper, if model specific version. Found them at gunpartscorp.com. Might A be worth a try.

After market mags are sometimes cheaper for a reason. A lot of firearm feed failures are magazine related. Mec-Gar makes quality magazines for quite a few firearms and often are OEM. Their versions of some OEM mags may be slightly, but not materially, different from those they make under contract.

My department issued five (5) Wilson magazines, one (1) in the S&W #1911 and four spares. For training we used training magazines, so during training/qualification, during reloads we were instructed to dump the training mags, and not damage our duty mags.

A semi with two full mags and one in the gun is standard. When carrying a revolver, six in the chambers and two full speed strips. When a mag base plate fell out along with all the ammunition it contained on a range day, I was convinced.

The magazine is one of the major causes of malfunctions. If you only have one and it goes belly up, your gun just became a single shot.

If you only have one and it goes belly up and you live in a Deep Blue state that requires magazine disconnect mechanisms, your gun might have just become an expensive paperweight.

Blacking 1, I salute your magazine discipline. I have numbered mags and in the past have routinely refreshed my carry mag contents every six months, but found that was not sufficient. Primer material may be dislodged by more then a few chambering and ejection cycles of a given cartridge, as I have discovered in the form of a couple of non-ignited premium defensive rounds that had probably been cycled a dozen times. Tom Givens advocates that any defense cartridge that has been chambered more than two times should be “shot up”.

On magazines, I’ve found original Colt and Kimber mags to be good; but Mec Gar is better and Wilson (particularly the ones designated for +P loads with the powerful flat wire springs) are the very best. Wilson and Mec Gar are the only two I currently trust for defense purposes. All others are range mags only. I now buy only Wilson mags. I had good results also with old Chip McCormick and Pachmayer mags; but own too few of those to really judge.

No magazine gets a starting position on the carry team unless it has functioned flawlessly for at least three full mags. After that, carry mags only get cycled once every few months to freshen the ammo and keep their spring cycles low.

I’m always looking to learn better practices from the experiences of others. I appreciate the lessons shared in this forum.

Wow. That last part about searching for a mag in the snow/mud/dark is a real attention getter.
-An enlightened Bullseye shooter

Back in the day I had a new shooter. She asked what the advantage of a semiauto was, and I said, “One is a faster reload.”
She looked puzzled. “But you have to put cartridges in the magazine, doesn’t that take longer?”
“You have a loaded spare magazine.”
“You mean you can get more than one?”

Her pistol came with one magazine, and she assumed that was it. Now I always make that point.

Another good practice is to have a set of magazines you use for carry and a set for training and practice. That way all the wear is on your training mags, and your carry mags are kept in as good a shape as possible (after a good break-in period to make sure your carry mags are reliable with your chosen defensive ammo). If you shoot in a lot of matches, training classes and practice sessions, then having a second pistol reserved for those applications is also a good idea, keeping your carry gun in good working order.
On the subject of 1911 .45 ACP mags, I found that the Ed Brown magazines with a metal follower in either 7 or 8 round formats worked very well. After a lot of use, they didn’t give me failures to engage the slide lock when empty like the Wilson Combat magazines did.. The latter worked very well until the slide lock caused detrimental wear on the plastic follower.
And, Mark, I tell my students the Uplula loader is one of mankind’s greatest inventions!

I carry 2-5 extra mags edc. That’s 20-100 rounds.

Once again, a good idea is to practice tactical reloads to make sure that you have the right over all length of cartridge for your pistol. Also, as one peace officer has recommended on this channel, two extra magazines are really the minimum that you should carry. That way you are likely to still have an extra magazine if you use up or lose the one in the well. No more embarrassing state to be in is the one called Winchester.

Most of my firearms are older and uncommon. For those that have removable magazines I stock up on quality ‘zines before they’re no longer made and the vintage ones’ prices zoom into the stratosphere. That’s a lesson learned long ago.