I recently picked up a used 229 in 9mm. I have been going about replacing all the springs. When it came time for the magazine springs I noticed something odd. The new springs were shorter than the old ones.



Old on the left, new on the right

Anyone run into this before?

The first thing that comes to mind is maybe the new springs are for the restricted 10 round magazines?

Or, previous owner stretched the old spring out.

quote:

Originally posted by Cousin Vinnie:
The first thing that comes to mind is maybe the new springs are for the restricted 10 round magazines?

Hope not. Ordered the standard springs for 228/229 13 round magazines from Wolff Springs

Or the newer springs were made with greater tension.

It looks like there are more loops in one spring. I would send Wolff the picture and see what they say or just try the new ones and see how they work. I dont think I have taken my mags apart to notice any issues.

Are the magazines German or Sig Mec-Gar? If I remember correctly the 13 round German mags had different springs than the 13 round Sig Mec-Gar. I want to say the German mags had less coils.

Looking at the spring on the left in your pic are the upper coils narrower than the lower coils? So when they are compressed they will nest into each other? If so that is a spring for a Sig OEM Mec-Gar sourced magazine. The wider bottom coils will not fit into a German Sig magazine with the indents at the bottom. The coils for the German mag spring are the same width from top to bottom.

Here is the mag spring from a 13 round German magazine. I don't happen to have a Sig OEM Mec-Gar with me at the moment.




Here is a spring from a Mec-Gar 15 round "extra capacity" magazine. I believe the 13 and 15 round Mec-Gar mags had the same springs just different followers. The 15 rounder had a shorter follower to allow the 2 more rounds.

The one on the left is from a mec-gar 13 rnd., the one on the right is for German 13 rnd. I just compared two P228 magazines, mec-gar has more coils compared to German magazine.

I picked up a couple used P228/229 Sig factory 13rd mags. When loading them, the springs were noticeably stronger and more difficult to compress. When I took them out, I noticed they were longer and had more coils, just like in the OP's photo.

I took apart one of my P226 mags to compare springs, and they looked identical. I figure the previous owner installed 226 mag springs in place of the 228/229 ones. Can anyone think of any detriment to doing so? Is a stronger spring any more likely to cause feed errors?

The magazine's in question are Mec-gar 13 rounders. Perhaps I ordered the incorrect ones. I thought I had the single profile vs double profile spring thing figured out.

Do they work?

If so forget about it.

Looks to me the wire dia on the shorter one is thicker. Measure it and see.

Bob

The wire diameter on the magazine spring is .050 on the German and Mec-gar 13 rnd magazines. German spring has 11 coils, single profile. Mec-gar has 14 coils, and double profile, but only slight not as obvious like 15 rnd spring.

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:

Here is a spring from a Mec-Gar 15 round "extra capacity" magazine. I believe the 13 and 15 round Mec-Gar mags had the same springs just different followers. The 15 rounder had a shorter follower to allow the 2 more rounds.

You are close. I just checked our internal document of parts and the followers are the same but the springs are different.

quote:

Originally posted by MecGar:

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:

Here is a spring from a Mec-Gar 15 round "extra capacity" magazine. I believe the 13 and 15 round Mec-Gar mags had the same springs just different followers. The 15 rounder had a shorter follower to allow the 2 more rounds.

You are close. I just checked our internal document of parts and the followers are the same but the springs are different.

***************"********
Welcome, and thanks for info, and thanks for your quality magazines. Does Mec-gar have plans for producing P239 magazines??

quote:

Originally posted by MecGar:

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:

Here is a spring from a Mec-Gar 15 round "extra capacity" magazine. I believe the 13 and 15 round Mec-Gar mags had the same springs just different followers. The 15 rounder had a shorter follower to allow the 2 more rounds.

You are close. I just checked our internal document of parts and the followers are the same but the springs are different.

I had wondered myself what the difference was internally to accommodate an additional two rounds. Also wonder why Sig doesn't just ship 15 rounders with P229s given that it's my understanding that Mec-Gar manufactures most or all Sig magazines. Seems to me doing so would draw more buyers to that model...certainly couldn't hurt. Anyhow, welcome to the forum. Glad to have another rep available as a resource.

quote:

Originally posted by texassierra:

quote:

Originally posted by MecGar:

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:

Here is a spring from a Mec-Gar 15 round "extra capacity" magazine. I believe the 13 and 15 round Mec-Gar mags had the same springs just different followers. The 15 rounder had a shorter follower to allow the 2 more rounds.

You are close. I just checked our internal document of parts and the followers are the same but the springs are different.

I had wondered myself what the difference was internally to accommodate an additional two rounds. Also wonder why Sig doesn't just ship 15 rounders with P229s given that it's my understanding that Mec-Gar manufactures most or all Sig magazines. Seems to me doing so would draw more buyers to that model...certainly couldn't hurt. Anyhow, welcome to the forum. Glad to have another rep available as a resource.

I believe the newer E2 style 229s ship with 15 rounders.

quote:

Originally posted by rbert0005:
Do they work?

If so forget about it.

Looks to me the wire dia on the shorter one is thicker. Measure it and see.

Bob

Ran them this past weekend in a Defensive Pistol shoot my club was running, seemed to do fine. I'll probably just keep them in my range bag for now anyway.

[/QUOTE]
I believe the newer E2 style 229s ship with 15 rounders.[/QUOTE]

Sorry, I was speaking specifically about the Classic.