I recently picked up a 220 from a member. It came with a 7 round mag which works fine. I had a 8 round mag for my 245 which works fine for that gun and I had hoped to use it in this gun but it will not lock in place. The gun in question is from the 1998 era according to what I see here on the forum if that helps. Any ideas?

According to the Top Gun Supply discussion about dedicated P245 magazines (see link below), P220 mags are the same except for being longer. If the 8-round P220 mag doesn’t fit your P220, then something must be wrong. Because the 8-round mag would extend out the bottom of the P245 grip, perhaps there’s something about the floor plate that’s preventing its being inserted far enough into the 220 to lock into place.

https://www.topgunsupply.com/m...-magazines/p245.html

Alternately, perhaps there is something about the grip plates of your P220 that is preventing full insertion of the magazine. To check that, try removing the grip plates and see if the mag will lock in place then.

And of course factory P220 8-round magazines are readily available (if pricy, it seems).

It's definitely a 220 mag. I bought it as an extra mag for my 245. I does extend out past the bottom of the grip on the 245, something I had expected. I suspected that the grips as you said could be preventing it from seating properly so I removed them but the problem remained.

Bulldog,

If you would like to try a couple of different magazines, I could loan you a couple.

there is no email in your profile. Email me to mine and let me know

Thanks sj4550 but I think I'm going to reach out to Greg Cote and see if he has any ideas. Or maybe I'll just call Sig.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bulldog7972,

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
Thanks sj4550 but I think I'm going to reach out to Greg Cotel and see if he has any ideas. Or maybe I'll just call Sig.

Greg Cote pretty knowledgeable about all things magazine. One of my go to sources for a long time, easy to buy from and ships quickly.

Here is another thing I discovered. The malfunction only occurs when the slide is forward. When I pull the slide back and THEN insert a loaded mag, it seats fine.

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
Here is another thing I discovered. The malfunction only occurs when the slide is forward. When I pull the slide back and THEN insert a loaded mag, it seats fine.

Does the mag lock the slide back?

Yes.

I may have discovered the problem with the help of Greg Cote. He thinks that the mag spring may be too tight. The mag in question is one I bought for my 245 for use as a second mag. But here's the thing. I bought both the 245 and the mag about 5 years ago. I shot 50 rounds through the gun and then put it in my safe and have not shot or carried it since. Which means the mag is virtually brand new. Which I why Greg thinks it may be a spring problem. He suggested that I fully load the mag and let it sit for a week or so and see what happens. He may be right because it was hard to load the 8th round. I then loaded the mag in the 220 and wacked the bottom with a hammer. It seated. So this may have been my problem along. Time will tell. But thanks for all the input to those that responded.

If this is a flat steel bottom floorplate 8 round magazine then all of them are difficult to seat into the pistol when fully loaded with 8 rounds. Also because the spring is so compressed in them, the springs take a set much faster than the 7 rounders of the same length. The only difference between the 7 round steel floorplate mags and the 8 round mags with the same floorplate is the follower design, but fully loaded with 8 rounds is REALLY a tight fit with the flat steel floorplate.

That's why they went to went to the bigger plastic floorplates on 8 round p220 mags. Gives just a tiny bit more room for the spring to compress when fully loaded, but that tiny bit of extra internal space makes all the difference in the ease of loading 8 rounds and actually seating the magazine in the pistol.

All of my P220 mags are 8 round flat bottom plate mags because my p220 is the euro version whereas the mag catch is on the heel and plastic bottomed p220 mags wont work. I have the 8 round followers in all my mags, but I only load 7 rounds because it's so much more difficult to seat them fully loaded with 8 rounds.

This is a plastic floor plate. Almost looks like a Plus One type mag.

After all this it turns out to be the mag. I borrowed one of my partners mags and it works just fine. So Greg Cote was right. The spring is probably just too tight. Thanks for all the input.

quote:

Originally posted by Bulldog7972:
After all this it turns out to be the mag. I borrowed one of my partners mags and it works just fine. So Greg Cote was right. The spring is probably just too tight. Thanks for all the input.

Greg Cote knows his mags for sure. I have replaced the springs in a couple of my older 8 round mags SIG oem. The springs were weak enough they were not holding the slide back and were very short. In any event I replaced springs with wolff + 10 percent ones and had trouble getting in more than 7. I loaded 7 let them sit for a couple days took them apart and back together, lo and behold 8 went in relatively easily. I seem to remember a spate of the Sig mags that had spring problems. All of mine fixed up. My P220 ST finicky doesn’t like the ACT mags, the older folded slide sig doesn’t care one bit. Glad you got things resolved.

I don’t know about others but my success rate on the sig 8 rounders is 50%. Not discussing act or clones. These mags just plain are not the reliable.

I ordered some ACT mags from Greg Cote. Arrived Friday and went to the range yesterday. They were flawless. I'll be ordering some more.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
I don’t know about others but my success rate on the sig 8 rounders is 50%. Not discussing act or clones. These mags just plain are not the reliable.

Some of mine were driving me nuts until I put the Wolff springs in them the 10 percent extra power ones. Oddly enough my folded steel P220 just happily works with everything, The ST not so much and I have gone through all of the usual tricks, it hates the ACT mags even with new springs. Segregation happens.