Hi,
Yes, I know this is kind of out in left field. I have a friend who is having difficulty with some mags (but not all) inconsistently don't drop free. She is a shooting instructor and really wants all mags to drop. I've cleaned the gun, smoothed the inside of the handgrip, polished the offending mags as well as polished the edge of the mag release catch. Very little improvement. These are factory Sig mags.

Question, would anyone consider installing new, extra power mag springs ?? I don't want to waste her money. I'm trying not to tell her to just buy new mags and "maybe" that will help...

Opinions or suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks, mike

PS: The slide is still locking back when empty as they should.

What gun?

quote:

Originally posted by Mustang-PaPa:
What gun?

I was afraid someone would ask....

It's a Tisas PX9. It is mainly a Springfield XD design but uses Sig 226 mags (20 round mags).

OK I'm not familiar with the gun but kinda basing it on some sigs with the same type issue. I have had mag release tension put enough drag on the mag to keep it from dropping free.

If you hold in slightly on the mag release does this take tension off the mag and allow it to drop free?

The reason I ask is in the past while changing controls out on some sigs to go with nickel control accents I have had new mag releases that would bind the mags and cause them not to drop as free as the original parts would allow. I ended up deciding that having the original controls CPII by CCR was a better outcome with the finish all being the same verses some factory nickel finishes being different.

I have also seen other members with binding issues from the mag release remove small amounts of material where the release locks into the mag OR using a softer spring tension which would put less drag on the mag body. I personally don't like either option on a CCarry gun myself. I don't want the risk of possibility of having a mag drop from a light spring tension.
Good luck...all of the above may not have anything to do with your issues. IF the mag release is easy to remove then removing it and then inserting the mag will reveal if the mag release is binding the mag..

I have also had Beretta 96 Meg-Gar mags have defective heat treatment on them and allow the mag bodies to swell when fully loaded and cause the mags to bind in the gun until 5-6 rds left the mags. This was a long drawn out process dealing with Mec-Gar. They acknowledged the issue with a large batch of US imported mags and due to a very high demand for mags, shutting down for a full month at Christmas/New Years and scheduling for the specific type of mags. They did attempt to replace them but the replacement mags did the same thing as the "defective heat - treatment mags did. Everyone involved did everything they could to try and make it right. I had bought them from Greg Cote and he first did a one-for-one replacement but the replacements were from the same batch and did the same thing. I then dealt with Mec-Gar USA directly and they also did a one-for-one replacement. In the end the best any of them could do was to recommend down loading the mags by 2-3 rds or buying the longer plus bases and springs which still only put the mag capacity at what the std mag would have been. (still down loaded by whatever rds was the magic number to stop the mag swelling. I just went the the std factory mags and not the higher capacity Mec-Gar mags.

I am a fan of Mec-Gar mags and have only ever seen issues with their mags in just a few different applications. The Beretta 96 mags being one.

quote:

Tisas PX9

What do the magazines feel like when inserting and pulling them out manually with the slide removed?

I know nothing about that gun, and although I’m guessing, I suspect that the magazine well is just a little tight and I don’t know that anything would make a significant difference short of drastically removing some of the polymer from inside the mag well. In addition to other reasons why that wouldn’t be my first choice, it could affect how the mags fit and feed.

Stronger mag springs might help, but I wouldn’t bet the rent on it. How do the factory-supplied magazines work? Are they real SIG or Mec-Gar mags, or the company’s own brand? Has she tried contacting the company about the problem?

As mentioned, the magazine catch could be at fault, but then the mags would insert and drop freely when they’re not far enough in to contact the catch, or if the catch is removed completely.

A little experimenting should make it possible to determine what’s causing them to hang up—either the magazine tube or the magazine catch.

Thanks to all for the input !!

I think the first thing I want to do, is to take a "good mag" and a "bad mag" apart and compare spring length. She does a lot of shooting and I wonder if the "bad" mags have springs that are a bit "tired".

I'm unenthusiastic about removing more than just a tiny amount (ie: polishing only) from the inside of the handgrip, as this gun has worked flawlessly for the last year or so....( probably 5-6,000 rounds) but some of the mags have probably been around for a number of years and used on prior guns.

Fwiw....both good and bad mags are Mec-Gar.