I've owned a Sig P6 1979 model for a while, purchased back when they first were imported in the early 2000s. I had it out this morning and was having a problem with the slide failing to lock back on an empty magazine, with one magazine in particular. I've never had issues with this pistol or the magazines before, so I disassembled the two magazines and made sure they were clean and the springs were in good shape (they're fairly new Wolff +5% springs).

In the photo below, the magazine on the left was the one giving me problems. As you can see, the bent metal tab on the follower that activates the slide stop is about twice as tall with this mag versus the other mag I had out today. I looked through the rest of my magazines (10 in all) and the slide stop tabs were all the same height as the one on the right. The only oddball was the one on the left in this picture.



I'm going to swap the followers in these two mags and see if the problem follows the follower, and if so I'll probably file it down to match the height of the rest of them. I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced this before.

Thanks

I have not had that problem with either of my P6 mags. It almost looks like the follower on the left is aftermarket or something...it has more machining marks and the contours on the sides near the top appear to be different.

Regardless, I think you have a pretty good plan in mind. I'd likely do the same.

Never experienced. I noticed in your photo the spring wire looks slightly higher in the mag release cut, suggesting less tension(?). Curious your results after testing the follower in the other mag.......

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

I swapped the followers in the above magazines and left everything else (springs, baseplates, etc) the same. The problem moved with the follower.

However, I'm not convinced it's the height of the tab that's causing the problem. I noticed the 'bad' follower rocked fore and aft in the mag body slightly while the 'good' follower didn't. I pried the legs of the 'bad' follower slightly apart to make it fit more tightly in the tube and I'll test it later this week.

If that doesn't correct the lock open problem, I'll file down the tab and see if that fixes it.

Thanks for the comments.

quote:

Originally posted by aedavis:
I swapped the followers in the above magazines and left everything else (springs, baseplates, etc) the same. The problem moved with the follower.

However, I'm not convinced it's the height of the tab that's causing the problem. I noticed the 'bad' follower rocked fore and aft in the mag body slightly while the 'good' follower didn't. I pried the legs of the 'bad' follower slightly apart to make it fit more tightly in the tube and I'll test it later this week.

If that doesn't correct the lock open problem, I'll file down the tab and see if that fixes it.

Thanks for the comments.

Sounds like, from how you describe it, that the follower got bent somehow. Hopefully your adjustment worked.

The follower may not be playing nice with your +5 spring. Can you try an OEM spring?

quote:

Originally posted by aedavis:
I swapped the followers in the above magazines and left everything else (springs, baseplates, etc) the same. The problem moved with the follower.

However, I'm not convinced it's the height of the tab that's causing the problem. I noticed the 'bad' follower rocked fore and aft in the mag body slightly while the 'good' follower didn't. I pried the legs of the 'bad' follower slightly apart to make it fit more tightly in the tube and I'll test it later this week.

If that doesn't correct the lock open problem, I'll file down the tab and see if that fixes it.

Thanks for the comments.

I tested the magazine again this morning, with the follower legs pried open slightly to prevent fore and aft rocking in the mag body. This seemed to cure the problem - I ran about 20 slide lock reload drills with this magazine and it locked open each time.

Lesson learned - if your P225/P6 mag followers tilt down more than just a slight amount when you push straight down on the follower, this might cause failures to lock open the slide on an empty magazine.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Interesting. Thanks

Any chance you may have ended up with a P239 follower by mistake?

I bought all these mags used when they were mostly affordable, so maybe, but they all look identical to me. I was thinking about getting a 239 follower to modify if I couldn't get this one working, but it's working now so it's a non issue.

Spare followers for the P225 mags would be a nice part to have available.

I wanted to follow up on this thread in case anyone has a P6 follower problem in the future and finds this thread.

A S&W 3913 plastic follower fits in the P6/P225 magazine and works 100%. I ran about 200 rounds through this setup this morning (124gr and 147gr handloads) and had perfect feeding and 100% lock back when empty. The only 'issue' is that the 8th round is a bit tight to cram in. I sanded the bottom of the S&W follower slightly (about 1/8") and that allowed enough clearance to load the 8th round.

More cool info. Thanks!

Thanks for the followup! That is indeed useful info!