All posts tagged Colt Commander magazines

1911 magazines, manufacturers of mags and how reliable they are?

Chip McCormick magazinesI don’t know the answers to all of the 1911 magazine questions but I do know that standard GI magazines are really not the best thing to run in a 1911 if you are carrying for protection.  I have a ton of them I use for range mags but they don’t hold up very long.  GI magazines are meant to be throw aways, and if you compare them to the M9 magazines, there is an obvious durability difference.   I’ve replaced springs and followers on magazines and it’s really been worth all of the efforts.   On something like a Glock magazine or a Magpul Pmag, I’ve replaced magazine springs and occasionally a follower.   Some gun magazines are so inexpensive that you might as well just toss them rather than have to tweak it the whole time.

It’s always good to keep your eyes open for manufacturers that have good warranties and the Chip McCormick 1911 magazines that we sell are good about that.   I guess the thing that Chip McCormick magazines knows is there are finicky 1911 guns out there and if there mag doesn’t work in  your gun they’ll replace it.   The Chip McCormick power mags are really the ones you want to use if you are putting  a lot of lead downrange.  The 8rd magazines are really the most common for CCW and even though the 1911 was issues with 7rd magazine, I have personally  had no reliability issues with any of the 8rd power mags that I have.  The Chip McCormick 10rd magazines are very popular for IDPA and Competition shooters but they do throw off the balance of a 1911 in my opinion.

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Warranties on gun magazines?

chip mccormick magazines I have had 1911s around for years and the 45acp is probable one of the top 3 calibers that I reload.   There are lots of things you can do with various bullets.  I’ve seen people load bullets in 1911s and they ran like champs, other 1911s had issues with hollow points or semi-wad cutters.   There are always thing you can tweak on a 1911 to make it more modern, and in fact,there are 1911s out there now that really aren’t like the 1911s that the Government had but they are very fun to shoot.   There is something about the balance and grip feel on the 1911 that is so natural unless you have small hands.

I started out with GI magazines for my 1911 and quickly found out how inferior they were.   I have mostly used Wilson Combat Magazines but recently for financial reasons, I guess it was time to test out Chip McCormick magazines and see how well they fared.   We did have an issue with 2 magazines in the last 5 years where the base plates fell off the mags, but Chip McCormick does have a 3 year warranty on their magazines.  I don’t understand any company that wants to stay in the shooting business that doesn’t back their products up with decent warranties.   Based strictly on customer purchases, I don’t see why anyone should consider deviating from the things that work.

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Have you switched to the ETM magazines yet?

I’ve been asking just about everyone that walked in the door if they have been using the ETM magazines, but the vast majority of people that CCW a 1911 pistol have not, they still don’t know about them.   The guys that run IDPA all use them, but that’s a whole other breed of a shooter.   I’ve always viewed IDPA to be a really good CCW training course.   It’s not about hitting inside certain rings or getting a certain score, its about hitting the target.  Any hit is better than no hit because even bad guys bleed.  I know plenty of people that do quite well with Chip McCormick magazines and if you do shoot  your 1911 often, you’ll probable save a about $8-$10 a magazines.

 

There is something that seems to be sturdier about the Elite Tactical Magazines, and if you are shooting a 1911 with non-FMJ or non-ball ammo magazines matter.   Wilson Combat Magazines are in our customers and employees experienece, the top choice for shooters.   The 1911 is still used in competition shooting due to the well known and liked trigger design and balance.   When you compared some of the double stacked 45acp guns that are out there like the XD45acp and the M&P 45, sometimes it’s just too much of a gun and it will have an impact on your speed.

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Magazines that aren’t flush fitting

I have never really liked the feel of having a pistol magazine protrude out of the bottom of the gun unless it is because the gun grip is too small for me.  I’ve seen a few of my friends do this on their Glocks, namely the Glock 26 because it is such a small gun.   I did put an extension on a Sig 239 which is the  only gun I currently own that has this.   The first gun that I owned was a Colt 1991A1 and it only came with one pistol magazine.   It was a Colt magazine which i thought would be the best gun magazine to have, but that turned out to not be true.   After having a few problems with the slide stop not catching, I found out the magazine tab was bending and causing the issue.

I believe it was at a gun show that I picked up 2 Wilson Combat magazines and my Colt 1991A1 ran flawlessly with ball ammo.  The gun magazines really ran well with hollow point ammunition but I found the gun to be too picky with hollow point ammo that I pretty much gave up on worrying about it.   If you look at the velocity that a 45acp is flying at, I don’t think you’ll have massive over penetration issues compared to 9mm ball.   Wilson combat magazines have varying base pads and from my experience this is mostly a concern for competition shooters.   If the magazine drops free I don’t need to worry about gripping it and pulling it out for a fast reload.

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