Best 10 round 1911 .45 mags?

[DWB]

I've had a Wilson and 3 CMCs quite a few months now. I shoot an indoor competition twice monthly. No trouble with the Wilson, tonight tons with the CMCs. I may try changing springs and followers, but I'm about done with them. I think I'm going to try Tripp, anxious for CheckMate to come out with their 10s. Anyone have any input for reliable 10s?

Thanks!

[Odin Bravo One]

Being a die hard 1911 fan, for both shits and grins, as well as serious duty use, I can say without a doubt, the hands down, absolute best 10 round .45 ACP 1911 rounds are the Wilson 8 rounders loaded with 7 rounds.

Seriously.........there is not one magazine over 8 rounds that I would trust. And I download those to 7, or rather, I do not top them off when I load the pistol. As with all things handgun, it is a compromise and a consideration we have to make when selecting the 1911.

[Tamara]

Being a die hard 1911 fan, for both shits and grins, as well as serious duty use, I can say without a doubt, the hands down, absolute best 10 round .45 ACP 1911 rounds are the Wilson 8 rounders loaded with 7 rounds.

... And I download those to 7, or rather, I do not top them off when I load the pistol.
100% agreement.

I'll add that, if you just gotta have a long stick for some gun game or another, the 10-rounders are the only place where I'll recommend the CMC product over the equivalent Wilson offering, as the McCormick mag has that big wraparound bumper on the bottom while the Wilson "Bureaucrat" uses that idiotic little tack-welded tab as an overtravel stop. I have twice seen guns where the mag was slapped vigorously home during a slide-lock reload, ran past the mag catch, and that little tab popped off, allowing the mag to be jammed up into the feedway proper, tying up the gun pretty comprehensively and buggering up the extended ejector in the process.

[ADKilla]

if you just gotta have a long stick for some gun game or another, the 10-rounders are the only place where I'll recommend the CMC product over the equivalent Wilson offering.

100% agree. My CMC 10-rounders have performed better on a speed re-load than the Wilson Bureaucrat.

[willowofwisp]

My experience using a few different 10 round magazines (Wilson, CMC, McGar, Tripp) I found the Tripp magazines to be the most reliable followed by the Wilsons.

[DWB]

Thanks for the input, all.

I hope willow is right, ordered a Tripp to try and some spring and follwers to try in my CMCs.

I like the CMC rubber ducky thing, good for grabbing, grip, dropping mag on concrete, but reliability was terrible, I'm not sure what the problem was last night, couldn't diagnose at the time, bolt over base, round retention failure, fail to feed, or a combination. Wilson 10 and CMC 8 (sent to me by mistake) ran fine. Will try to get out and fool with it in the next couple days. Springs seem weak, don't like the floppy, no dimple followers, wadcutter feed lips....someone somewhere suggested putting a couple dummy rounds under your mag spring and see if that improves it - simulates a stronger spring.

I s'pose I could just get faster at reloading and use smaller mags...but I would have to be really fast to keep up in this game. Automated indoor range setup, shoot now, hit the target before it's gone or you score a big fat 0...which I did much of last night. :mad:

One bright spot...the other 2 guys were shooting Glocks and had almost as much trouble as I, and they don't normally. Woulda been worse being the only failure...ha!

[jetfire]

When shooting L10 with a single stack gun, I'd exclusively use the McCormick 10 round mags. They just tend to work better than the Wilson 10 round mags for all the reasons previously mentioned.

[DWB]

Huh, my experience has been exactly opposite...gotta do some troubleshooting.

[DocGKR]

I shot 1911's from 1986-2011; I never discovered a 10 rd magazine that was fully reliable. Strangely, the most reliable tended to be 7rd GI style mags. The Wilson 7 & 8 rd mags are nice, because as soon as they go bad (which they tended to do within a year or so of heavy use), Wilson replaced them...

I am now around a lot of 10 rd M&P45 mags, which so far have been 100% reliable.

[DWB]

I'm really hoping CheckMate gets their 10s into production soon...choice of followers, feed lips, springs...

[Tamara]

The Wilson 7 & 8 rd mags are nice, because as soon as they go bad (which they tended to do within a year or so of heavy use), Wilson replaced them...

I don't know whether it's due to more moderate use, or because I rotate pretty evenly through twenty or thirty of the things at any given time, but, while I have replaced springs and followers a-go-go in Wilson 47 Deltas over the years, I think I've only discarded one or two mag tubes proper in that time span.

EDITED TO ADD: FWIW, when I got my Springer Pro back in '01, two of the five 47D's that came with it had springs that were deader than Elvis from the previous owner keeping them stuffed with eight rounds at all times.

[DWB]

I think I may have found my problem, or at least a contributor. Age is probably a factor. I just have the 3 CMCs and the 1 Wilson, and they are all several months old, maybe a year-ish, so they get used a bit, but not what I would call pro-level use or abuse...need to log this kind of stuff.

ALSO, a while back I goofed an EGW extractor install and didn't have enough tension...ejection was fine with the Wilson's convex follower helping to boost cases out, but the CMCs were getting the empty cases crammed into the feed lips and stuck there, wedging them open...I came across this article with sizes and spec to check, due to the author having the same problem.

http://www.10-8performance.com/pages/1911-Magazines.html

The CMCs are all opened up to .404-.414" except the rarely-used 8 rounder is .893".

[BWT]

Being a die hard 1911 fan, for both shits and grins, as well as serious duty use, I can say without a doubt, the hands down, absolute best 10 round .45 ACP 1911 rounds are the Wilson 8 rounders loaded with 7 rounds.

Seriously.........there is not one magazine over 8 rounds that I would trust. And I download those to 7, or rather, I do not top them off when I load the pistol. As with all things handgun, it is a compromise and a consideration we have to make when selecting the 1911.

No joke, I thought about posting an 8-round magazine when I saw the thread title, but I decided against it because I thought it'd be cynical.

I absolutely agree.

Well... backstory, I used to carry two spare two round 1911 magazines... and then I kept shooting them periodically, and the jams after, made me decide I couldn't trust them.

Seriously, I wouldn't consider a 10 round magazine for self-defense. I wouldn't. They light to let the magazine spring get soft which then pushes that bullet nose tip down into the feedramp (and yes it has a polished feedramp on the 1911), on the second shot.

One of the most troubling things about 1911 magazines to me, is they love to pull the first round off the magazine, and this is all magazines, and then they like to pull the second round forward slightly as well, which lends itself great to doing the exact same thing I described with the ten rounders.

I have a Wolff 8-rounder that I really like, it's got a great spring, metal follower, I like the base plate, etc. I've been very well pleased.

http://www.gunsprings.com/cID1/mID1/dID1#803

[DWB]

I agree on 10 rounders being a departure from original design and therefore asking for trouble, and will not use them for defense...I'm just hoping someone can get it to work. The local semi-formal run what ya brung comp is pretty much set up for 10 rounds...

...doign some piddling around with dummy rounds, and yeah these 10s nosedive the first few rounds like crazy, though the problem last night was more like double feeds.

[DWB]

Put ~150 rounds thru the CMCs today. No failures. Baffled. Only thing I can think of is maybe in the heat of competition I seated the mags too hard, with upset the bullets in them...I have no idea really...

[Kevin B.]

A bit late to the discussion...

I have yet to find a 10-round magazine that I would trust for serious use. I have, on a couple of occassions, run a WC 10-rounder in my 1911 to get 10+1 but my lack of confidence in the magazine caused me to abandon the practice.

I used WC 47D's exclusively for years with good results. However, their annoying tendancy of the spring to develop a set and/or for the follower to wear were continuing sources of frustration despite WC's excellent customer service.

At Hilton Yam's suggestion, I have been running CMC Power Mags for the past two years or so. I have about 15K rounds through 10 or so Power Mags and I have had absolutely no issues. I am less enthusiastic about the Power Mag+ and the four or five I own have been relegated to range use only.

As with all things 1911, YMMV.

[DWB]

Kevin, have you tried Tripp? I have one on order, Checkmate's 10s are supposed to be available.

I think a long body and long, strong spring are required for good 10 function.

[DWB]

Put ~150 rounds thru the CMCs today. No failures. Baffled. Only thing I can think of is maybe in the heat of competition I seated the mags too hard, WHICH upset the bullets in them...I have no idea really...


Quoted, to correct which, couldn't edit

[Kevin B.]

Kevin, have you tried Tripp? I have one on order, Checkmate's 10s are supposed to be available.

I think a long body and long, strong spring are required for good 10 function.

I have tried Tripp mags of the 8-round variety. Two of my guns did not like them. Based on my experience with the 8-rounders, I did not even bother with the 10-round magazine.

My experience with some other Checkmate products was less than stellar and I would not seriously consider their 1911 magazines. My $.02. YMMV.

I agree that a strong spring is required. My experience with 10-round mags is that you need to stay on top of your springs (more so than other 1911 mags) as they fatigue quickly. Tubes do not seem to hold up as long either.

Given the 1911's maintenance requirements, introducing another maintenance intensive component into the weapon system for an increase of 2 rounds in the magazine did not make sense for me. The juice just was not worth the squeeze.

[JV_]

I have tried Tripp mags of the 8-round variety. Two of my guns did not like them. Based on my experience with the 8-rounders, I did not even bother with the 10-round magazine.

I've had good luck with their 8 round mags, but my guns preferred their old feed lip design. They updated it the design a year or two after their release.

[DWB]

I have tried Tripp mags of the 8-round variety. Two of my guns did not like them. Based on my experience with the 8-rounders, I did not even bother with the 10-round magazine.

My experience with some other Checkmate products was less than stellar and I would not seriously consider their 1911 magazines. My $.02. YMMV.

I agree that a strong spring is required. My experience with 10-round mags is that you need to stay on top of your springs (more so than other 1911 mags) as they fatigue quickly. Tubes do not seem to hold up as long either.

Given the 1911's maintenance requirements, introducing another maintenance intensive component into the weapon system for an increase of 2 rounds in the magazine did not make sense for me. The juice just was not worth the squeeze.

Yes, 10 rounds of .45 are definitley heavy, besides taking up more space, and place more strain on everything.

I did a quick mag body length comparo. 7 round Colt mag = .614" per round. The CMC 10s were something like .58". The gist is that for proper spring and follower room, the mag needs to be longer to have room for a longer spring and follower. 8 round mags are a compromise of the original design, and generally regarded as less reliable, 10 rounds moreso. I think if the wire, number of coils, and available room were engineered for the heavier load, they'd be more successful, but still probably not as reliable as a good 7. I imagine that a too-short for the round count mag body over-compresses the spring, and spring tension is higher that it should be when mag is full and lower than it should be when empty. A heavier spring with more coils to move the heavier load and room to compress without over-compressing might be the ticket.

Then there's follower and feed lip design. I prefer GI or hybrid from what I've learned...

[Kevin B.]

Marketing hype aside, all of the current 1911 magazine offerings all require the user to sacrifice some degree of reliability for capacity or some capacity for reliability. It is up to the user to determine how much reliability they are willing to sacrifice for increased capacity based on their intended use.

For those who are unwilling to give up reliability or capacity, the 1911 is probably not the platform for them.

[ToddG]

For those who are unwilling to give up reliability or capacity, the 1911 is probably not the platform for them.

Awesome!

[Kevin B.]

Awesome!

Thanks. I have moments of awesomeness.

[JeffJ]

I have a vision of Todd's next T-shirt design :cool:

[Tamara]

Awesome!

If 7+1 was good enough for Sergeant York... :p

[Kevin B.]

If 7+1 was good enough for Sergeant York... :p

55 Medal of Honor recipients can't be wrong...

[DWB]

Tripp 10 round showed up. Looks promising. Nice stiff spring.

[DWB]

Put a box or so thru the Tripp tonight at competition. It's still early, but I think this might be the best 10 out there.

[DWB]

Upgraded my Colt Officer mags with Tripp springs and followers. I'm a fan. Tripp springs are longer and stronger. .048" vs. .043" wire

The Tripp guts turn the Chips into 9 rounders, CMC mag bodies are too short. Can't decide if I want to try upgrading them with the new CMC power + guts or put the money towards more Tripp mags.

[DWB]

Several hundred failure-free rounds thru the Tripp 10 in both my Government and my Defender - which, due to it's light weight and therefore sharp recoil, tends to magnify mag problems, no other 10-rounders will run in it. I'm not saying the Tripp 10 is life and death reliable, but it's game-reliable so far in my opinion.

[NETim]

I'm a fan of the Tripp 9 round conversion for the McCormick's but then I've become a fan of all things Tripp over the years.

[DWB]

I'd imagine they're pretty good, I tried one, but being one round short messes me up in this particaular gun-game, since it's kinda set up for 10 rounders.

[DWB]

Guy I shoot with in our smal local comp went to a big comp and there were a lot of 1911s. He estimated 60% were Trippin'. Just food for thought. Maybe just a local trend or maybe they're finding what works.

[DWB]

Had a couple problems with the Tripp nosediving. Variety of bullets, but the worst (of course) is a Rainier 185 plated HP. So far, Wilson is the winner for reliability in my guns, with CMC 10 running a close second. I think the start of this thread was one night at comp, I had a lot of problems with the CMCs, but never could dumplicate it, chalked it up to ammo.

[DWB]

Tripp quit locking back and wasn't dropping free. One feed lip was dented towards the front and the mag body and follwer had collected a bunch of sticky crud from lead reloads. Cleaned and fixed it, but doesn't seem to be a problem with the other mags, their followers seem to scrape out instead of collecting crud.

[mark olindale]

Tripp quit locking back and wasn't dropping free. One feed lip was dented towards the front and the mag body and follwer had collected a bunch of sticky crud from lead reloads. Cleaned and fixed it, but doesn't seem to be a problem with the other mags, their followers seem to scrape out instead of collecting crud.

If this becomes a repetitive problem give Tripp a call. Their customer service is the best in the biz IMO.

[DWB]

If this becomes a repetitive problem give Tripp a call. Their customer service is the best in the biz IMO.

Thanks, I called and emailed them back when I was having nosedive problems and didn't hear back. That was around the time they had the fire though. I the problem was abuse = bent - and neglect = crud buildup. It works well now.

[Jin]

DWB,

thanks for posting your research/findings. I just ordered four Tripp 10 rounders (.45).

My kimber was having issues with feeding the last round in the magazine with my three Wilson ETM's. Tripp's super 7 kit fixed that problem, and their 8 round magazine seems to work great.

[DWB]

I hope I'm wrong, but I would have ordered 1 first to try it and see if your gun likes them. Though a good smith will say any quality gun should run with any quality magazine.

[Jin]

good call; unfortunately the magazines are already on their way to me. I guess I was too overconfident from my experience with thier 8 round mag & upgrade kits...to think about ordering just one 10 rounder to try out.

what i'll do is run a single mag first to see if there are any issues. that way, in worst case scenario the other three remain unused for an attempt at a return with Tripp or I can try to re-sale.

[Jin]

had a good test session today with the tripp 10 round magazines. out of about 75 rounds, i did have one premature slide lock though, but the magazine is not at fault. there is a well known kimber slide stop issue, the problem has been alot better as i slowly started to take away material where there are copper markings on the locking lobe.
i also have the bad habit of resting my support thumb on the slide lock. will inspect more closely at home tonight with the slide off.

http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x379/urbansniper308/IMAG0465.jpg?t=1339093632

[DWB]

Long term report. Chips have been the most durable, reliable, odd ammo tolerant, and required the least maintenance.

[DWB]

Longer term report. Still the same report.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

I appreciate your update. Any chance of a rough estimate of total round count per mag?

Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk

[DWB]

Gotta go home and count the empty primer sleeves under my reloading bench. :-D

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Without making you crawl around...would an average mag have seen 200 rounds? A thousand rounds?

Just trying to get a feel for how long a few cmc 10s would last me.

Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk

[Haraise]

I'm interested in the methodology as well. Chips have been the best, what sample size? What were you comparing it to? What sample size of each? How many rounds (about) through each? Was the failure commonly due to dirt tolerance?

[DWB]

Counted primer sleeves, 14,000 rounds. Almost all of them on 7 CMCs. I had 3 at first, then bought a couple more, and then a couple more. They are numbered and I rotate through all of them, so the first ones have considerably more rounds on them....but divided equally, that's 2,000 rds per mag. Have never had to change a spring. (Maybe I should as PM)
Mostly 200gr bullets@ major but also 230s at factory, 152SWCs, etc.

I shoot twice a month indoors, ~50 rds per match, once per mo outdoors most of the year, ~100 rds per match. Plus practice and general shooting.

The Wilson was/is reliable but requires cleaning and I'm sure the follower would wear out if I used it a lot. Same with the Tripp, except it nosedives with short bullets. It does have the best round retention. The CMCs I just shake/blow out/wipe off. They get dropped on dirt and concrete, sometimes with about 4 rds in them.

I think the issues I had with the CMCs early in the thread were me/gun=extractor issue. I have had no issues with them in a long time. I run them in an old well worn and considerably smoothed up Series 70.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Thanks for the info...200+ mag cycles is plenty for me to consider them a worthwhile purchase.

[DWB]

Just trying to get a feel for how long a few cmc 10s would last me.

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A very long time, definitely worth it. When my gun wasn't ejecting, it was cramming empty cases back into the feed lips and spread them a little. Per Hilton Yam = 10-8, it's time to throw them away when they spread...I bent them back in with a little desktop vise to see what would happen and they have held up fine.

I trust mine on my nightstand now...no bobbles except when I try to feed a badly goofed reload.