Tim Herron's thoughts on 9mm 1911 mags...

[Tokarev]

Tim Herron posted this on Insta.

132757

[gtmtnbiker98]

I have had good success with ETM’s with the exception of my DW TCP and feeding from slide lock (never any issues once loaded). My Valor and Specialist feed with the ETM’s from slide lock. 1911’s have their unique personalities.

[Ed L]

I think first you need to ask what type of ammo

I have a Wilson combat Hackathorn Special in 9mm. The gun is temperamental when it comes to hollowpoints. I have found the best mags for it an unsurprisingly the Wilson ETMs. They will feed rounds reliably that the Tripp mags will not.

I found the Metalform mags to be a trainwreck. The ones I bought would not hold all of the rounds reliably. If you put it in a mag pouch the top mag would often leak out. They would also not function reliably in the gun. For this gun I decided to just stick with Wilson ETM mags.

Now I have 2 barely used Tripp mags and 2 barely used Metalform mags that I will put up for sale eventually.

[rd62]

I've been pleased with ETMs and MecGar mags in my 9mm Commander

[jeep45238]

I haven't done numbers or a careful study, but I can say that the Dawson Precision mags are essentially equivalent to the ETM the the loading/keeping the top round from sliding forward into the frame, and run a larger basepad if memory serves me right.

[Bucky]

I did so much testing with 9mm magazines across 5 different guns about a decade or so ago. Of the 10 round magazines, the earlier CMC power mags worked the best for me. These are the ones with the spacer in the front. I only have 4 of these, and they are my go to mags for competition (I don’t / won’t keep a 9mm 1911 for serious use). They have since moved the spacer to the rear like most other designs. The Wilson Vicker’s duty mag worked well too, but they were pricey at the time.

As for Tripp, their magazines are a little on the loose side. Sometimes when the top round feeds, the round below it move forward. That could hang up when trying to drop the mag. However, this trait does have its advantages. I do like using them for steel challenge. They are easier to load than the others, and much easier to unload than the others. While not the ideal 9 mm magazine, I do use their 10 mm mags exclusively in my .40 withe great success. I have 12 of those.

Of course, this was some time ago. It’s possible that these magazines may have been updated in design and / or construction since then. YMMV.

[LockedBreech]

ETMs are all I use for 1911s. Nice to see that validated.

My test case for ETMs was back in 2017-2018. I bought a .45 Colt Series 80 Government Stainless, replaced the stock magazines with ETMs, and ran about 1500-2000 through the gun. Although the quality of my documentation was too poor for me to include the gun in a 2,000-round-test post, I am highly confident the number was around 1800 of several different ammo types. The whole test was run out of the box with no cleaning.

While I don't intend to abuse any 19111 to that extent going forward, I wanted to see if I could shake the "1911s are jam machines" stereotype that had become embedded in my head from internet chatter. In that, I was successful. Following that test, my Colt, my Springfield Garrison, and my S&W E-Series all use ETMs now. I have yet to experience a 1911 stoppage while using ETMs. I know that 1911s are a complex platform and there is no magic bullet without a suite of preventative maintenance, but it does seem that the ETMs largely eliminate that failure vector. For that alone, they're worth the cost to me.

[Robinson]

For 9mm 1911s I've had good luck with Wilson ETMs and Ed Brown 9-rd mags. I had a Springfield 9mm 1911 that did very well in the 2000 round challenge using Metalform mags, but shortly after the test the mags started failing to lock the slide back on empty.

[Jim Watson]

I did so much testing with 9mm magazines across 5 different guns about a decade or so ago. Of the 10 round magazines, the earlier CMC power mags worked the best for me. These are the ones with the spacer in the front. I only have 4 of these, and they are my go to mags for competition (I don’t / won’t keep a 9mm 1911 for serious use). They have since moved the spacer to the rear like most other designs.

I have a dozen of the CMC XP front spacer magazines. They gave me a supply of springs because "we are not likely to wind any more of those."

They went to the 1950 rear spacer after Chip sold up to Wilson.
I got a Wilson, a current CMC, and a couple of MecGar 10x9mm; all feed in my guns.

Earlier times, I used the Shooting Star 10x38 for 9mm. They fed ok but the added stress of the tapered case popped the spot welds and blew the floorplates off of two of them.

The Metalform/Leatham/Springfield Front Ramp 9x9mm are fine but when I ordered some of the then-new 10x9mm, I was surprised to find they had gone to rear spacers. And the ones I got were too short, looks like they put 9 round spacers in 10 round tubes, which would jam up the follower. So I had to send them back, mine and the ones I got for my friends. They then did OK for a while but quit feeding well. Fresh springs did not help. I got them usable by putting in .38 Super followers and springs. The Metalform round follower .38 will feed 9mm ball in my guns. But they would not sell me the followers. So I cut some round .45 followers to fit and used them, also bought some Tripp followers. Phew.

[Trooper224]

They all work in my Tisas pistols and my one 9mm Springfield. I have one Mecgar 10 rounder that won't lock the slide back on occasion. Other than that, they all work. I use Wilson ETMs and Metalform 10 rounders for carry. I haven't experienced either one leaving rounds in the pouch. I actually have more issues with crappy QC on ammo than mag issues.

[1911Nut]

I haven't done numbers or a careful study, but I can say that the Dawson Precision mags are essentially equivalent to the ETM the the loading/keeping the top round from sliding forward into the frame, and run a larger basepad if memory serves me right.

This mirrors my experience.

[Tokarev]

The only thing I have noticed as a negative for the ETMs, aside from being hard to manually unload, is that they may be more likely to hit against the bottom of the ejector than some other mags.

[SecondsCount]

The Mecgar mags that ship with Springfield 9mm 1911s are decent.

Whatever ships with a 2016 era DW Valor run awesome in that gun.

I have some of the early CMC 9mm mags and they are solid. Too bad the recipe changed when Wilson took over.

The ETM mags that I tried in a very reliable 4.25" 9mm setup made the gun unreliable. I think it was the length of the feed lips that caused the issue.

[Bucky]

I have a dozen of the CMC XP front spacer magazines. They gave me a supply of springs because "we are not likely to wind any more of those."


That isn’t encouraging. Fortunately, my springs still feel robust, and my use of that platform is very limited these days.

[Sensei]

I did a little research project with my DW Specialist today. I brought the following magazines:
1) Wilson ETM
2) Wilson Vickers
3) Tripp Research Cobra

I loaded each round to capacity and then topped it off after chambering. I then fired single rounds and checked after each round fired to: 1) see if the magazine will drop free and 2) see if the top round in the magazine was shifted forward.

The Vickers and ETM mags would drop free after every round. After firing 4 rounds, the top round was set forward in each mag just a little:
132943
132945

Neither of the Wilson magazines experienced any failures.

The Tripp Cobra magazine would not completely drop free after firing the first round. Stripping it was relatively easy but always resulted in the offset round being stripped from the magazine. This continued until the last round was fed and then the magazine would drop free. Despite this rather extreme forward offset, this magazine cycled about 15-20 rounds today (and plenty more before that) without failure.

My takeaway is that forward setting the rounds a little is not a big deal and doesn’t impact reliability. However, the Tripp Cobra mags will forward set to the extent that partially loaded mags will not drop free and must be stripped with loss of the round.