1911 Magazines-dimple on follower?

I received my WC 47NX 10mm magazines. The follower has a dimple on it. My Dan Wesson Specialist 10mm magazines have a follower that looks like a cartridge case which is smooth with no dimple. When I attempt to charge my pistol from slide stop with only 1 round in the mag, the WC jams once every 3 attempts. The DW magazines (Checkmate I believe) do not. The WC 47NX feeds fine except for the last round when cycling ammo by hand , not actually shooting. When ammo is still in mag, there is no dimple hitting bottom of cartridge. It appears to me the jamming (with only 1 round in magazine), occurs because the case rim gets ahead of the extractor hook. I read about the dimple and it sounds like it’s intended to address the dynamic situation of the last round with mag spring at minimum compression (up force on round) and prevent that round from moving forward ahead of extractor hook when feeding. Lots of dynamic forces going on with slide moving back and forth along with spring pushing up on cartridge. Additionally, the 1911 extractor doesn’t do great at snapping around the case rim. The design is “controlled feed” where the case rim should slide behind the extractor hook before the breech face pushes the round forward. My DW magazines appear to function fine and my initial reaction to the WC 47 NX failures were disappointing. However I have not shot them yet and was just verifying function with manual cycling. As I said, no issues until the last round. I’m thinking proper function can’t be assessed unless firing the pistol. I read that John Browning put a dimple on the follower because he thought it needed it. I have seen magazines without a dimple and my DW factory mags (Checkmate I think ) are smooth. I am a 1911 rookie and was just acquiring 2 more magazines to add to my 2 factory mags. Can someone either confirm or correct my understanding of “the dimple”. Is it really a good thing so feeding failures manual cycling are invalid because it doesn’t replicate firing the pistol.

Just return the Wilson Magazines and purchase more magazines of the type that work with the pistol for every round.

What is happening is the first indication of the biggest issue with 1911-pattern pistols; there is no one single standard. So everything becomes a tolerance loop nightmare as there are no published specs and one has to experiment to see what works with a pistol and what does not. Every OEM has unique features/specs that manifest as stuff does not work when something changes.

I believe the DW 10mm magazines are private-labeled Metalform magazines. The Metalform web site could be used to verify. If so, purchasing more of those would be a good thing. DW would likely state what magazines are supplied and/or sell additional items. That may be the easiest way to go as trying magazines can be expensive.

1911 magazines are consumable items; plan on replacing the magazine spring and plastic followers. If the follower is metal, then only the spring need changing.

The dimple is on some followers to reduce inertia feed from the magazine. How the follower tilts in the magazine body is as important as how the follower retains the round.

Thanks

I'm going to give you an answer you didn't ask for which is this. You will find that some mags will work better than others in your 1911. That has been my experience. The easy way out is not using mags that seem to fumble the ball. The powers that be meaning the mag makers and the pistol manufacturer will tell you that if "it all functions" when firing live ammo, then that, sir, is the gospel in these matters. They will say that cycling by hand does not count.

Have you tried loading one round and then releasing the slide and letting it slam forward. If that one round feeds in this manner, then you are ok. Also you can fire the pistol with one round in the mag. If it feeds, then you are ok.

The controlled feeding sometimes hesitates when "slow" hand cycling is taking place. If you have a new gun, then shoot it. My bet is that it works.

Some experts claim that the 1911 45 Auto is unreliable if the mag is carried with 7 rounds. The beloved Browning Hi Power has a poor track record when feeding from the top round from the standard 13 round magazine.

You asked about the dimple. I can't answer that. If you continue to have issues, the mag company might can offer you a different follower. If not, you can use them for range use. My information may not be current. There are others here who shoot more than I do and may be better qualified to answer your question.

Farscott is right on point why the dimple is in the mag follower....to prevent inertia feed. On my DW A2 45acp, I use Checkmate 7-round magazines and they have the dimple. I use Chip McCormick Power Mag and Railed Mag 8-rounders with a smooth follower. I use Wilson Combat 7-round (47?) magazine with a polymer follower. Then the 8-round mag DW also. They all work fine.

I saw someone make this observation: How many manufacturers make Glock? Glock. Sure you can get custom slides and frames but they are afterthoughts to the basic pistol. But Glock controls the design, testing and manufacture of their product.

How many companies make the 1911? Uh.....lots. And magazines?.....lots. My point there are many manufacturers of the pistol and many more make aftermarket parts. They don't always mesh and need fitting. The Glock is plug and play where the 1911 isn't. And with any product which is manufactured to a price-point, there are always compromises to reach that price-point.

Not really saying anything new here. For me I have always thought the 1911 needed a bit more vetting since it wasn't designed around JHP higher velocity ammo. Or calibers which it wasn't initially designed for.

Welcome to the world of the 1911. The rewards for me far outnumber the hiccups along the way.

The 1911, the original 7 round magazines (with the dimpled follower) , and the 45 auto cartridge were all designed by his Holiness JMB to work together. :cool:

Some people don't like Wilson magazines with the wadcutter type feedlips because they can lead to the gun going into more of a push feed mode than the CRF it was designed for.

You bought a 10mm which will induce wackiness into the equation. At least shoot it and see how the Wilsons work. You should be able to sell them if you don't like them.

Also, I hope you’re using dummy rounds and not live ammo to check the cycling. One just for safety’s sake, but also because ammo is expensive and repeated chambering in a 1911 is a good way to ruin live ammo. I personally don’t chamber a cartridge in a 1911 more than twice before I shoot it it, or in other words if I chamber and eject it it’s going boom the next time it makes it into the chamber.

The 1911 feed path is rather violent and bullet set back happens quickly with the design. I would check the OAL of any live cartridges you have that have been up the feed ramp more than a couple of times before you shoot them.

ETA: Wow, even I didn’t understand a couple of things in that post before the edit.

As said, you can either return the Wilsons and get magazines without pimples (a dimple is a depression, like on a chubby baby) or you can take the radical step of shooting the gun to see if firing will bring the last round past the pimple.

Checkmates have pimples, your round followers are Metalform.

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Originally Posted by willie

I'm going to give you an answer you didn't ask for which is this. You will find that some mags will work better than others in your 1911. That has been my experience. The easy way out is not using mags that seem to fumble the ball. The powers that be meaning the mag makers and the pistol manufacturer will tell you that if "it all functions" when firing live ammo, then that, sir, is the gospel in these matters. They will say that cycling by hand does not count.

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Yes, with 1911 mags, and 1911's in general, the old joke comes to mind:

"Doc, it hurts when I do this."

"Then stop doing that."

If it works, great. Buy more. If it doesn't, don't look too deep. Just try another mag.

Dan Wesson at one time had (perceived) issues with the Checkmate mags they shipped with. They worked great in all mine, so I had an open offer on 1911forum to buy any Checkmate mags you didn't want and ended up with a bunch.

My DW magazines work fine. They have a round follower, no dimple and a base pad attached with 2 small screws. There is a metal piece above the pad that seats against the frame. I like that metal to metal contact. I’m not exactly sure if they are Checkmate or Metalform? Metalform has a current mag that looks like it but with no base pad. I am happy with what came with it. I have cycled live ammo before and noticed a ding or 2 can occur when cycling. So I don’t do it more than once. I’m starting to conclude that live fire is best test anyway.