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Magazine problems with Remington 1911 Double Stack


bipolarattorney

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I have scoured the interwebz and do not see any instances of folks having magazine feeding issues with the Remington 1911 double stack - basically, its the old 14-45 Para Ordnance used to make, except Remington "upgraded" it to a 15 round magazine. Purchased new, and out of the box, the magazines were difficult to load to 14 and nearly impossible to load to 15. Shot a couple of boxes of ammo and the magazines consistently had problems feeding the rounds because the magazine spring/follower were getting caught up and not pushing the top round up to the top of the magazine - shaking/agitating the firearm (pointed safely down range) would generally cause the spring/follower to come unstuck and allow the next round to feed properly upon cycling the slide. I called Remington and they sent me two brand new mags - the mags are clearly different and not quite as difficult to load, but same problem. This does not seem to be a firearm repair issue, as the firearm is functioning properly; it's just the mags. I feel like I shouldn't have to take apart factory new mags and fiddle with them, but I'm sort of out of ideas. Anybody heard of this being an issue - any ideas of fixes?

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Not the same gun, but I have a SAR K2 in .45 that I use some of the para p14 mags in. I had the same issues and it was almost always when I was using steel cased ammo. It seems like the steel casings were dragging/binding instead of sliding easily on the inside of the mag tube. That would cause the follower to tilt a bit and then jam up the mag.

 

My fix was to install the wolff +10% mag springs and run brass cased ammo. I havent had a single issue since doing that.

 

I suppose you could also polish the inside of the mag tube and use a little graphite powder to help lube the follower up if you wanted to try doing something without having to purchase any springs.

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Not meaning to insult you, but did you clean them well before using them??

I never had to clean new magazines but new magazines can be hard to load I would pick up a magazine loader like this and next range trip just load up

10 rounds and see if that works ok do that a few times then load a full magazine if that dose not work pick up some new magazines

anyway https://www.amazon.com/Maglula-ltd-UpLULA-Magazine-Unloader/dp/B001HBHNHE/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Maglula+UpLULA+Universal+Magazine+Loader+UP60B&qid=1555973456&s=gateway&sr=8-2

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+1 Gazillion on the Uplula mag loader. Use it for even a short while and you WILL wonder why you waited so long to own one. I garrontee! lol

 

MY personal 'mod' to the product - My thumb would sometimes inadvertently push down the little lock tab while pushing the loader down on a mag, locking the thing closed until the tab is lifted up again, a minor nuisance. My simple, permanent fix was to take an Exacto blade and trim the end of the tab itself and then use a needle-nose plier to yank it out and throw it away. Look at the tab and you'll see what you need to cut away to free it from the loader body. The lock's SOLE function is to allow a user to very slightly reduce the room the loader takes up in a range bag. Not an important feature IMHO.

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I have scoured the interwebz and do not see any instances of folks having magazine feeding issues with the Remington 1911 double stack - basically, its the old 14-45 Para Ordnance used to make, except Remington "upgraded" it to a 15 round magazine. Purchased new, and out of the box, the magazines were difficult to load to 14 and nearly impossible to load to 15. Shot a couple of boxes of ammo and the magazines consistently had problems feeding the rounds because the magazine spring/follower were getting caught up and not pushing the top round up to the top of the magazine - shaking/agitating the firearm (pointed safely down range) would generally cause the spring/follower to come unstuck and allow the next round to feed properly upon cycling the slide. I called Remington and they sent me two brand new mags - the mags are clearly different and not quite as difficult to load, but same problem. This does not seem to be a firearm repair issue, as the firearm is functioning properly; it's just the mags. I feel like I shouldn't have to take apart factory new mags and fiddle with them, but I'm sort of out of ideas. Anybody heard of this being an issue - any ideas of fixes?

First thing I’d try is load them up and put them away for a few weeks. That has made more mags function better for me that I can count.

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I have scoured the interwebz and do not see any instances of folks having magazine feeding issues with the Remington 1911 double stack - basically, its the old 14-45 Para Ordnance used to make, except Remington "upgraded" it to a 15 round magazine. Purchased new, and out of the box, the magazines were difficult to load to 14 and nearly impossible to load to 15. Shot a couple of boxes of ammo and the magazines consistently had problems feeding the rounds because the magazine spring/follower were getting caught up and not pushing the top round up to the top of the magazine - shaking/agitating the firearm (pointed safely down range) would generally cause the spring/follower to come unstuck and allow the next round to feed properly upon cycling the slide. I called Remington and they sent me two brand new mags - the mags are clearly different and not quite as difficult to load, but same problem. This does not seem to be a firearm repair issue, as the firearm is functioning properly; it's just the mags. I feel like I shouldn't have to take apart factory new mags and fiddle with them, but I'm sort of out of ideas. Anybody heard of this being an issue - any ideas of fixes?

First thing I’d try is load them up and put them away for a few weeks. That has made more mags function better for me that I can count.

 

Why would keeping magazines loaded for a few weeks help Springs get weaker from use not from being compressed

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I dunno, but my troubleshooting mental flowchart says it's 'possible' to get a bad mag and experience feed issues, but 3 out of 3? Maybe possible but fer sure not probable.

 

I start to suspect the gun. Perhaps a hidden burr near the feed ramp? Some other sort of mechanical interference?

 

Or you just got super unlucky with mags and maybe the 4th time will be the charm?

 

Can we 'assume' you're using good old 230gr factory ball ammo to eliminate THAT variable?

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Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions. On the first two mags that came with the gun, I used both steel cased and brass cased 230 gr ball, factory new ammo and had the problem in both mags. The two new mags that they sent as replacements, I have only loaded with steel cased ammo - I will try brass when I get home tonight, because I have also found steel cased ammo to "stick" a little in other applications. If switching to brass cased ammo does not work, I will look into getting Wolf replacement springs. As for cleaning factory new mags, that seems like an odd thing to have to do, but if nothing else works, I will certainly give it a try. The mags have the problem when not inserted in the mag well, and I am just stripping off the top round with my thumb, so I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with the firearm itself - i.e., cycling issue, burrs, feed ramp, etc.

 

Again, thanks for the replies - here's hoping one of these solutions works. I was happy as a pig in mud when I found that Remington was bringing back the doublestack 1911 - 15 rounds of .45ACP on a 1911 platform is pure awesome, and then infinitely disappointed when I found it to be completely unreliable.

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I have scoured the interwebz and do not see any instances of folks having magazine feeding issues with the Remington 1911 double stack - basically, its the old 14-45 Para Ordnance used to make, except Remington "upgraded" it to a 15 round magazine. Purchased new, and out of the box, the magazines were difficult to load to 14 and nearly impossible to load to 15. Shot a couple of boxes of ammo and the magazines consistently had problems feeding the rounds because the magazine spring/follower were getting caught up and not pushing the top round up to the top of the magazine - shaking/agitating the firearm (pointed safely down range) would generally cause the spring/follower to come unstuck and allow the next round to feed properly upon cycling the slide. I called Remington and they sent me two brand new mags - the mags are clearly different and not quite as difficult to load, but same problem. This does not seem to be a firearm repair issue, as the firearm is functioning properly; it's just the mags. I feel like I shouldn't have to take apart factory new mags and fiddle with them, but I'm sort of out of ideas. Anybody heard of this being an issue - any ideas of fixes?

 

First thing I’d try is load them up and put them away for a few weeks. That has made more mags function better for me that I can count.

Why would keeping magazines loaded for a few weeks help Springs get weaker from use not from being compressed

I know, but it works in many cases. I’m not the only one that has made this observation.

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Update: loading the two new, replacement mags with brass cased ammo seemed to help, but only when loaded up to 14 (not the full mag capacity of 15). I have had the original mags loaded full for about a month, and tested them with 14 rounds and they seemed to be working a little better, but still a little hesitant/sluggish on pushing each round to the top of the mag. Will have to take it to the range to do a full function test.

 

Again, thanks to everybody for your ideas.

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It's likely a combo of the springs and perhaps the follower has some burrs on them.

 

Double stack's weak point is always the mags. Mags can be tuned, by having someone polish the inside of the mags where the weld seam is, and then tweak the follower and spring/or replace the spring.

 

Take a look inside the mags with a flashlight. Run your finger as best you can along the inside of the mag. Is it smooth?

 

One last issue is that the mag bodies could be out of spec from rough handling, or people at Remington not knowing how to make sure the dimensions are good before sending out the mags.

 

With my 2011's, if people continually step on your mags on accident, eventually the dimensions will change enough to cause malfunctions.

 

Just my initial thoughts based on what I've seen. If the stronger springs don't solve the problem, start with the follower and then look at the tubes.

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