Colt Magazines

[medic15al]

Hi Guys! Love this site! Can one still order magazines from Colt or do I need to find a distributer somewhere?

[medic15al]

Fine. I'll never ask another Question here again.:) JK!

[1911Tuner]

Howdy medic,

You can order Colt magazines, complete with the prancin' horsie from Brownells...but they'll likely be made by Metalform, as most of Colt's magazines have been since the mid-90s. You can also call Metalform direct and order. if you arrange a group buy for several friends, you can get'em
at a huge price break per mag...40 or more will do it. The stainless magazines
are better than the blued ones, and available with the Wolff spring upgrade for a nominal extra cost. Money well-spent. I strongly recommend sticking with 7-round magazines with the standard followers.

If the horse is a must, Brownells is actually a little cheaper than ordering from Colt...but you'll probably want to upgrade to the Wolff 11-pound spring, since the ones from Colt are a bit soft for best reliability. Brownells has those too...
in singles or 3-packs.

[medic15al]

I may do that, 1911. I'm looking for 7rnd mags and round followers and X-tra power wolff springs. Whats the word on round followers? I heard they are better but want a consensus of all the folks here. I want at least one blue "pony" mag for my 1976 era Commander. God I love this one! (It is LW)

[Sabre]

Howdy medic,
...I strongly recommend sticking with 7-round magazines with the standard followers...


This is an interesting statement. Why is it that you make this reccomendation, as opposed to, say, Wilson magazines? I've read your thread regarding the "dimpled" follower, does that have anything to do with it?

[jim young]

I just picked up a ss colt in the colt bag. with horse, and colt 45 auto on bottom, 8 round, for 14.99 from cndd

[1911Tuner]

Howdy Sabre...Yep. No dimple. That dimple was put there for a couple of good reasons.

I experimented with the Metalform round followers and found them lacking. They somewhat solve the problem of the last round jumping the follower, but they don't quite make it. They also use a proprietary spring and a standard Wolff spring won't always allow 7 rounds to be loaded into the mag.

Cheers all!

[Sabre]

Howdy Sabre...Yep. No dimple. That dimple was put there for a couple of good reasons.

I experimented with the Metalform round followers and found them lacking. They somewhat solve the problem of the last round jumping the follower, but they don't quite make it. They also use a proprietary spring and a standard Wolff spring won't always allow 7 rounds to be loaded into the mag.

Cheers all!

Thank you for responding.

More specifically now, I don't understand why you dis-recommend the Wilson magazines. If they tended to allow the last round to jump the extractor, wouldn't more people be breaking extractors than one hears about? (Especially with all of the competition-use of the Wilson mags)

I know there is something I'm missing here...

Thank you for your time.

[1911Tuner]

Thank you for responding.

More specifically now, I don't understand why you dis-recommend the Wilson magazines. If they tended to allow the last round to jump the extractor, wouldn't more people be breaking extractors than one hears about? (Especially with all of the competition-use of the Wilson mags)

I know there is something I'm missing here...

Thank you for your time.

Howdy Sabre,

Can't say...I know that I've seen several pistols that regularly broke extractors stop breaking them when the owners stopped using the 8-round, smooth-topped followers. Not only Wilaon, but Powermags and other similar designs. Could be that they chalk it up to failed extractors and replace'em without stopping to think about why they broke. A high-quality extractor is
more likely to simply lose tension rather than break...at least at first. Most
experienced 1911 shooters accept that their extractors require frequent retensioning and do it without a thought. This is also a myth. If the extractor is made of the correct material...correctly tensioned...and the gun isn't push-feeding...the extractor tension should last many tens of thousands of rounds. I have guns that I've rebuilt 2 and 3 times...guns that have seen
over 100,000 rounds...with extractors that have never needed attention beyond the first set-up. Some of those extractors were used and over 50 years old when I installed them, and there was no way of knowing how much use they'd seen before I got to'em.

I did do an experiment once in which I filed the dimples off a batch of range magazines and shot the gun as usual. The tension went out of a Bulletproof
extractor in about 5,000 rounds. Then I replaced the followers...retensioned the extractor...and started over. 25,000 rounds later, the extractor is still
cookin' and tension is relatively unchanged.

Bottom line though...if you like Wilson or McCormick or Cobra or MallNinja Throwdown Tactical mags, and trust'em...Use'em. :cool:

[Bud White]

Tuner what mag for alloy framed guns like the LW commander or the new smith 1911sc ...

ive heard the metal follower can chew they frame up yeah or Bs? just wondering so i can pick up soem spares

[1911Tuner]

Tuner what mag for alloy framed guns like the LW commander or the new smith 1911sc ...

Ive heard the metal follower can chew they frame up yeah or Bs? just wondering so i can pick up soem spares

The McCormick Powermags and Shooting Stars surely can damage alloy frames. The reason is that the followers rear legs are too short to get a full 3 spring coils against'em to keep'em from rocking forward. When they rock, the front of the follower hits the feed ramp. It only takes a few dozen hits in the same spot to start knockin' a dent in the ramp.

Never had a problem with standard 7-round magazines in alloy frames as long as the springs weren't completely shot.

[Bud White]

So anything but a power mag then ... Or just anything but a power mag in a 7 rounder like the orginal gi's if i can find um ... Or how about the Novaks... im just full of questions ...lol never worried with a fullsize stainless