up & down motion in magazine

[bophi]

when i insert a empty mag. w/ slide open the mag. has no up & down play,
but when i load a few rounds in the mag. it has a lot of up & down motion , then w/ slide close the play goes away, is this normal ?? 5 in g/m w/ colt,
kimber, gi mags.

[bophi]

i guess i'll answer this one myself.. idon't have a clue.. but it dosen't effect the function of the gun .. just something i notice when i was checking some different magazines. how they would feed into the ramp/barrel..

[auto45]

With an empty mag, the leg on the mag follower engages the slide stop and is under spring pressure...which keeps it tight against the ledge on the mag release.

When loaded, all the spring pressure is "on" the ammo and the mag is being held up by the mag catch, and they will will be some "play" which you need I believe.

[1911Tuner]

With ammo in the magazine, slide in battery, the center rail of the slide presses down on the top cartridge. This pushes the magazine down against the mag catch shelf, and removes all play.

Anyway...Auto45 nailed it on the empty mag question. The follower shelf engages the slidestop and forces the mag downward.

He probably nailed the loaded mag/slide in battery, too...

Yes. The conditions that you've noticed are completely normal.

[auto45]

I did forget the center rail, pretty important on the spring pressure. :o