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Thread: Follower Follies

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    25th September 2006
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    Follower Follies

    Wanted to replace some followers I'd experimented on and thought a trip to the dark side of the 1911 parts world would be fun so Numrich Gun Parts Corporation was chosen. A search of their site for M1911 45ACP Magazine Followers brought up 128 hits, of which 44 were magazines and 84 were followers. Of these were 9 different listings for new standard USGI pattern followers, the most promising was this:



    Four were ordered and upon arrival the metrologist in me just couldn't resist seeing how close they were to Ordnance specifications. The results are shown below on the Ordnance blueprint which has a few addition calculated specifications posted (C = W.XYZ):

    Numrich Follower Dimension Checka.jpg

    The biggest problem caused by any of these out of spec conditions was the lack of the chamfer and contour of the lifting ledge for the slide stop. These made it difficult to inset the second round when loading the magazine as that part of the follower would get hung up on the magazine tube. Some work by Mr. File eliminated that problem. Oddly enough, this follower worked OK at the range, but only five rounds were shot out of it. It even locked Petunias slide back after the last shot!

    The Numrich blurb for this particular follower says the manufacturer is Colt. If made for Colt, methinks it was a factory reject!
    When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind. [Lord Kelvin]
    Likes (2) :
    Frgood (13th September 2020), Rick McC. (12th September 2020)



  2. #2
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    Since Colt doesn't make their own magazines, these are not Colt manufacture. The question is why Colt would even stock followers and, even if they did, why would they be selling them off to Numrich?
    Hawkmoon
    On a good day, can hit the broad side of a barn ... from the inside
    Last edited by Hawkmoon; 11th September 2020 at 19:29.


  3. #3
    Join Date
    25th September 2006
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    Have no idea why Numrich has them listed as Colt. But some of these followers have their manufacturer shown as simply 1911! Based on that, my guess is some Numrich employee just pulls a manufacturer name out of his boxer shorts when a new shipment of followers is received.

    In a way, it'd be kinda fun to order a few of all the other 8 listings showing USGI followers just to see what shows up. But then again, there's already enough time and $ down the drain on this folly.

    Here's the Numrich listing: https://www.gunpartscorp.com/search#...ne%20followers
    When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind. [Lord Kelvin]


  4. #4
    Join Date
    25th September 2006
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    Another curiosity noticed was when checking the same dimensions on the follower of a Colt magazine manufactured by Checkmate. Like the Numrich follower, the 5/16 distance down to the SS lifting ledge from the followers top was way short of the minimum spec of 5/16 - 1/64 = 19/64 = 0.297". This dimension was then checked on all available USGI-style followers and were found shorter than minimum spec by anywhere from 10% to 22%. The average of all eleven was 17% or 0.052" short.

    The good news is that in spite of this, all lock the slide open after the last shot is fired - but that's to be expected. And this prompts two questions:

    Q1: How close can the lifting ledge get to the top of the follower before it causes a problem?

    Q2: How far can the lifting ledge get from the top of the follower before it causes a problem (fails to lock the slide open)?
    When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind. [Lord Kelvin]
    Last edited by niemi24s; 12th September 2020 at 21:40.


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