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Thread: Magazine Function: The Dimple

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  1. #21
    Join Date
    1st June 2004
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    Lexington, North Carolina...or
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    Cerrosafe or Cerrocast Die

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Clark
    Dear Mr Tuner

    If I make a casting of each side of the folower with 'cero metal', making a die set. Then drilling one side using the dimple as a center mark. Then using that hole with transfer punch to make the dimple. (I will get the operations in the correct order in actal ractce Will this be close enough to get the placement correct?

    Thanks - jim
    Howdy Jim,

    Probably so...but those materials are pretty soft, and likely wouldn't hold up to very many dimple-making operations. Metalform has followers ready to go...complete with dimple...and they're not expensive. Downright cheap if ya order 40 or more. The stainless fiollowers are a little harder and tougher than the carbon copies...pardon the pun...for just a bit more money.

  2. #22
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    25th January 2005
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    Outstanding post, 1911Tuner. Thank You very much.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    24th December 2004
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    Sunnyvale, CA
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    Smooth followers on high end mags

    I have read through this thread, and can't help but ask what I don't mean to be a cotroversial question. But...if anything but the dimpled 7 rounders compromise the Browning design (which I am not trying to debate at all), why do so well respected 1911 manufacturers supply mags that deviate from this design. What advantage is seen (besides ease of loading which can't be that big of a deal) in these other designs. For instance, my Les Baer TRS (a gun and maker of which I have never heard or read anything but surperlatives) provides two 8 round mags with smooth, plastic followers. I thin they are made by McCormick, but am not sure of that. No dimple, but the top of the follower has a depression formed in the shape of the cartridge. Does that serve the same function and the dimple in positioning the round during the cycling.

    I share one thing in common with everyone else whose posts I have read here on this forum. This nearly 100 year old design is a marvel. How many other industrial designs of this complexity implemented at the end of the 19th century are still in such broad use.

  4. #24
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    19th January 2005
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    Eugene Oregon
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    Lightbulb I'm beginning to grasp this dimple stuff

    Hi Gents-

    Yesterday I picked up a 1991-A1 & the mag has a dimple. It works fine, but when I tried another (no name) mag on the last round the slide locked back & the round was well forward. the back of the cartridge was forward of where the dimple would/should have been. I think additional friction & a dimple would have held the cartridge back in the lips of the mag & not let the follower come up to lock the slide.

    Dear Mr. Tuner- Is the light beginning glow, just a little above my head?

  5. #25
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    The Simple Dimple

    Howdy kendoka,


    One of the questions that is often asked whenever anything is newly introduced is: "What is it for?" Too often, the answer is simply: To sell."
    For almost as long as I can remember, there has been a quest for more firepower in a handgun (or a rifle), and people will go to great lengths in order to gain one or two more rounds...even going as far as compromising functional reliability on one end to gain something on the other. Why? I
    suppose because that an added round or two comforts them somehow.

    To restate a point that I've made many times...Just because something works, and the pistol is functioning...doesn't mean that it's functioning correctly. That dimple is there for some very good reasons, and removing it
    can cause problems that aren't always immediately apparent. The main one being that it helps to insure that the last round will feed correctly in a controlled manner rather than being pushed ahead of the extractor...and resulting in the extractor hook climbing over the rim. When that happens,
    the extractor loses tension prematurely, and it can even lead to outright failure.

    A good, strong magazine spring works toward proper feeding...and the dimple is a backup device for when the spring gets weak, or fails to do its job correctly every time. Another Browning redundancy at work.

    The dished-out followers such as the Wilson-Rogers design is an attempt to
    accomplish what the dimple does and still allow 8-rounds in the magazine...
    but it's much more dependent on spring tension than the standard magazine,
    and while it does control the last round pretty well...it's still not as efficient as the dimple. Basically, it's another attempt to outsmart old John Moses...
    and that's a tough act to follow. Other, even less successful attempts have been made. SHort, 8-round magazine followers WITH the dimple weren't stable, and created nose-dives and other feeding problems. Gorilla-strength springs that made the magazine tough to load and overstressed the floorplate welds. Redesigned floorplates that drove up the cost of the magazines...The list could go on. All in the pursuit of one extra round...Doesn't make much sense to me. I've always subscribed to the belief that if I can't solve a problem with 7 rounds of .45 ACP, that I'm in over my head anyway...and
    the chances that one more will do the trick are about the same as hitting the Powerball Lottery. I'd rather have an extra measure of reliability with the magazine in the gun, and practice fast reloads before the gun goes dry, than
    to have a sense of often false confidence inspired by an extra round that
    I probably won't need and could compromise the functioning of the first seven. I'm anal-retentive over reliability though, and I'll work hard to eliminate even a tiny possibility of a misfeed in my carry guns. For me...
    a .25% (that's point two-five)failure to function is unacceptable when the gun
    may be all that stands betwen me and a trip down the Highway of No Return.

    Jim! You are standing in the light of Saint John Moses...may the force be with ya!

  6. #26
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    14th March 2005
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    Hi Tuner,
    Do the USGI mags have the dimpled follower? I'm thinking they would be JMB's original design but would like to make sure before ordering.

    Thanks for all your contributions.

    Steve

  7. #27
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    Usgi

    Quote Originally Posted by Bacon
    Hi Tuner,
    Do the USGI mags have the dimpled follower? I'm thinking they would be JMB's original design but would like to make sure before ordering.

    Thanks for all your contributions.

    Steve

    Howdy Steve,

    Yep. They have the dimple as per Browning's original design specs.

  8. #28
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    6th March 2005
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    Does Springfield make any 8rnd mags? I have used the Kimber 8 rounders for a while now. I don't like my magazine sticking out the bottom of the grip; I prefer magazines that can hold 8 rounds but are still dimensionally identical to the original government variety. The Kimbers work fine so far, but they have no dimple.

  9. #29
    Join Date
    24th December 2004
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    Sunnyvale, CA
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    I solved my lock back problems with my Baer mags with new springs but then the mags wouldn't drop 0ut of the well.

    I bought some McCormick Shooting Star 8 round Power Mags and all is well. Tried them with the Baer TRS and three other 1911's and they were great.

  10. #30
    Join Date
    25th March 2005
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    woke up wife

    tuner,
    see what you made me do - just had to get up and check if all my mags had dimpled followers and woke my wife up in the process (11.15pm here). despite handling my life tools lots of times, there are still many things to be discovered about them.
    am much obliged mr. tuner.
    p.s.
    yes they are dimpled and i will sleep soundly tonight.
    make yourself a hard target.

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