Mag rattle

[Don357]

Does anyone have a solution to cartridges rattling in magazines? I use my FM Hi-Power as my duty piece, and all 3 of my magazines are plagued with cartridge rattle. I have 1original equipment mag and 2 Meg Gar mags. All of them rattle when loaded with 13 RDS.

[megafiddle]

This apparently is not unusual with double stack magazines in various types of pistols. There are several reports of this if you search around

The magazine tubes are straight walled, but the 9mm case is tapered. So the case heads will all stack closely together at the rear of the magazine, but the case mouths will have some space between them. The case mouth is also where the main mass of the cartridge is (the bullet). It's this freedom of movement and the inertial mass, at the front of the cases that causes the rattle.

When the case taper is pronounced, as in rifle calibers, the magazines might be curved to accommodate the case taper. With the shallow taper of pistol calibers, a curved magazine tube simply isn't warranted.

I'm not sure that anything can be done to stop the rattling. You're pretty much stuck with the geometry of the magazine tube and cartridges.

But it's also not a problem.

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[Mister Coffee]

Don, may we assume that you have changed out the magazines springs for fresh ones? Changing them early may help. Just a thought.

[Don357]

No, not yet. All 3 of the mags are almost new and still function without any problems. The rattle is merely an annoyance.

[TMII]

Have many Hipower magazines and some rattle while others don't. Doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason. Some old mags don't and some new ones do. Some Browning mags do and some MecGar do, but not all of either brand. Doubt we'll ever figure it out.

[Spyros]

My 9mm Para double-stack mags rattle a wee bit, too. They do less of it when full (or nearly so). It's really not that noticeable unless you're holding the mag.

I know folks who give the rear side of the magazine a slap while loading, supposedly to get the rounds to seat in the rear and make the mag stop rattling. I did it too for a while but honestly, just load the mag and it'll shut up.

[Pointblank]

This happens with some Glock 9mms also.