1911 Mags-7 or 8 rds.?

H

Hobbes

New member
I've have only used the 7 round mags. I have avoided the 8 round mags having heard that they were not as reliable. Am I wrong?
 
Wrong? Not necessarily. I have heard the stories too. I believe there is some validity. It depends on which magazines you are using. For that matter, some 7-rounders are pretty bad. I shoot at least once a week with a small group of very experienced 1911 pistoleros at a private range. Each of us burns 300-500 rounds of .45ACP per session. There are a lot of Kimbers in this group and 2 or 3 of us are really into Custom Colts. We are continually comparing accessories such as holsters, sights, triggers, ammo, and magazines. A couple of the guys switched to 7-round MetalForm magazines (the ones with the welded base) on the advice of Mr. Alex Hamilton, one of the best 1911 pistolsmiths in the country. Alex says these mags are unsurpassed in function and reliability.

Personally, I only use Chip McCormick stainless steel 8-round mags for practice and daily carry. Why? Because they work for me. When I practice, I take 8-10 to the range. I need at least 6 and someone always needs to borrow a couple.
I've been using the same mags for practice for about 3 years. They've been dropped on a hard floor during combat reloads dozens of times, even stepped on.

I keep 4 in reserve for daily carry (I carry 2 and rotate them with the other 2 each month). I don't shoot with these as often as I do with the practice mags. When I buy new ones, they replace the carry mags which are then moved to the range bag.

Bear in mind, sooner or later any mag will decide to go south. In the past 10 years I have thrown 5 mags in the trash bin: one 7-round Pachmayr (junk), two 7-round Colt (average), and two 8-round Wilson (good). Still using the first McCormicks I bought 4 years ago. Every .45 mag I have ever owned was/is stainless steel. And I'm a happy guy.:D

Best regards,

tawakoni
 
Hello. I've had better overall reliability in all my 1911s with quality 7 rnd magazines. My 8 rnd mags work fine in some of my guns, but the sevens work fine in all. Therefore, I carry and use 7 rnd magazines. Best.
 
tawakoni:

You threw away wilsons? For starters, were the springs out or the whole mag tube (expensive!) - secondly - aren't the Wilsons guaranteed forever? (I've found them to be pretty infallible).


Battler.
 
I use all 8-rd Mag Packs. Might try some Ed Brown mags, or maybe Wilson's 10-rd (if I can ever get over the aesthetic impropriety of that THING! sticking out of my beautiful gun).

Frankly, I have zero qualms using high-quality 8's (Wilson, Brown, McCormick, Baer, Metalform, Mec-Gar, Pachmayr...)
 
I have a number of Wilson mags. What I've found with the 8 rounders is that the slide sometimes doesn't lock back after the last round is fired. This happens if the mag gets a bit dirty. The mag springs and followers are fine (I've replaced them with new parts from Wilson), so that isn't the issue. I don't have the same problem with 7 round mags. YMMV

M1911
 
8 and 10 round McCormicks

I've been using Chip McCormick Shooting Star stainless steel 8 rnd and 10 rnd mags for quite a while. Started out with a pair of 8 rnd Packard magazines and when I tried to get more they were off the market. Then I noticed the McCormick mags and they seemed to be the same. As I understand it, McCormick bought out Packard. So I kept the Packard's as collectibles and use the Shooting Stars. Thus far none have failed but I'm not using them at the rates mentioned above. High quality though.
 
Battler:

That's right, I threw away a couple of Wilson mags. I am not very happy with Mister Wilson right now. It may be a while before I do any business with his outfit again because of those magazines. And I used to be a big fan.

A few years ago, I bought my first 8-rounders--- a pair of Wilson stainless steel w/base pads. For a couple of years they were the best mags I had, absolutely perfect. Then I started having problems: feed failures, usually the last round in the mag; failure to lock the slide back after the last round; stovepipes. Thorough cleaning did not help. So I bought a couple of rebuild kits and a couple of conversion kits. I used the conversion kits to change a couple of 7-round Colt mags to 8-rounders. This is a BAD idea. Within 2 months, the base of both converted Colts blew out during a practice session. That's why I put 2 Colt mags in the trash bin. Understand, I was using other mags at the same time, 1 Pachmayr, 1 McCormick, and a bunch of Colts. The McCormick was the only 8-rounder.

I had the rebuild and conversion kits installed by a gunsmith. He was doing some other work for me at the time. SURPRISE! Now my original 8-round Wilsons were 7-rounders. I reviewed the situation with the 'smith. Between the two of us we still had the original parts and packages. I went to a local Wilson distributor with all this stuff. He exchanged the rebuild kits with ones that were "guaranteed" to do the job. The result was one 8-rounder and one 7-rounder. Switching the kits produced the same result. And the original problems just became more frequent. Before anyone says "it must be the gun or ammo": I use the same mags in 5 different guns. I load most of my own ammo but often use factory. I can assure you it was not gun or ammo related.

Throughout this whole process, the ONE thing that really frosts my shorts is this: I never got any response to the letters and emails I sent Wilson. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. I gladly tossed the Wilsons in the trash. As you can tell, I still have a bad taste in my mouth from this experience. I build/buy custom 1911s. Does anyone think WIlson is on my list of suppliers?

Now, aren't you sorry you asked? I AM a happy guy.:D

tawakoni
 
I have never had a single problem with any of the Wilson or McCormick 8 round mags I have used. I currently use ONLY Wilson 8 round mags for defense and carry---I would and do trust them with my life after flawless service in many different brands of 1911.
 
I have a couple of Wilson 8-rounders (with "low profile" bases). Neither worked 100% reliably with a Kimber Pro Carry.

Now that I have a Springfield "Loaded" (full-size), one works fine, but the other ones occassionally mis-feeds the last round and/or fails to lock the slide back after the last round.

No, I haven't contacted Wilson about it, but will do so soon and experience the vaunted Wilson service (hopefully). In the mean time, my Mec-Gar 7-rounders ($10 each) seem to work 100% reliably.

Perhaps I can talk Wilson into giving me the internals to convert the 8-rounders into 7-round mags.

Skorzeny
 
Skorzeny, before you convert a 7-rounder to an 8, please check out my post above. And best of luck with the "vaunted Wilson service". I really do wish you luck. Please let me know how everything works out. I believe my experience was an abberation.

tawakoni
 
oops

Sorry, skorzeny. I just re-read your post and now I see you were converting from 8 to 7. My bad. Best regards.

tawakoni
 
Tawakoni, et. al.:

Thanks for much helpful information. As a consequence I picked up a couple of Shooting Star 8 rd mags today. I have been using mainly 7 rd G.I. mags in my Norinco Govt. model. I bought a Kimber Pro Carry (Stainless) yesterday and "needed" some new mags to go along. I looked long at the Wilson 8 rd. mags but for the money I thought the Shooting Stars would do me fine. We'll see.

Good Wishes!
 
The quality/tolerances vary with the products of each of the different manufacturers, and there are pistol to pistol tolerances also.

Shooting Star were my choice for years, while I was shooting a 1991A1. When I began to have problems with them in other guns, I added Wolff springs which made them 7 shot, not 8 shot magazines, but they are much more reliable now.

My Wilsons, 8 or 7, work fine.

Colt mags are crap, in my experience ( I have 3), even compared to the Cheaper then Dirt generics. Mitchells were only reliable when loaded with 6 rounds.
 
Personally, I'll stick with Metalform 7 rounders with the round welded followers. Consistent feed angle, they always lock the slide back, and a decent price. By the way, the make Colts mags for them, in addition to the mags for Ed Brown and Kings Gun Works.
 
I have Metalforms, Wilsons, Ed Browns, MecGar, and Les Baer mags currently in my possession. I had Shooting Star mags and they were junk. For my carry gun, I use Wilson Combat 7 round mags.

tawakoni:
Sorry to hear about your bad experiences with Wilson. Myself and quite a few other members I know around here and on 1911forum.com never had such an experience. One question tho... why didn't you just call their 1-800 number considering a letter takes several days to get there and emails are piled by the thousands. A phone call would've taken care of the whole problem.
 
Personally I have used Metalform,Wilson Colt, and McCormick for years. Generally pick up a few when one of these brands are on sale. Not all my Colts will feed the * rounders, regardless of manufactuer. Some do, but not all. They all feed the 7 rounders,regardless of brand name, reliably. I use the 8 rounders for range practise. I carry 7 rounders for everyday use. I just feel better about it. Magazine preference? Metalform,stainless,rounded follower,7 rounder.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top