Colt Light Weight Commander Mag Springs

OverPressure

New member
I purchased a Colt Lightweight Commander a few months ago. After about
1000 rds. I started to have the last round feed problems. Usually this is a
mag spring so i switched to the second mag that came with the gun and
everything was ok for another 500 rds or so. Now i am getting this condition again. I have two other Colts , a gold cup and a colt defender. I have shot
a combined 60 plus thousand rounds through both of these guns and am
still using the original mags.

If anybody else has a newer model commander with mag spring problems
i would appreciate any tips.
 
Clean the mags. Has any gunk gotten in there that could be effecting the function of the mags?

It's odd that you only shot the gun with one mag, exclusively using that one mag, for the first 1,000 rounds and then, when you began to have the last round not feed properly, switched to the only other mag you have and shot it exclusively for the next 500, till issues began there as well. Kinda an odd sequence. It suggests that--the clean mag was fine till it got gunked up somehow. Then you ran the next clean mag, which ran fine, till it too got gunked up.

Mag springs usually last years if not decades, depending on how many rounds go through it, of course.

Anyway. Is there gunk in the mags?

tipoc
 
60K rounds across about 6 magazines. I would have experienced some cracking on the back side of the mags facing toward the back of the pistol causing cycling issues.

Mags are the disposable component IMO. The cracking is not always obvious, spreading the lips of the mag may make the issue more viewable.
 
Last edited:
745SW

I haven't shot the gold cup for a year or more but i just pulled the magazine.
It has a strong main spring and is extremely smooth . I bought this gun
ten years ago and shot accuracy for 5 years with just the 2 mags. 800 plus
rounds a month. It is a nice stainless steel magazine. I have been shooting
the defender for 5 years in action and accuracy. Probably about the same
volume. I am still using the same 2 magazines. No feed problems i have had
to change the extractors and tune the tension on both. That is it, other than
trigger jobs on both and experimenting with recoil springs for different loads
these guns haven't had any replacement parts.

I am going to see if this goldcup mag will cycle properly. This commander is
a carry gun so maybe being compressed most of the time is part of the problem.
 
I don't think staying compressed wears a spring, but thats a lot of cycles from just two mags, the cycles, not compression, wears springs.....

But, as others have suggested, have you cleaned those mags. With that much shooting they would most certainly be dirty...I can get a little dirt out of a mag after just 50 rounds shot through it.
 
I know of no difference between the Commander mags and any other Colt 1911 mag. (Unless what you have are not Colt mags.)

Jim
 
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