How do you deal with your unreliable magazine?

Several years ago I ended up with a USA brand 9mm magazine due to a trade. I took the spring and follower out then stuck the body in a vice. It got squeezed flat. The spring and follower went away as well.
 
By no means I have a large firearms collection, but I have already acquired a collection of unreliable magazines that I do not trust. Most of the time the body itself is fine and the problem stems from Spring/Follower/Base pad issues.

With brand new MecGar Pistol Magazines costing about $25-30, it is often not worth repairing or replacing parts as parts are hard to come by or shipping makes it not worthwhile.

How do you deal with them? I'm too frugal to throw them away and they just sit in a box gathering dust until I chance upon the parts that I need. Are there resources to find out if part from other guns are usable? For instance Beretta 92 internals are usable in Hi-Power Mags etc?
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Depends.

One bad Promag CZ-100 magazine is still sitting on the floor in the basement, accumulating cat urine and rust, 8 years after I got rid of the gun.

A pile of iffy "Korea Military" Glock mags, I got Glock OEM springs for, and fixed them.

One Mecgar XD magazine had an issue. I researched and fixed it.

Every other magazine is factory. I don't (now) buy magazines other than original factory magazines. I don't play games with extenders and aftermarket mods.

Solved the problem: Use revolvers!
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That too.
 
I'm with those who mark a mag and use it for range use. Saves the good mags for serious purposes like carry. However, you can replace the magazine springs to see if that works or to make them more reliable for range use. Wolff makes mag springs for a number of guns. http://www.gunsprings.com/. Brownell's may carry more from different makers.
 
another vote for random failure training. Mark them clearly. They dont get locked up in the safe, no big loss if missing or stolen. toss them around, abuse them, loan them out (with warning) but most of all failure training tap rack bang.
 
I had some M1911 magazine of unknown provenance that were unreliable when loaded with more than 5 rounds-used them strictly for plinking or "target" practice. Others, I try to figure out what the problem is.
 
I have always been able to repair most, ones i can not I trash. If its not trash, just a so so mag or odd / ugly / too few rounds for me I give them away with full disclosure.

Same goes for stupid 10 round AWB mags, ended up with a box of 10 round only 9x19 glock mags i gave away, people were happy to get them.

One mans trash.....
 
There are two possibilities:

1. Drill a hole in the base plate and bolt the magazines to a nice stained plank of wood for a pistol display. You simply place your pistol over the correct magazine and push it down. To remove push the pistol magazine release and lift upward.

2. Bolt the defective magazines to the hood of your old pick-up truck, attach pistols, and drive to town of Saturday as an open carry protest display.

The number one possibility is not a bad idea. The number 2 possibility is just a joke.

I do have my Colt M1911 manufactured and delivered to Uncle Sam in 1918displayed in a football trophy case in the manner described above. The display case has a mirror on the back wall and you can see both sides of the pistol when you look in the display case.
 
I have thrown every unreliable magazine that I have away except for one.

I have a 1911 mag for .40S&W that causes my Kimber to FTE on the last round about every third mag. I still have that one for range use since it is a dedicated range pistol.
 
The only unreliable magazines I have are:

Mini-14 betamag
Mini-14 cheap aftermarket magazine.

The betamag needed fitting - that meant filing down the feed lips on it until the bolt no longer got hung up on the fat feed lips.

The cheap aftermarket magazine just needs to have the feed lips bent inward a tad every so often. I'll do that until it becomes unusable.

As for MecGar magazines - I have lots of them and they all run flawlessly - some of the finest magazines manufactured.
 
If the mags are indeed garbage or cheaply made copies then toss them. If all they need is a new spring then why not just rebuild them? Springs usually cost a lot less than an entire magazine.

Remember my name on this forum when you have a magazine that just needs a rebuild, but you want to throw it away regardless. I'll pay shipping and "dispose" of them properly if I have a gun they'll work with . ;)


No, really.
 
I'm a born tinkerer... Really enjoy getting my tools out and filing, sanding, bending, welding, substituting, customizing, refurbishing, etc... Never met a magazine I couldn't get functioning smoothly and I have also modified obtainable mags to successfully substitute for unobtainable ones.

I know it's not for everyone... Just sayin'... 'Course I'm a retired guy with lots of time on my hands...
 
Sent them back to Mfr.
Mfr replaced them with more non-working ones.
Returned them again.
***2 years of e-mail & RMA's later***
they were finally replaced with magazines from a different maker but distributed through the maker whose mags were junk. They work.:cool:

Sometimes the answer is dogged persistence:D.
 
As for MecGar magazines - I have lots of them and they all run flawlessly - some of the finest magazines manufactured.
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Mecgar, for some reason, makes their XD magazines with the slot in the side of the body, where the follower engages the slide stop, too narrow. In use it can hang up.

A minute with a dremmel to widen that out to where it matches a factory magazine, and it's fine.
 
Most magazine problems are: feed lips and proper seating-not springs and followers. Very few mags are so badly made that they can't be made to work with just minor tweaking. Throwing them away or destroying them is just stu, um- wasteful. :rolleyes:
 
I think another thing to keep in mind is how hard are replacement mags to obtain and what is the purpose of the pistol. A popular defensive handgun is one thing, a range gun with a hard to find mag is another.
 
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