Mag Preservation

W

wolf 1415

New member
My collection of Beretta Pre-Ban hi caps is now up to 18, at an average cost of $50 each.
Does anyone have an opinion on making the mag bodies last forever? I use 10 rounders for practice, and only use the hi cappers for bowling pin shoots. Since they were all bought used, corrosion is my chief concern.

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"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with Army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege." Wilson vs. State, Ark. 1878
 
send them to a company like Checkmate or Metalife and have the bodies hard chromed. the springs should be replaced every couple of thousand rouns anyway. good luck

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Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch.
Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the outcome of the vote.
Let he that hath no sword sell his garment and buy one. Luke 22-36
They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. Song of Solomon 3-8
The man that can keep his head and aims carefully when the situation has gone bad and lead is flying usually wins the fight.
 
i asked this on a different topic thread:

Can you still get replacement springs for hicaps? I dunno, since I have yet to wear out any hicap mags (I'm LEO and I mainly shoot my duty .45, but I do have a Browning HP that I dearly love that has hicaps).

If you can, where can they be obtained? And while we're on the topic, if I ever needed more hicaps for the HP, whats the best place to look?

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"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -Robert Heinlein
 
Never let anybody talk you into gettin springs chrome plated. Baking immediatly after plating will eliminate some but not all of the hydrogen embrittlement that came with the plating.

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Sam I am, grn egs n packin

Nikita Khrushchev!." We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism, until they suddenly awake to find they have communism."
 
I've a K31 Schmidt-Rubin of ~1944 manufacture. The mag had some corrosion, but the oil and cosmoline did a nice job of protecting it for 50+ years.

I would just oil the things for long term storage and be done with it. Clean'em out when you need them. Save a few for immediate use and keep them in a drawer with a dessicant to remove ambient moisture. Nothing seems to attract moisture like a hard sided gun case like the factory issues with a firearm, so don't put them in these.
 
I don't know for the browning, but I got some from taurus directly. Both the springs and followers. I think the springs are actually the same on the hi-cap and 10 rds, the press in on the sides and perhapes the follower prevent the additional rounds.
 
C.R. Sam, are you saying just the springs should not be plated, or the mag bodies as well?

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"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with Army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege." Wilson vs. State, Ark. 1878
 
I think he means that you make the springs brittle by treating them for plating. I think that the bodies should be fine, however, brittleness, mitigated though it may be by baking, will still have some effect on the mag's longevity. I believe that this diminuition in life span would be slight and directly contingent upon use (i.e., how many times you seat it in the gun). The best solution would be a differential heat treat first to soften the stressed areas to prevent cracking, but this would be cost prohibitive.
 
Chrome plating the bodies, with appropriate baking after the plating should be ok. Springs that are used for other than pure decoration should never be chrome plated. The electroplating process causes entrained hydrogen in the surface of the base metal which in turn causes the metal to become brittle. Baking a plated item soon after the plating will get rid of most but not all of the brittleness. In many applications; aircraft, race cars, firearms etc; chrome plating of critical parts is verboten. Cadmium plating of some springs in aircraft applications is permitted with stringent specifications for the plating and after plating treatment.

Nearly sixty years ago I was introduced to RIG, rust inhibiting grease, and still use it on springs etc. It will displace moisture and is heavy enough to stay in place for years.

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Sam I am, grn egs n packin

Nikita Khrushchev!." We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism, until they suddenly awake to find they have communism."
 
who said anything about plateing the springs. come on guys. the topic was about protecting the mag tubes and making them last forever. if that was accomplished naturally you would have to REPLACE the springs every so often.

------------------
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch.
Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the outcome of the vote.
Let he that hath no sword sell his garment and buy one. Luke 22-36
They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. Song of Solomon 3-8
The man that can keep his head and aims carefully when the situation has gone bad and lead is flying usually wins the fight.
 
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