1911A1 magazine rebuild.

[GoodOlBoy]

Yep you read it right I rebuilt a magazine. I had a metalform 7 rounder for my milspec that the gun loves, BUT the spring in it was a pile of rust and sometimes the last round would be SLLOOOWWWW to feed. It WOULD feed but the gun would basically KERCHUNK loadly and slam it into the chamber. SOOO not wanting to throw away a great magazine I ordered the Wilson Combat Spring and Follower replacement kit #19. Cost me $8. The old metalforms bottom plate doesn't remove so what you do is remove ONE round of seven. Slide a SMALL phillips screwdriver through the bottom hole to hold the spring then pull out the other 6 rounds. The follower will fall out in your hand. Point the mag AWAY from your eyeball and pull out the screwdriver. Now take the NEW spring (You will be able to tell the difference since the new spring is about 14 feet long. . . . . :rolleyes: ) and bloody your thumb getting it compressed into the magazine. Now realize you should put the follower on it BEFORE compressing it and bloody your thumb and nearly lose an eye attempting to slowly release the tension (which won't work by the way) Now put the follower on the spring and place it in the magazine. Hit yourself in the lip with the follower when your thumb slips. THWAP there ya go. Now curse loudly and try again. Get the thing ALMOST in the magazine and realize the spring is turned around the wrong direction. Curse loudly again. Let off the tenstion. Turn the spring around. Get the spring halway compressed. THWAP lip again, and it saved you a step because you turned the spring around but forgot to turn around the follower. Turn around the follower. Get the spring compressed. Push until your eyes buldge and ever so gently force with all the strength at your command the new follower into the magazine at a downward, no wait angled, nope wrong angle try again, wait how does this work again? Do I have it in backwards??? PLOP it falls into place. Ok now try to load it and realize that whoever built the spring actually designed it as a shock absorber for a military duece and a half. Struggle seven rounds into it. Place the mag in your gun. feed seven rounds through by hand keeping the gun pointed away from anything you don't want a hole in. If you want a hole in it go ahead and point it at it. Doing two things at once is sometimes fun. Now reload the seven rounds and try to figure out the physics of why the thing now loads easy as pie when you are pretty sure you burst two blood vessels, had a mild corinary, and ruptured your spleen loading them last time.

Walla. Brand new rebuilt magazine that feeds flawlessly.

GoodOlBoy

[BILLY D.]

GOB

I don't know if you are aware but they also sell a tool that goes on the inside of the mag well to re-form the lips on magazines.

Another hint, the raised followers work much better than the flat ones, at least in my pistols.

Best wishes, Bill

[Jack]

Lol, good description, GOB.
If your magazine has holes in the sides, as some do, you can hold the spring by sliding a punch or screwdriver though the holes on each side.
BTW, one of those silly looking plastic magazine loaders works very well, and saves a lot of thumb damage.

[GoodOlBoy]

Yeah Billy the new follower with it is a raised plastic non splitlip follower as found in the WC mags.

magazine loaders. . . . . . . have one somewhere I bought for 10 cents at a gun show. I feel like I got suckered outa my 10 cents. Its faster to load with my thumb. and since the spring was so long I don't know that it woulda helped alot getting the follower in.

GoodOlBoy

[BILLY D.]

Originally posted by GoodOlBoy
Yeah Billy the new follower with it is a raised plastic non splitlip follower as found in the WC mags.

magazine loaders. . . . . . . have one somewhere I bought for 10 cents at a gun show. I feel like I got suckered outa my 10 cents. Its faster to load with my thumb. and since the spring was so long I don't know that it woulda helped alot getting the follower in.

GoodOlBoy

OK, I'll take the bait and run. Whisky Tango Hotel is a WC Magazine?

Bill

[skeet]

Wilson Combat

[BILLY D.]

Originally posted by skeet
Wilson Combat

Thanx skeet, brain phart, never even came to mind about Wilson. When it comes to parts I'm Brownells guy and have all the most important pages dog-eared for QUICK reference.

My pistols are plastic free, I used the Ed Brown steel followers.

During my love affair with the 45's,or better yet the auto platform, I kept the lights burning at Wilson, Brown, Nowlin and Clark for a few years.

As I stated previously, I started out with ONE pistol and ended up with FIVE complete pistols and cabinet drawers that now contain $10,999.99 worth of parts. :rolleyes:

But it kept me out of the bars and off the streets and kept me from going stark raving mad. Which was the point. Besides my kids and work I needed another sideline to concentrate on and found it.

I enjoy tweaking things to the point of almost ending up with a product that has no original parts. :(

Best wishes, Bill