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are tuned 9mm mags necessary?


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Tuned mags are tuned mags. I have never noticed them being mostly 40's. A lot of the Open shooters I know run tuned mags. There are different levels of tuning from moderate to extreme. I won't pay the extreme prices to get one extra round over what I get now. I would say mine are moderately tuned. I had them polished inside and out(which is much more involved than it sounds if done right), feed lips adjusted, and a witness hole drilled so I know when my mag is at the right number of rounds. I put a grams spring and follower in with Bolens base pads. Just the spring,follower and base pad get you more capacity than stock STI guts, so if nothing else swap those out right away. I get 22 and 28 in my Open 9mm mags. I can probably cram another in most of them but then you can't reload them reliably. SV mags can be made to hold more than STI mags without extreme tuning but then again you can typically only use old style SV mags in an STI frame gun. Not worth the hassle in my opinion. As far as extreme tuning, some guys extend the ribs and /or grind the bottom of the ribs to a more gradual ending. This allows a bolens/TT follower to be used without risk of it flipping over and locking up the mag when fully loaded. Grams won't flip.

So, you can see why some guys have a "special" mag or two that cost them $500 each. I have seen a few mags that hold 32 in 38SC which of course would be the holy grail of an Open mag.

The way I see it, if you can't find a place to reload running 28 rounds in a mag you are doing it wrong!

Edited to add. Often times the feed lips are out of spec on brand new mags so they need checked/adjusted.

The guy who did mine is Todd Suchy in Dayton, Oh. He does great work for a very fair price. tjs375 on here.

Edited by Sarge
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I just started shooting 9 major open this year and I was really caught up in the whole "tuned" mag thing. I have come to realize that the necessary upgrades to a stock mag for me are everything I can do on my own.....

1. Definitely make sure feed lips are the correct dimensions and geometry.

2. Polishing inside the tubes seems to help reliability, but there are different levels of "polishing". I have found that putting them in my corn cob tumbler with a little polish for a few hours cleans em up inside and out. I'm sure you can send them to someone to polish the inside of the ribs better, but that seems to be enough for me. Also, I use a dremel and polish the rough edges off my feed lips with a felt bob and a little polishing compound.

3. I like Grams followers and springs (this gets you a little more capacity than the stock stuff). I use Dawson basepads and have tried nothing else as they seem to work well and come off easily.

4. I also like to use the stainless spacers for the 9mm mags and polish the surface of them with a dremel. I dont know if it makes a huge difference in reliability, but it makes sense that the slicker the surface is, the less likely the base of the bullet is to hang up.

5. I'm sure you can also get someone else (or buy the kit from dawson) to "tune" the tubes with a hammer and mandrell to get them to hold the maximum amount of rounds. I personally dont feel this step is necessary as one more round in open usually doesn't mean nearly as much as a totally reliable magazine.

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^^^ pretty similar to what I do, but I also size the tube so that they drop free easily. I bought a 170mm tube from here, and the seller said it didn't drop free. A little work with a vise, and now it drops out easily.

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IMHO if your mags are not causing problems... then its a waste of money to "get them TUNED, one drop on something hard may undo any adjustments that you pay to get doen....but it sure will enable you to run faster at shoots... because your wallet will be much lighter... :roflol:if you simply need your mags to hold more rounds... buy the components and install them yourself..

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are tuned 9mm mags necessary?

Wouldn't the gun in question be the only entity that can accurately answer this question? It just seems that if your mags run great, they don't need tuning, and if they have issues, they need tuning or replacing. I'm probably missing something

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In response to the last two posts... this is for an STI Eagle I plan to use for 3 gun. It only has two 124mm mags. Trying to figure out if I need to get the $60 stock STI 140mm mags or if I should just get tuned ones from a reputable gunsmith from the get-go since I'm having to get new ones anyway. I'm not really upgrading my old ones. I will probably just use these 124mm ones for IDPA and get a whole new set for 3-gun and USPSA. If I get stock ones then decide I should have gotten tuned ones, then I just wasted some money if all I can reuse is the mag body at that point.

Edited by MetropolisLakeOutfitters
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I ran stock 140mm mags that I tuned. If the stock mags don't run, you can always send them back. The price difference between a complete mag and tubes isnt that much, maybe $5

I just recently upgraded a set of 6 mags with Dawson pads and Hardy spacers. It wasn't needed, just wanted to buy something LOL

The Dawson tuning kit is something like $100. Mine has paid for itself, as I've tuned 25+ mags with them so far.

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Edited by Quack
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I realize that many think that tuned mags are well worth it, but they always seem to be .40. Does the same ideas apply to 9mm? I know it's done a bit differently but don't know if 9mm has the same issues that are tackled by tuning them.

In response to the last two posts... this is for an STI Eagle I plan to use for 3 gun. It only has two 124mm mags. Trying to figure out if I need to get the $60 stock STI 140mm mags or if I should just get tuned ones from a reputable gunsmith from the get-go since I'm having to get new ones anyway. I'm not really upgrading my old ones. I will probably just use these 124mm ones for IDPA and get a whole new set for 3-gun and USPSA. If I get stock ones then decide I should have gotten tuned ones, then I just wasted some money if all I can reuse is the mag body at that point.

Buy the tubes and use Grams 9MM followers (springs), spacers, and basepads of your choice. They do not need tuning if you use those parts.

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Most of the tuning you hear about is to increase capacity of the 2011 mags. Occassionally you hear about a mag tube that is out of spec and requires tweaking (won't drop free, feedlips out of spec...).

Back when I was shooting IDPA with my 9mm 2011 I acquired 3 126mm mags and used them just for IDPA. Seeing as IDPA restricts you to 10 rnds I never saw any reason to tune them.

I currently use the same 2011 for 3-gun and purchased 3 140mm mags. I didn't buy tuned mags, but I did change out the basepads for Dawson +1's and the follower/spring for the Grams kit. The Grams followers do need some tuning so they don't prematurely lock the slide back with one round remaining, but other than that it was a fairly easy conversion to get the 140's to hold 23 rnds.

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I've been shooting 9 Major for about 2.5 years, and the extent of my "tuning" of any mags was:

  • Stock STI mags with polished tubes from Thunder Mountain Custom, (unfortunately they're closed now, because the owner took an assignment with the Army in Korea for 4 years.)
  • Grams springs and followers.
  • Dawson +1+ S.N.L. basepads.

That's it! No tweaking the feed lips or messing with tube dimensions. All of my mags drop free, and I get 23 in a 140 and 29 in my 170, and it still fits the USPSA mag gauge.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I built an open 9, researched mags to death and was all set to send then away to tune. Bought 140mm STI 38 mags and decided to try it 'as is' out of the packaging. A year later, 6 mags (need many in canada) the completely stock 38s mags work 100%. No spacer, no tuning, nothing. Never one mag related issue.

I load to 1.170 oal.

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Bought my first 9mm on the 1911 platform, and it is coming with a good number of mags, so I was wondering the same thing, as I always here how 9mm in this platform can be problematic. I'm not smart enough to understand why, but hoping it runs consistant with the mags I purchased without tuning.

But if I do need to do some tuning, is the Dawson Prec. kit the way to go?

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Bought my first 9mm on the 1911 platform, and it is coming with a good number of mags, so I was wondering the same thing, as I always here how 9mm in this platform can be problematic. I'm not smart enough to understand why, but hoping it runs consistant with the mags I purchased without tuning.

But if I do need to do some tuning, is the Dawson Prec. kit the way to go?

Mag tuning is for the 2011 mags and not so much the 1911 mags. The DP tuning kit is for the 2011

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

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Bought my first 9mm on the 1911 platform, and it is coming with a good number of mags, so I was wondering the same thing, as I always here how 9mm in this platform can be problematic. I'm not smart enough to understand why, but hoping it runs consistant with the mags I purchased without tuning.

But if I do need to do some tuning, is the Dawson Prec. kit the way to go?

Mag tuning is for the 2011 mags and not so much the 1911 mags. The DP tuning kit is for the 2011

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Exactly. There is not much you can do with a 1911 mag other than change out some parts. But that won't be needed as they hold enough ammo as is.

2011 mags are a whole different ball game.

You are right though, the 9mm 1911 can be problematic to get running right.

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I have 12 (count them 1,2,3 twelve) stock, complete sti 140mm 9mm mags... They all run 100%. When I got my gun from Grundhauser, he said if you can get factory sti in the $60 range that it's the smart buy. If you have a problem child, then send it to get tuned.

Once you start changing out parts or trying to add capacity, you begin to take a lot of variables into your own hands and all bets are off as to how much tuning you will need.

Primarily I think the "tuned mag" exists because 2011s attract people who either a) like to throw money at their gear or B) can't leave well enough alone. Both shoot themselves in the foot IMO

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I have 12 (count them 1,2,3 twelve) stock, complete sti 140mm 9mm mags... They all run 100%. When I got my gun from Grundhauser, he said if you can get factory sti in the $60 range that it's the smart buy. If you have a problem child, then send it to get tuned.

Once you start changing out parts or trying to add capacity, you begin to take a lot of variables into your own hands and all bets are off as to how much tuning you will need.

Primarily I think the "tuned mag" exists because 2011s attract people who either a) like to throw money at their gear or B) can't leave well enough alone. Both shoot themselves in the foot IMO

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How many rounds can you get in your stock sti 9mm mags? Are you competing with these mags? What division?

Just buying sti tubes and putting grams guts in them and a good extended base pad will typically get 2 or possibly 3 more rounds in the mag compared to stock. And it really does not cost a whole lot more, all things considered. To a certain few shooters that does not matter but to even moderately serious competitors an extra round is an extra round.

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Yes I do compete with them in 3gun nationally in Tac-optics. They all fit 21 loadable.

I'm sure they do, but just like ARs...when you start to Frankenstein, you put all kinds of variables into the equation.

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