StraightSh00ter

I will. I just got the Metalform mags and immediately realize the problem with the Tripps was the width - which is one of the first things mentioned in the reply from Tripp Research. The Metalform mags hold the round down a little lower and the feed lips don't spread as much or quickly as on my Tripp mags. I'm sure they will get them all fixed up and shipped back in short time.

Custom guns will likely come with 'better' internal parts, better fit, and have all the features you personally want. Some things are expensive or impossible to change - like stippling on the front strap, or changing from an LPA to a Bomar sight, etc. I got a nice stock gun with a lot of 'upgrades' - but still spent a ton of cash personalizing it and/or improving it. A custom gun would probably have been the same or less money and I'd have everything exactly as I want. The flip side is that I spent a little less cash to start, and got to shoot a quality gun while I decided what features I decided I needed to add. If you have some good shooting experience and know exactly what you want in a gun, get a custom. If you are new, it wouldn't hurt to go custom but you might not know what you want until it's too late. A quality stock competition gun will keep a lot of its value if you decide to sell it. So will a custom gun from a reputable builder.

I love my 9mm Sig 1911. It is laser accurate and has been incredibly reliable (only 1 or 2 slight issues which were my fault or due to out-of-spec magazines) for over 4,000 rounds.

+1 This happens with the stock mag catch in my gun (which is now in the spare parts bin). If I pushed the release in hard, mags would hang up. If I pushed a little softer, they would fall out. There is not enough relief cut in the front of that mag catch.

I just got a bunch of 10rd 9mm Metalform magazines. I read that it's difficult to remove rounds from the mags, and sure enough it's true, at first. The trick is to put just a touch of downward pressure on the second round down - either through the big opening in the front, or from behind the top round. At first I used a small Allen wrench (first small tool that came into vision) and the rim of the second round down from behind the top round. Thinking I might not want to pull out a tool every time, I tried using the bullet end of a cartridge and pushing down through the opening in the front, and that worked too. Anything to push the second round down to relieve a touch of spring pressure is all that is needed. The 'issue' is the spring pressure pushing the rims together - for whatever reason the angle of the spring and/or follower makes it more difficult to unhook the case rims in these mags. Just a touch of pressure is all it takes to get them loose. I just thought I'd share.

It could be your trigger bow. Take off your slide and look inside while inserting/removing a mag. You can also mark up a magazine with a sharpie or Dykem, insert a few times, and see where its rubbing.

Tripp's support has been awesome so far, and they are going to check out my mags and refurbish them for the cost of parts. Because they worked fine from August until now, they think it's likely a tuning issue, but will check them all out and make them right. They have responded quickly and kindly to my emails as well, so I feel their support is worth mentioning.

I polished the rest of my batch of ammo and shot a different gun at a different match. I still had issues, this time where loose rounds were ending up in the slide and causing issues. Polishing the ammo made loading mags a lot easier, though. Last week the top few rounds seemed to lock in place at the rim which seemed odd, and this week it seemed back to normal. So, Brian, thanks for the tip! As others have stated around this forum, Tripp's customer service is being very supportive. They've quickly responded to my emails and are willing to help me get my mags back in tune. Since my mags worked well from last August until now it seems like a tuning issue, and they are going to take care of all 6 for me for the price of parts. They also offered to educate me on mag tuning if I was interested. I'll update as things progress. I had already ordered a few Metalform mags, so at least I'll have something to shoot while the Tripp mags are away.

In the end you should be happy with either gun. Both companies have reputable customer service if you're not happy up front. I haven't shot or handled a Trojan, but I have shot a Range Officer and handled a few at the gun counter. I like the looks of the Trojan and the forged frame of the Range Officer. Both were on the raffle table at last weeks match and I put all my tickets in the Trojan bucket.

I'm thinking mine need a little adjustment. I haven't read too much about it before, but somewhere I just saw a mention of feed lips spreading from partially full mags hitting the ground. I just don't know what to adjust to at this point. In the meantime I ordered 5 Metalform 10rd mags

Out of nowhere I started having all sorts of mag problems over the past 2 matches. Mostly with Tripps where they eject a bullet either partially or completely and the mag gets stuck in the gun, or a loose round is left in the gun. I'm hoping it can be fixed with a feed lip adjustment (maybe the feed lips spread out) but I've read about this happening. I actually chose the Tripp mags because I figured bullets leaping from the magazine would be less likely to nosedive. So no nosedive issues, and ~4,000 rounds went really well but now lots of problems.

My Sig came with a staked front sight, I'm a little surprised yours didn't? Is there a pin? You should be able to see it from the top of the front sight. FWIW, Sig will send you a 2-day shipping label and probably have it back in your hands in less than a week, if you need to go that route.

It's hard to say since I didn't have any problem after most or all of it was done. I got a new trigger so one could think its the trigger bow, but it worked after having that work done and it also happens with the trigger bow out of the gun. New Trigger Mainspring Housing + Magwell Magwell funnel Oversized Ejector Pin New thumb safety

Well I just measured all my mags - one Tripp is out of spec, 2 Tripps and 1 Checkmate are right at the upper limit, and the other Tripps are as much as .010" smaller in width. They are all bell out wider up at the top of the tube as well. I think the polish (or lube) on the brass could have something to do with it - I believe I left this batch of ammo in the tumbler longer than usual and it's been awhile since I've added polish to the mix. I said I could make it happen with my practice/dummy rounds, but those are aluminum cases and aluminum on aluminum has an absurdly high coefficient of friction. I bet it's a combination of polish/lube, temperature (I've been shooting indoors over the winter, this was outside in the sun), a new and out of spec magazine, maybe my gun being clamped and squeezed a thou or two, etc. etc.

I got it to happen with snap caps (SAAMI min, much shorter than my loads) by manually pushing the top round forward, and I can make it happen in both guns. I feel a little better knowing it's not the gun The 9mm Sig has performed well beyond expectations to this point. If they had a S80 trigger I'd probably buy another one right now. I will take some measurements of all my mags and see if anything shows up.

Thanks Sarge. But it's also doing it with practice/dummy rounds I made awhile back. It's also happening with the mag and a bare frame (I took out the mag catch and trigger bow to make sure they aren't the culprit. The round has to be pushed forward into a very specific position for the mag to get hung up, but it seems to naturally happen a lot. With the rounds loaded and seated normally the mags slide in and out just fine. With the top cartridge slide forward about 3/4 the way out, the mags get hung up just below where the widest part of the case is. It also coincides near where the top grip screw is on the frame. I don't recall rounds sliding forward like that with the Checkmate mags at all. They did with the Tripp mags but it was never a problem. Strange.

Oh wow - it's not the bullets hanging up. It looks like when they get to a certain point they spread the feed lips and the sides of the mag are getting hung up.

I shot in my first State match / Level II today. It was a lot of fun, but I shot 3-4 stages like crap because my mags were getting hung up in my gun. It is a little frustrating having this happen at a Level II but it still was a lot of fun. I shoot a Sig 1911 with something like 4,000 rounds through it and have never had this problem before (nor any other issue really). I've run mostly Tripp Cobra mags, but after it started happening today I tried the two Checkmate mags that came with the gun and still the same issue. And I'm using the same bullet and same cartridge length I've been using since day one. Tripps are known to let the top round slide forward, but the Checkmates are not cut as low and should stop the second round down from sliding forward. Even at home after the match, with the Checkmate mags, when I rack the slide and load a (dummy) round and drop the magazine, the next round down either gets hung up or comes out completely. What's odd is that this just started happening. I've had a few things done to the gun but I'm not sure what would contribute to this. I have shot the gun in a few indoor and one outdoor matches after having the work done with no issues. What the heck could this be? It's happening with brand new Tripps, used and trusted Tripps, and gently used and trusted Checkmates.

That came from my thought that expanding a charged case might make a mess, assuming powder measure in station 2 was setup not to flare. I ran a few rounds with the Lee expander in station 3 and didn't see much of a mess, but I also wasn't anywhere close to full speed. The flare was perfect, however. I looked at having the powder measure in station 3 and it looks doable, maybe needing a slight adjustment of the fail-safe rod or attachment, but maybe not. I'm really happy with the flare/expansion I get from the Lee die - just a small amount of flare and bullets seem to sit just right on every head stamp I load with. I'll keep the Lee in station 3 for now, until I've had a chance to try the MBF funnel. I'm also considering a modification to a Lee expander to make it work in the Dillon die, but that won't happen until I've finished a few other projects. It should be relatively quick with a drill press and a file...

I agree that it's annoying to have to 're-shape' a die. I didn't really want to, but with the right sanding bit on the Dremel it was easy and quick to remove the machining marks, and it came out pretty nice. Last night I experimented using the Lee powder-through expander die in station 3, with the Dillon powder die backed out enough to not flare anything. I was able to get the flare perfect. It was easy and quick to setup, and the Lee die allowed a little tolerance - I could dial in a little more or a little less and still have the right flare in every brand of case to hold a bullet secure enough for seating. I also experimented with the Dillon funnel - trying different amounts of flare with different case brands and 2 different RN bullets. I couldn't find a common flare that worked (provided some friction) for every combination. So, I personally have come to the same conclusion as the others who've changed out the Dillon funnel (or re-shaped it ), or run a separate expander die. I think the best option (for me, hand-feeding bullets) is a new or modified funnel, so I'm not expanding full cases and since the right funnel won't require adjusting for different brass. If I wanted to tweak the flare for different head stamps and/or knew I wouldn't make a mess expanding charged cases, a stand-alone expander die with fine adjustment would be OK.

Smoothing out the seater die made a huge difference in how much flare the die will fit. My only issue now is finding the right amount of flare to hang on the bullets. Using .016" of flare (a lot) will hold on to bullets regardless of head stamp. Less than that doesn't grip bullets at all, until I get down to about .005" which also holds bullets nicely. Unfortunately I get a lot of variation with different head stamps and adjusting that small amount of flare is a PITA for different head stamps.

Where are you seating the bullet? You should be putting it on under the seating die, not the station before. I just can't figure out why a bullet won't go straight up without tipping. This press is kicking your ass! Haha - I don't think I'd say it's kicking my ass, but I'll admit I still have a lot to learn. With less flare there is less friction holding these bullets upright. A few of them tipped during my last loading session (loading just under the seating die). But I'm reading about how different seating dies work and looking at the SAAMI spec (which Redding references), and getting a better understanding of flare diameter and die positioning relative to case depth. Then there's the piece about bullet shape and flare (expander) profile (e.g. why people like the MBF funnel, or "M die").

I couldn't find my little drum but I did find my 3/4" sanding disks. Thanks for the idea and inspiration - I will give it a shot. Still, I'm interested in finding out if other dies will accommodate a little more flare, and/or if there is a different expander to use in the Dillon powder measure that might work better with the Lee die.

This thread is really helpful. There are a lot of suggestions, and particularly a lot of common suggestions which generally tells you something. My friend has been talking about getting training - from free seminars to CCW and potentially a handgun class. My impression is that they will both learn to use the gun, and he will likely shoot a little more and may get something else for a little recreational shooting (just not as much as those of us with presses in our basement). My suggestion was to try everything he could in all the local ranges and gun shops. He may like something that's not necessarily the right tool for the job, so I thought I would try to learn a little and help out. He's not asking me to make decisions for him - just advice, and I want to be able to have intelligent conversations about what he's looking for since he's just starting out. And do people on this forum really believe the advice of any random person behind the counter at a gun shop??

That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.