Thunder Mountain STI Magazines

[pgh george]

I'm looking to buy 2 more STI 2011 140 mm mags and found these Thunder Mountain micro polished mags.

My link

Any one using these, and if so - how do you like them ?

Thanks

[yoshidaex]

Looks nice and all but making a mag shiny and deburring it doesn't mean it's tuned.

[GunshineST]

Just curious if anyone out there on the forums has tried these mags lately? Looking for feedback...I know deburred and shined isn't 'tuned' but it's not a bad place to start, especially for same money.

[steel1212]

For the same money it can't hurt right?

[pgh george]

Just curious if anyone out there on the forums has tried these mags lately? Looking for feedback...I know deburred and shined isn't 'tuned' but it's not a bad place to start, especially for same money.

Joe - Welcome to The Forums.

I bought the Thunder Mountain STI Mags - that I asked about in the original post.

My thoughts when I bought them, were the same as yours.

The Mags were received as stated - deburred and to some degree polished.

However - the mags did require Tuning.

Two of the three mags the follower sat above the lips of the tube.(the follower would not go down in the tube)

So I bought the Dawson Mag Tuning Kit.

Interesting enough - Dawson does not address this issue in the video.

I solved the issue by comparing and measuring mags that I had that were correct,

and used them for reference to correct the problem.

I recently bought STI mags from another vendor - some of these mags had the same issue.

My suggestion is this - Buy your mags from a vendor that will accept returns and will exchange them

for you.

I don't think it is unresonable to think that if you are buying mags that have been polished and deburred, that the followers would go down in the tube. They just had them apart.

It is unfortunate that there is an issue with STI's quality Control on Mags.

If you receive Mags that you cannot load - because the follower will not go down in the tube-

Send them back -

Or join the ranks of us who have learned to Tune them yourself.

Hope this helps.

[Alan Adamson]

Just curious if anyone out there on the forums has tried these mags lately? Looking for feedback...I know deburred and shined isn't 'tuned' but it's not a bad place to start, especially for same money.

Joe - Welcome to The Forums.

I bought the Thunder Mountain STI Mags - that I asked about in the original post.

My thoughts when I bought them, were the same as yours.

The Mags were received as stated - deburred and to some degree polished.

However - the mags did require Tuning.

Two of the three mags the follower sat above the lips of the tube.(the follower would not go down in the tube)

So I bought the Dawson Mag Tuning Kit.

Interesting enough - Dawson does not address this issue in the video.

I solved the issue by comparing and measuring mags that I had that were correct,

and used them for reference to correct the problem.

I recently bought STI mags from another vendor - some of these mags had the same issue.

My suggestion is this - Buy your mags from a vendor that will accept returns and will exchange them

for you.

I don't think it is unresonable to think that if you are buying mags that have been polished and deburred, that the followers would go down in the tube. They just had them apart.

It is unfortunate that there is an issue with STI's quality Control on Mags.

If you receive Mags that you cannot load - because the follower will not go down in the tube-

Send them back -

Or join the ranks of us who have learned to Tune them yourself.

Hope this helps.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but *most* (if you used grahams guts), followers won't go down into the tube. You have to file a bevel on the underside of the tab that sticks out and causes the slide to lock back. Or you can file/sand that little tab right off if you don't want them to stick or lock back.

I've never seen a follower that when inserted in the bottom of the mag tube, won't go back down, except for that little slide release tab being an issue, and as mentioned, almost all mag tubes require that, tuned or not...

Alan

[pgh george]

Just curious if anyone out there on the forums has tried these mags lately? Looking for feedback...I know deburred and shined isn't 'tuned' but it's not a bad place to start, especially for same money.

Joe - Welcome to The Forums.

I bought the Thunder Mountain STI Mags - that I asked about in the original post.

My thoughts when I bought them, were the same as yours.

The Mags were received as stated - deburred and to some degree polished.

However - the mags did require Tuning.

Two of the three mags the follower sat above the lips of the tube.(the follower would not go down in the tube)

So I bought the Dawson Mag Tuning Kit.

Interesting enough - Dawson does not address this issue in the video.

I solved the issue by comparing and measuring mags that I had that were correct,

and used them for reference to correct the problem.

I recently bought STI mags from another vendor - some of these mags had the same issue.

My suggestion is this - Buy your mags from a vendor that will accept returns and will exchange them

for you.

I don't think it is unresonable to think that if you are buying mags that have been polished and deburred, that the followers would go down in the tube. They just had them apart.

It is unfortunate that there is an issue with STI's quality Control on Mags.

If you receive Mags that you cannot load - because the follower will not go down in the tube-

Send them back -

Or join the ranks of us who have learned to Tune them yourself.

Hope this helps.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but *most* (if you used grahams guts), followers won't go down into the tube. You have to file a bevel on the underside of the tab that sticks out and causes the slide to lock back. Or you can file/sand that little tab right off if you don't want them to stick or lock back.

I've never seen a follower that when inserted in the bottom of the mag tube, won't go back down, except for that little slide release tab being an issue, and as mentioned, almost all mag tubes require that, tuned or not...

Alan

Alan,

Perhaps I was not clear in my explanation.

The bottom of the front of the follower was riding above the mag lips.

I have seen this on a number of my new STI maqs and a few other shooters New mags as well.

The lips of the mag body are too wide at the front and allows the follower to come above the front of the tube.

This may not be common, but I have seen it on 5 New mags.

Hopes this helps.

[MILDOTS]

In 1997 When I purchased my 1st Sti in .40 cal. I had the same problem The person I talked to (who shall remain nameless) told me to send them back to him and he would fix them or I could Take a brass hammer and tap on the feed lips against a concrete floor, using a caliper making sure they measured .385?.( it has been along time so i do not know if that is the exact measurement) because that was what he was going to do. I "fixed them" and they worked perfectly. We have come a long way in tuning mags.

[40S&W]

I bought one big stick tube installed Gramms guts & Dawson SNL basepad. To date the mag has work flawlessly.

Edited November 29, 2011 by 40S&W