CHA-LEE Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Well……. I am sad to report that the new Mec-Gar 10mm magazines are not what I suspected them to be. I got some directly from EAA and they will not work for me on a couple different levels. These new magazines have depression channels down both sides, I assume that this is done to help the rounds stack better. But these channels also consume precious room inside the magazine taking up much needed extra room. With the old style magazine I could easily load 21 rounds of .40 in them and still reload without seating issues. With the new magazines I have to CRAM the 21st round in there and reloading to it wouldn’t be an option. The other fall out of cramming 21 rounds in the magazine is that it bulges the sides of magazine outwards a total of 1mm. This additional bulging made it too wide to even load into my gun without forcing it. I loaded up one of the old style magazines with 21 rounds and measured the before and after bulge and the old style magazine only bulged 0.2mm which is basically nothing. I think that the new side channels are causing the bulge and 21 round loading issues. The other aspect that is very different is the front radius of the magazine corners are a lot more rounded than the old style 10mm magazines. The rounding is more like the old style .40 caliber magazines. The problem with this is that the mag catch hook engages this rounded corner portion. I have tuned the depth of my mag catch hook to work with the less rounded corner style of the older 10mm magazines. So these new magazines will disengage from the mag catch hook with very little pressure on the mag release button. Its so loose in fact that the mag won’t even stay seated when I manually rack dummy rounds through the gun while not even touching the mag release button So to make a long story short, I don’t even have to fire the gun with these new mags to know that they will not work for me. These new style mags may work better for standard capacity situations with unmodified mag catch releases. But I think they are a major step backwards for high capacity extended base pad setups. Now I need to see if EAA will take these new style 10mm magazines back or possibly swap them for the old style ones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ripplerAdder Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I heard they are a huge improvement in stock application but with only 14 rounds. Another user said all the FTF went away. Can you provide any input no reliability for a regular setup like say for a 10mm match? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe4d Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I'd trade 20 rounds that work for 21 that nose dive anyday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 rippleAdder> I don't have a 10mm gun in stock configuration to test these new style magazines to see if they are any better than the old style. In its stock configuration (Standard Base Pad, Follower, and Spring) the rounds look like they stack up better with factory ammo. So the feeding issues on a stock configuration probably are resolved. My issue is that I don't use these magazines for stock capacity/configuration. When I add the Henning 21+1 base pad along with the Grams 11 coil spring and Grams follower it does not work when you load 21 rounds in it because the sides of the mag bow out too far. That combined with the larger radius on the front of the mag which change the depth of the mag catch hook engages the mag pretty much ruins it for me. As I said before, if you are currently using a stock magazine config and switch to this new style magazine and keep it in a stock config it will probably work great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 Joe4d> I may take you up on that mag trade offer if EAA won't work with me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCB Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 How does the grams work in this? They don snag up in the depression rails? I wanna try the mag. Just have to wait until they can get it over here. Anyone tried it with the H550 pad... The old mag and CHA-LEE´s recepie, I get easy and functional 19 rounds. But if I could get 18 relible with normal reload, that would be nice. My plan is to have two loads, one small batch for competition day with CHA-LEE´s method for needed stages. And normal for the rest. It take time to push thru, so wanna make it simpler... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 JCB> I only tested this stuff on the bench. I manually loaded and unloaded the mag with the grams spring/follower and the H141 base pad. Since I couldn't get the mag to even stay seated while manually racking it to cycle the rounds through it I am not even going to attempt to shoot it. So the short answer is, I don't know if the grams follower will function correctly on the new mags. Someone will have to test it out and see if it works. My bet is that even if it does feed properly you will lose 1 round in maximum capacity due to the channels in the side of the mags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nealio Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 CHA-LEE, So do these new mags look like the 9mm ones with the ribs on the sides? Also I think I have a couple new and almost new (~50 rounds) 10mm mags I would trade you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ripplerAdder Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 I hope you can get the problems worked out my current mags are running fine due to wolff but I might trade them anyways! Thanks for you information, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 Nealio> I have not seen any of the 9mm magazines so I can't confirm that they look similar. These 10mm mags have a narrow channel running down both sides almost all the way down. I found a picture of the new style 10mm magazine on Midway USA and listed it below. If you want to trade me some of your old style 10mm magazines for these new ones I am all for it. Shoot me a PM with your shipping address and how many you want to trade and I will get them out tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 (edited) I did some more testing with the new Mec-Gar 10mm mag last night in the high capacity configuration (Henning 21+1 base pad, Grams 11 coil spring, Grams Follower). I wanted to figure out when the side bulge really started to get bad and found that at 15 rounds it was still fine. But once I got 16 or more rounds in there it would be bowed out enough to jam up when you insert the mag into the gun. Even with only 16 rounds loaded its jammed up enough that it wouldn’t drop free when you press the mag release button. I tried this on both my primary and backup guns and it did the same thing. To get some more data points I went over my buddies house and test it on his collection of EAA pistols. He has three EAA pistols Limited 40, Match 40, and a Stock in 10mm. The high capacity mag with 16 or more rounds would jam up the same way in all of his guns as well. These new mags are causing a bad situation to be in from a Limited Division competition stand point if you can’t load more than 15 rounds in the mag due to it bulging and sticking inside the gun. The new mag seemed to work fine and not bulge when using the stock base pad, follower and spring. So for Limited 10, and Production where you are only limited to 10 rounds in each mag you should be fine. But for the higher capacity divisions its looking like you can’t even use these new style mags for more than 15 rounds. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like we have been dealt a swift kick to the tea bag from a competition stand point. Going from nose dive prone mags to mags that won’t even work for Limited division is a significant step backwards Edited April 28, 2011 by CHA-LEE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skydiver Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Thanks for the report CHA-LEE. I think it's time for me to start hoarding old-style 10mm mags. It's sad to see that the fix for 9mm unfortunately doesn't work for .40 S&W when loaded up to competitive capacity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSteel Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 This is not good news. Was looking forward to running these mags in Limited. If I wanted to run L-10 I'd stay with the mags I have already.. Hope Mec-Gar wasn't planning a fortune on these mags to cover development costs.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCB Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 I want to test these mags... If function is okay and relible with 18 round of regular reload, Im fine... Then make some 19 mags (IPSC) with CHAA-LEE recipie for those mags. But, I can't find these mags here yet. I know you need export license to send mags out of US. But I have heard people tell me, if you take it a part and send the empty tube and/or with the spring follower and pad packed buy it self, then its legal. Any one know? Any one wanna send me ? I actually have a US adress for shipping. But not all shops allow shipping to these adresses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted April 29, 2011 Author Share Posted April 29, 2011 JCB> I have already proven that the new 10mm mags will bulge out the sides and jam up in the gun when you load them past 15 rounds. Why do you think that 18 or 19 rounds will work regardless of how the rounds are built? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCB Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 Still would like to test one and see... Im not saying your wrong But I would just listen to one info that every one told, I would not get far. Is it one thing that I have learned in shooting and everything else that is, collect the info and process it yourself. So, not happy about your finding on these new mags, since everyone was waiting for salvation Still the 40 mag is coming, but dont know yet how that will turn out. 15 safe in the new 10mm mag is a big step back... So maybe I have to look into the Caspian mag anyway then or go back to the old.... Since changing my set up a little and using it as 17-18 mags my problems have been little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nealio Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 Yeah the .40 mags will have their own problems with the spacer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david s Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 I ran four of the New 10mm mags thru my Hunter. No issues. All ran flawlessly. 14+1. I even ran four different brand of ammo in one mag. Again it ran like a real gun. The issue of OAL is retired. I have no desire to put more than 14rds in these tubes, i'm just happy to shoot my Hunter without having to make excuses as to why it's always jamming. The joy of having a 10mm pistol that ran like my CZ Shadow was pretty cool. I'll take 14rds that run over any higher # that i might have issues with. When was the last time you shot 75rds of 10mm ammo thur your guns without it jamming for some mystical reason? These mags are for "Stock" Large Frame guns only. They were not designed for Comp guns. I think it's best to leave the hi-cap option to Beven or Henning to work on and we should be satisfied with what we have for now. As more guys get these mags something will be worked out. It's pretty cool just to have a mag that runs. I have 23 Mec-Gar mags (10mm,9mm and .40) i run between the Hunter, Shadow and my 1911 and have never had feeding or firering issues. The mag voodo is over with! CHA-LEE- if you still have any left i've got two(2) old 10mm mags with Gramm followers and 11 coil springs i'd like to trade. Are your mags marked K10 on the tube and Three peep holes instead of two? Also have two .40 old mags with the spacer taken out set up the same way. There is no spacer in the New .40 mag. david Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCB Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Hve you seen the new 40 mag and know there is no spacer? If so, thats maybe what we´ve been waiting for and not the 10mm mag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redmanfixit Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 Panda Meister....You've likely heard me going on about Inconvenience Theory. Many of my friends have advanced degrees in physics or engineering, uniformly, as I begin to explain the operation of this property of space time....they respond with outrage. Then a little time passes and they have a chance to observe the unfolding of the conservation of Inconvenience! Inconvenience is conserved. This is a perfect example!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted April 30, 2011 Author Share Posted April 30, 2011 David S> Sorry buddy, I sent all of these new style 10mm magazines back to EAA. They are going to exchange them for used old style 10mm mags that customers send back to exchange for the new ones. Its kind of insane that I have to resort to paying new magazine prices for used returned old style mags, but thats what happens when things are in limited quantities. The mission of hording old style 10mm magazines begins now. If you are willing to sell your old style 10mm magazines let me know how much you want for them. Send me a PM if you are interested in selling them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iggy42 Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 So has anyone gotten a Mec-gar in .40 S&W and tested those out yet? The more I read these kinds of things the more I regret my EAA Limited and I start wishing I had gone a different route. Glad I have not gotten mags, holster yet since its really starting to look like I should sell and get something else (which would suck since I only have 100rds thru my Limited) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david s Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 (edited) No spacer in .40 New mag. The new follower will not fit a spacer! These new mags were built for stock configeration only. They wiil not fit in a magwell, and a extended base pad will have to be installed. I have Hennings H-400 short pads. So if you have +2 or +3 pads that might be all the exta capasity you will get w/o bulging the sides out. Cha-Lee has already done our home work on that issue. I installed hennings Magwell on my hunter and it makes a huge difference as to how i can grip the gun. My Hunter was shot last weekend with no magwell and stock base pads, today it will be vetted with Hennings short pads and the magwell installed. Will report latter today. david Edited May 1, 2011 by david s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCB Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 I got the new 10mm mag here the other da, but in pad and follower from my Henning tuned mag, looks to stack nice and racks thru nice. Have not shot it yet. But looks good so far. BUT, for me, I have to give up one round, even with CHA-LEE recipe, just 18 rounds instead of 19. If it take 18 reloaded, Im not sure yet, but I will try. Follower is no problem as I can see. And locks up nice. Looking forward to test it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maksim Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 Chalee, are you using the 10mm mags to load 40 long? or actually shooting 10mm? I have the limited in 40 cal, I reload and got the 40 caliber mags with the spacer. Shooting Lim 10. Have hennings basepads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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