Mag Follower trimming for 2011

[Punished]

I'm new to the 2011 world, so I want to make sure I understand this properly before I start hacking things up that I shouldn't have.

STI 140mm tubes

Grams follower and springs

Dawson base pads

All 4 mags hold 18 rounds with room without messing with anything. I'm not looking to tune the mag to fit that last 19th round.

First, when loading the 2nd round in all 4 of my mags, the follower snags, on what I am understanding is the wing piece that causes slide lock. It snags on the lip of the mag unless I push the follower against the other side of the mag so it slides by. I drew a red arrow to it in the photo. Is this the same piece described in the Brazos mag tuning article that I file away on?

Am I ok if I file back on the side of this piece so it slides down into the mag without an issue? Do I need to make the thickness of this same piece less to not have it go to slide lock?

Thanks,

[OperationHitFactor]

That's what I do. Just take enough off to get in the mag smoothly. Some guys take a bunch off so the slide lock will not engage too. Pesonal I just modify the slide stop and minimally alter the follower.

[Corey]

Yep, that's the spot. I did the same thing. Just go little by little and test often. Don't want to take too much off.

[Punished]

thanks guys for the help!

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: I trim the slide stop so it will not lock the slide back. I also radius the bottom of the Grams follower on the corner so it inserts into the mag tube with no problem or dragging. Thanks, Eric

[sfpmb]

I had an open gun build and the builder put a detent in the slide stop so it wont lock back unless I push it, so I never had to modify the follower. But I do have to push that second round in carefully because of this. For my lim set up I have 2 slide stops. One is trimmed to miss the follower (limited) the other is not so it locks back (L10

[tbarker13]

I've been going through this myself with my first experience using 2011 mags and grams.

I ended up using a small file (I think some people use dremels). My way was probably slower, but I felt like I had a little more control over it.

At first they were locking back with 1 round in the mag. Then I took off enough to get it to lock back with an empty mag. Took off a little more and - no lockback at all.