MBX Extreme Mags

[clawson2011]

I can't speak for everyone, but the majority of the shooters I have seen facing feeding issues are producing bad quality reloaded ammo. Their reloading practices are total crap and they don't case gauge anything. Crap in = Crap out.

Can you explain what total crap reloading practices are? I want to make sure when my 2011 is finally finished I am doing it the right way. I have my 650 all set up and 99.5% of the ammo out goes thru my case gauge's without problem and runs like a scalded dog in both my M&P 40 limited and CZ sp-01's without fault but I have heard that 2011's can be picky.

would you please expound on this for me so I am doing it right please.

I am not going to list all of the ways you can screw up in reloading ammo as the list is long. A universal method for validating that your ammo is mechanically correct from a dimension perspective is to case gauge every single round after you load it. If it fits into a case gauge without any resistance, then it should mechanically be setup properly. But even that can be screwed up if you are using the wrong dies, crimp, or whatever else.

If your ammo is case gauging properly that is only half the battle. The other half is ensuring that the OAL, Crimp, and Bullet Profile are setup to mechanically feed properly in your custom 2011. Every 2011 is built to unique specifications and every gunsmith has their proffered way of setting them up. So there is not a "One size/method fits all" recommendation that I can give you. I would suggest you contact your gunsmith and get their recommendation on what ammo setup will function reliably in the gun they are building for you.

Thanks for confirming what I had in mind. I figured that if the Gunsmith building it gave me the OAL and it case gauges that I should be good to go.

[SteveT-NV]

As for the guys having Nose Dive feeding issues, its time to start looking into your reloading practices or feeding tuning of the gun. Out of spec or poorly reloaded ammo, or poor feeding tuned guns are going to jam regardless of what mag you use. There are no "Magical" magazines out there that are going to function 100% of the time if you are feeding it crappy ammo or have a poorly tuned gun.

I'm not sure I agree with this. Before I tried the MBX mags I had over 14,000 rounds through my Brazos Custom without a malfunction. I think that most would agree that this is a well tuned gun. I case gauge and have run the same OAL and the same powder for those 14,000 rounds. I bought 2 MBX mags and they will have a "nose dive" malfunction every 100-200 rounds. The only difference here is the mags. I've not changed my reloading practice and my gun ran just fine before those mags and as long as I run my "other" tuned mags the gun runs fine.

I'm not saying that the MBX mags are bad, they just don't run well in my gun.

Edit to add-

FWIW - Gun is a Brazos Custom, 40 cal, 6 in with a Bar-Sto Barrel. I should have left things alone, but the the thought of getting 21 rounds in the mag, instead of 20 was too temping! MBX was kind enough to replace one of the mags, but unfortunately, that one didn't work either.

Respectfully,

Steve

Edited March 19, 2015 by SteveT-NV

[not4you2know]

The mbx mags with kkm barrels is the issue if that is what you have. Not reloads. This is a known issue as the mbx mas come up a little higher in the front vs sti. I have a ton of comparison pictures of different barrels, mags, and guns.

You will have to take some off the top of the mag or some off the bottom of the barrel feed ramp.

Other than that, MBX mags are awesome and I'm glad MBX is replacing mine with ones that will work. If you are having this issue, I would suggest contacting MBX For resolution.

[outerlimits]

Yep, 21 in the mag is easy...getting the mag in the gun with a KKM, forget it.

[Tochnost]

I run Schuemann barrels. Anyone have any experience they can comment on with the MBX and Schuemann? After reading the above on the KKMs. I was hoping to verify.

Thanks.

[COLLINSMITH89]

I run Schuemann barrels. Anyone have any experience they can comment on with the MBX and Schuemann? After reading the above on the KKMs. I was hoping to verify.

Thanks.

I have a scheuman in my open gun and I use the 140s and 170s with no problems

[Tochnost]

Great. Thank you.

[not4you2know]

My friend has a .40 schueman barrel and has no issues.

[Noah my boy]

Anyone used the mags with a barsto barrel? Was thinking of getting two for major matches coming up.

[Ultimo-Hombre]

Don't do it Matt.

An extra round ain't worth the risk at your level.

By that I mean Matt is a badass!

[sturgefish]

There's no risk. The mags will work great.

[slinginlead]

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=208676&hl=+mbx&page=1

read this thread.

[Shadyscott999]

My MBX mags crapped out at A6 this weekend. Salt shakers. The were being universally cussed all around the range. Many were also commenting on the compile lack of response from MBX. I went back to my SVs after the third stage when the went shaker.

I think it is pretty simple. The tubes and base pads are legit. The followers are questionable and the springs are junk. I am gonna put grams guts in mine and use them for practice mags.

I am glad they are working on making mags. Maybe just released a bit too soon.

[CHA-LEE]

I have used my MBX .40 cal 140mm mag about 30 times now with zero issues. I do brush it out every time its dropped, then between matches, spray it out with cleaner and closely inspect everything. So far I have had ZERO issues with this magazine.

My buddy that is running the 9/38 170mm mag in his 9 Major Open gun had a few Nose Dive jams but added a spacer to the rear of the mag and shortened the follower a little to clear the spacer and hasn't had any jams since. He thinks that with a standard OAL 9mm ammo the rounds were getting biased front and back too much in the mag while shooting and this was leading to the nose dive jams. So far he has about 50 crammed full 30 round loads on the same spring and its still working properly.

[Shadyscott999]

I used mine for several matches with no issue. Then the springs just stopped being springs. There are far too many people having the same experience at about the same round count for it to be anything other than poor quality/defective springs.

I understand new products take time. I also have zero experience contacting MBX . What I did have was at least 3 people tell me they have multiple

un-answered emails regarding spring issues in to MBX. Some of them for over a month.

[mwc]

Just wanted to give a follow up. I contacted MBX about the problems I was having and sent pics of the nose dive issue. Adrian was very prompt in getting back to me and sent me two new improved springs with two newly designed followers. He said if that didn't work then I could return the magazine and they would get it running. I have only had time to get to the range once since changing out the spring and follower, but the magazine was flawless with the 200 rounds I put thru it so far. The spring was stiffer and I was still able to hand load 21 in the magazine. I will keep everyone updated about the fix, but the customer service in my case is TOP NOTCH.

[CHA-LEE]

It sounds like there is a spring issue and MBX has a solution.

One thing that I want to point out, is that the life of the springs is dramatically affected by how many rounds you cram into the magazines. If you cram the maximum amount of rounds into the magazine every time you use it, then the spring will not last as long. That is not a unique fact to MBX stuff, as that applies to pretty much all of the aftermarket spring/follower manufactures that provide a spring/follower setup that allows the spring to be compressed to coil bind. For me, I am using the 140mm 40 caliber magazines and I will ONLY put 20 rounds in them unless I absolutely need the 21st round. Then when I actually DO need the 21 rounds, I will only cram that 21st round in there right before my stage run, so the spring isn't being crushed into coil bind for an extended amount of time. Doing this preserves the spring life a lot longer than cramming them full to 21 rounds every time I reload the magazine.

There is no getting around the fact that if you crush a spring to coil bind that it will fail/weaken a lot faster than another spring that is not brought to coil bind. This applies to all after market magazine parts manufactures (MBX, TTI, Grams, etc). Factory magazines usually have very tall followers that bottom out well before the spring gets to a coil bind state. This is how you can keep your trusty home defense blaster magazines fully loaded for years on end and they still continue to function properly.

You also need to keep an eye on how "Beat Up" the magazine spring is getting. These springs are mass produced parts that probably cost .25 cents a piece to make. How much quality control are you really expecting there to be in a mass produced part like that? I have seen Grams, Taran, Bolen, and Wolff springs all fail/weaken very quickly for whatever unknown reason other than cramming rounds into the magazine to coil bind. The MBX springs will be no different. All you can do is keep an eye on it and proactively replace them once they reach a certain level of "Beat Up". I have probably proactively replaced and thrown away more functional magazine springs in one year than most shooters will ever buy in their life time. Have I replaced springs before they are truly bad and incurred an extra expense in doing so? Hell yes I have. But to me, a $10 spring is chump change when I have already spent $1000 to attend a major match. I would gladly replace a $10 spring proactively before it starts causing issues and NOT have match ruining feeding issues. If others would prefer to throw away a whole match because they want to milk a $10 spring to get every single load life out of it then more power to you.

[Shadyscott999]

It sounds like there is a spring issue and MBX has a solution.

One thing that I want to point out, is that the life of the springs is dramatically affected by how many rounds you cram into the magazines. If you cram the maximum amount of rounds into the magazine every time you use it, then the spring will not last as long. That is not a unique fact to MBX stuff, as that applies to pretty much all of the aftermarket spring/follower manufactures that provide a spring/follower setup that allows the spring to be compressed to coil bind. For me, I am using the 140mm 40 caliber magazines and I will ONLY put 20 rounds in them unless I absolutely need the 21st round. Then when I actually DO need the 21 rounds, I will only cram that 21st round in there right before my stage run, so the spring isn't being crushed into coil bind for an extended amount of time. Doing this preserves the spring life a lot longer than cramming them full to 21 rounds every time I reload the magazine.

There is no getting around the fact that if you crush a spring to coil bind that it will fail/weaken a lot faster than another spring that is not brought to coil bind. This applies to all after market magazine parts manufactures (MBX, TTI, Grams, etc). Factory magazines usually have very tall followers that bottom out well before the spring gets to a coil bind state. This is how you can keep your trusty home defense blaster magazines fully loaded for years on end and they still continue to function properly.

You also need to keep an eye on how "Beat Up" the magazine spring is getting. These springs are mass produced parts that probably cost .25 cents a piece to make. How much quality control are you really expecting there to be in a mass produced part like that? I have seen Grams, Taran, Bolen, and Wolff springs all fail/weaken very quickly for whatever unknown reason other than cramming rounds into the magazine to coil bind. The MBX springs will be no different. All you can do is keep an eye on it and proactively replace them once they reach a certain level of "Beat Up". I have probably proactively replaced and thrown away more functional magazine springs in one year than most shooters will ever buy in their life time. Have I replaced springs before they are truly bad and incurred an extra expense in doing so? Hell yes I have. But to me, a $10 spring is chump change when I have already spent $1000 to attend a major match. I would gladly replace a $10 spring proactively before it starts causing issues and NOT have match ruining feeding issues. If others would prefer to throw away a whole match because they want to milk a $10 spring to get every single load life out of it then more power to you.

I agree. I rarely load my mags to max capacity. I typically do so when it will be helpful.

I too have had other springs go to pot far too early. That is what happened in my situation. My Big stick(s) are rotated and only had 10 uses each(stages). There was no warning, no slow feeding when thumbing out rounds after a stage. Just boom, almost zero spring pressure.

[anilson]

I change grams springs every 6 months on 140mm 40 cal mags or if the hiccup in practice or a match. The above post is correct they are mass produced and can vary quite a bit.

We have mags that were returned to mbx and are waiting for them to return. I tested them a ton before i sent them back and the problem was that the follower was hanging on the ridge that pushed the follower to the right as it reaches just above half way up the magbody. In 40 cal it was between round 7 and 8. A better spring would help but the follow was also part of the problem. I didn't cut one, but i would bet that you could modify a follower with a better spring and the problem would be resolved.

The MBX mag bodies are by far the best I have ever seen.

My training partner had a first run 170 9mm that runs well. Adrian is the best mag tuner around so i am sure he will get the problems worked out.

[SteveT-NV]

It sounds like there is a spring issue and MBX has a solution.

One thing that I want to point out, is that the life of the springs is dramatically affected by how many rounds you cram into the magazines. If you cram the maximum amount of rounds into the magazine every time you use it, then the spring will not last as long. That is not a unique fact to MBX stuff, as that applies to pretty much all of the aftermarket spring/follower manufactures that provide a spring/follower setup that allows the spring to be compressed to coil bind. For me, I am using the 140mm 40 caliber magazines and I will ONLY put 20 rounds in them unless I absolutely need the 21st round. Then when I actually DO need the 21 rounds, I will only cram that 21st round in there right before my stage run, so the spring isn't being crushed into coil bind for an extended amount of time. Doing this preserves the spring life a lot longer than cramming them full to 21 rounds every time I reload the magazine.

There is no getting around the fact that if you crush a spring to coil bind that it will fail/weaken a lot faster than another spring that is not brought to coil bind. This applies to all after market magazine parts manufactures (MBX, TTI, Grams, etc). Factory magazines usually have very tall followers that bottom out well before the spring gets to a coil bind state. This is how you can keep your trusty home defense blaster magazines fully loaded for years on end and they still continue to function properly.

You also need to keep an eye on how "Beat Up" the magazine spring is getting. These springs are mass produced parts that probably cost .25 cents a piece to make. How much quality control are you really expecting there to be in a mass produced part like that? I have seen Grams, Taran, Bolen, and Wolff springs all fail/weaken very quickly for whatever unknown reason other than cramming rounds into the magazine to coil bind. The MBX springs will be no different. All you can do is keep an eye on it and proactively replace them once they reach a certain level of "Beat Up". I have probably proactively replaced and thrown away more functional magazine springs in one year than most shooters will ever buy in their life time. Have I replaced springs before they are truly bad and incurred an extra expense in doing so? Hell yes I have. But to me, a $10 spring is chump change when I have already spent $1000 to attend a major match. I would gladly replace a $10 spring proactively before it starts causing issues and NOT have match ruining feeding issues. If others would prefer to throw away a whole match because they want to milk a $10 spring to get every single load life out of it then more power to you.

The spring and "overloading" the magazine may be part of the problem. But, in my case I don't think it explains the entire problem. I purchased 2 MBX 40 cal, 140 mm mags. I only loaded the mags to full capacity a couple times. The mags did not function reliably from the start. I used them for ~ 500 rounds and was getting a nose dive malfunction every 100-200 rounds. MBX sent me a replacement mag and that mag would not feed reliably either.

I'm glad they function well in some guns, but it doesn't seem like that they will function reliably in every gun.

[Desmo412]

I emailed Adrian with a question yesterday and he got back to me in less than 12 hours. He seems to answer his emails late at night.

I don't currently have my mags with me, but could someone measure the depth of the cavity in the MBX basepads? I'm curious as to what size they are (looks to be about 6-8mm). The only thing that bothers me is the location of the retaining pin in the basepad. It allows the basepad to slide off of the tube until the pin catches the lip. I do have to say I prefer TTI pads for this reason.

Edited April 16, 2015 by Desmo412

[bwikel]

I emailed Adrian with a question yesterday and he got back to me in less than 12 hours. He seems to answer his emails late at night.

He must be selective in his responses. I messaged him 3 days ago and haven't heard anything back. I asked for an update on when the para mags would be released but since I got no response I spent my money elsewhere.

[ZackJones]

He must be selective in his responses. I messaged him 3 days ago and haven't heard anything back. I asked for an update on when the para mags would be released but since I got no response I spent my money elsewhere.

This mirrors my experience as well. I asked here on the forum and through email about para mags and all I've heard is crickets. I ended up trading for a second para 18.9 so now I have 4 mags .

Edited April 21, 2015 by ZackJones

[gng4life]

I don't think he is being selective on response but he is trying to deal with issues with the current mags. I couldn't be happier with the support I have received from MBX. I have conversed with him a few times and email, every time I have been satisfied with the response. Also, this last time, he said he would send me some replacements and they were on my doorstep yesterday. Going to the range tomorrow to test them out.

Give him some time to work on current issues and I'm sure he will get back with some answers or announce them on his website.

As for those who talk about loading to capacity every time, I usually only change mag springs once a year and I always load mine to max. I have been using the Grams followers/springs in my SV mags for years and I have never had to change out springs earlier than 10 months. I'm not sure about the MBX springs yet since I've only had them for a few months.

[ZackJones]

Since he responds to you how about asking him about 9mm para mags .