Colt Mag seating

[bmiller]

Here is what I came up with.  Printed base pads, and my version of a magwell.  This is a PSA dedicated lower.  I printed a magwell out of pet, it took a while to print. It also became dented up fairly easy slamming mags in.  I had a block of nylon so I machined one.  It is much better.  It honestly reloads almost as nice as my 2011 with a magwell.  I also dipped my mag extensions in the rubber stuff harbor freight sells for tool handles. Seemed to give it a more positive feel.  Going to machine some extensions out of aluminum and nylon next week to see if I like them better than the printed versions. I am shooting a night zombie match this weekend, hence the full tactical Timmy gear.

 

Just looked at the pic closer, it is wearing the 3D printed magwell in this pic.

Edited November 12, 2016 by bmiller

[Bamboo]

Nice Work! 
 I bet those do make reloads a lot faster!

Mine is a  franken-gun with a PSA dedicated colt lower also.  I don't have access to a 3D printer, or a vertical mill any longer...but I do have access to some Delrin...and that wouldn't be too hard to shape into a two piece magwell with basic hand tools and a drill press with a cross feed table.  Hmmmmm...

Thanks for posting your creations!

 

[bmiller]

The magwell worked great last night.  I am having extractor problems so I had to clear jambs and reinsert the mag in the dark.  It really helped.  My extractor seems like it wasn't heat treated or was improperly heat treated. I tune it, it runs great for 100 rounds, looses tension and pukes.  Thinking about a JP bolt.

[Bamboo]

Sweet! (not so sweet about the extractor issues...but as you know finding the weak components is part of the shake down of any new gun, unfortunately).

Looking at the current options, I'm leaning towards an Arredondo AR15 mag well and then fill it with either a solid block (engineering plastic, nylon, delrin, maybe aluminum, possibly a hardwood), or maybe something poured like polyester or epoxy resin with a lot of microballoons to keep it light...or maybe bondo with microballoons?  I donno. 

But, I'm sure that pretty soon there will be a store-bought magwell solution better than whatever I kludge up! 

[bmiller]

I am hoping to produce them at some point.

[mrpredictable]

Let me know when you do. 

On 11/13/2016 at 7:57 AM, bmiller said:

I am hoping to produce them at some point.

 

[bmiller]

?

[JonF]

On 11/13/2016 at 11:16 AM, Bamboo said:

Looking at the current options, I'm leaning towards an Arredondo AR15 mag well and then fill it with either a solid block (engineering plastic, nylon, delrin, maybe aluminum, possibly a hardwood), or maybe something poured like polyester or epoxy resin with a lot of microballoons to keep it light...or maybe bondo with microballoons?  I donno. 

But, I'm sure that pretty soon there will be a store-bought magwell solution better than whatever I kludge up! 

I did exactly that.

I took an Arredondo AR15 magwell, cut about 3/4" from the center to make it shorter font-to-back, pinned it back together and mounted it on my DDLES glock mag AR lower. Did a little contouring of the plastic "funnel" part inside to blend the transition from the magwell to the receiver. Did not need to fill at all with any epoxy this way as there's no wasted volume. Looks a little ugly, but it works really good though. Been using it for a couple years like that at steel matches before PCC was even a thing.

[Bamboo]

I like that!   Good thinking about taking the middle section out and pinning.  Thanks for posting the pics, too!

[tha1000]

I realize this is an old topic, but was curious as to whether any of you guys running colt mags have lowered the front lip of the magazine any to see if that eases seating?  That seems to be the area where my mags are binding up, I don't think it will take much create some extra space and I think it would be preferable to raising the top shelf on the mag catch notch.  I'm probably going to try it anyway, but did want to run it up the flagpole with the brain trust here before doing it.

 

 

 

 

[Tampa-XD45]

Lowering the front lip wouldn't accomplish anything. See the photo below.  With the bolt closed (top photo), the rounds in the mag will bump against the bolt ramp.  With the bolt open (bottom photo) the rounds would hit the bottom of the ejector if the front of the mag wasn't already hitting the bottom of the feed ramp.

 

If you're shooting a classifier with a mandated mag change, download the 2nd mag for easier loading. 

E.g. if you're shooting El Prez which is Virginia count, you only need 6 rounds in the 2nd mag.  (I would still load 8 in case you have to eject a bad round or two.)

[rowdyb]

when i had this kind of pcc i also beveled the inferior (lower) portion of the mag catch itself. so the mag had to slide by a rounded edge versus a sharp edge and that seemed to help with insertion. seating pressure was only reduced by loading a half loaded mag.

[tha1000]

My colt is pretty easy to load. My dedicated “colt” lower is much more problematic, for whatever reason. I have 10-12 dummy rounds in my dry fire mags. Way too many reloads aren’t seating. 

[MemphisMechanic]

2 hours ago, tha1000 said:

My colt is pretty easy to load. My dedicated “colt” lower is much more problematic, for whatever reason. I have 10-12 dummy rounds in my dry fire mags. Way too many reloads aren’t seating. 

 

This has been my experience as well.

 

For this, and a random rare nosedive I haven’t solved after weeks of tinkering... I’m converting my gun to Glock mags.

 

My buddies with Glock mags all have guns that run. I have one that jams 2 or 3 times in 1,000 rounds. That’s 2 or 3 jams too many in a $2,000+ gun.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2018 by MemphisMechanic

[tha1000]

9 hours ago, MemphisMechanic said:

 

This has been my experience as well.

 

For this, and a random rare nosedive I haven’t solved after weeks of tinkering... I’m converting my gun to Glock mags.

 

My buddies with Glock mags all have guns that run. I have one that jams 2 or 3 times in 1,000 rounds. That’s 2 or 3 jams too many in a $2,000+ gun.

 

 

 

 

Both of mine have run 100% (factory colt and homebrew spikes/jp).  I just think the tolerances are a bit too tight in the Spikes lower.  Mags wouldn't lock in at all when I first got it.  They sent me a redesigned feed ramp that resolved most of the issue...  I'm going to experiment and see if I can fix the rest of it.  It is probably just a situation to where I need to man up and slam the reload in harder.  I'm kind of pot committed to the colt pattern at this point.

[bwikel]

1 hour ago, tha1000 said:

  I'm going to experiment and see if I can fix the rest of it.  It is probably just a situation to where I need to man up and slam the reload in harder.  

Make sure to load an even number of rounds so rounds dont cover the mag catch slot. 

[tha1000]

4 hours ago, bwikel said:

Make sure to load an even number of rounds so rounds dont cover the mag catch slot. 

 

i hadn't considered that.  I will check and see how my bullets are currently staggered in the mags that are giving me issues.

[tha1000]

22 hours ago, bwikel said:

Make sure to load an even number of rounds so rounds dont cover the mag catch slot. 

18 hours ago, tha1000 said:

 

i hadn't considered that.  I will check and see how my bullets are currently staggered in the mags that are giving me issues.

 

This was actually beneficial advice... or at least i had a lot less mags not seat this morning.  1 the whole practice session, and I felt it not lock.  I can live with that.

[BartCarter]

From a post I made back in April:

 

Quote

I sometimes shoot with a fellow that has shot SMG Colts for more than 30 years.  When I had trouble loading a mag against a closed bolt, he told me to load to an odd amount of rounds.  An even amount puts a round in just the wrong position for the mag catch to seat easily.  That made a noticeable difference for me.

 

[tha1000]

13 minutes ago, BartCarter said:

From a post I made back in April:

 

 

 

I am not sure whether I loaded odd as you suggest or even as the dude above suggested, I did add and delete dummy rounds until the mag catch window was open as much as possible.

[bwikel]

28 minutes ago, tha1000 said:

 

I am not sure whether I loaded odd as you suggest or even as the dude above suggested, I did add and delete dummy rounds until the mag catch window was open as much as possible.

It depends on the mag. With the extra mags I carry on my belt, which are 20 rd. metalform mags, that number is 18.  The mag manufacture may also make a difference. The point is download a few rounds below the full capacity of the mag so that you leave the top side of the mag slot open for mags to lock in easier. 

[BartCarter]

I was talking about standard capacity 32 round magazines.

[tha1000]

7 minutes ago, BartCarter said:

I was talking about standard capacity 32 round magazines.

 

I have 20’s, 32’s, and 60’s. They’re all hard to seat. 

[BartCarter]

1 hour ago, tha1000 said:

 

I have 20’s, 32’s, and 60’s. They’re all hard to seat. 

 

On the 32's, if you download 1 or 3 rounds, they should seat on a closed bolt.  (gives you an odd number of rounds and less spring tension.) If not, there is probably a different problem that needs to be taken care of.

[mike4045]

I switched to a glock lower to get away from this issue.