Magazine Keeps Falling Down

[sps]

A few weeks ago I bought a new SPS .40. it looks great and more important, shoots great. There is, however, one problem. The magazines keep falling down when I shoot rapid fire (like on 3-4 close targets).

At the beginning it also happened when I started in 3 position (loaded and holstered) after cocking the gun, but I think that this was because the +2 heel touched the grip and prevented good lock up of the mag release. I worked a little on the inner side of the grip and had some plastic removed and now it seems that I’m O.K on 3 position.

A friend suggested that this may happen because the supporting (left) hand looses a bit its grip and activates the mag release. Although this explanation does make sense, this never happened to me on my SPS 9mm. I even took the 9mm mag release which always workes and put it on the .40 . it seems to work fine.

To cut a long story short, the magazines keep falling down and I have no idea what causes this. The nationals are only a few weeks away and I need to sort it out. Your help/views/comments are appreciated.

Edited March 19, 2006 by sps

[achard]

try replacing your magazine catch.

[sps]

i did but it remains the same. is it possible that the recoil, which is much stronger on the .40, causes the mag to fall? as i said, it never happened to me in the past with my 9mm.

if its a grip issue, would a heavier mag release spring do the job?

[achard]

I don't think it's the caliber. I'm using sps .40 cal too and I don't experienced mag falling off when shooting. Have you tried another mag? Try shooting with right hand and see if your mag falls.

[sps]

will do. i'll keep you noted. tnx

[bulm540]

will do. i'll keep you noted. tnx

Do you have an oversize mag button??? take it out and see waht happens. i had similar problem yearsa go with my para ord. too out the oversize mag button and teh problem went away.

[firewalker]

I reciently also had this problem with a new STI, It turned out to be the mag button, which was stock, was in contact with the holster causing the mag button to particially start the release, the spring pressure and rounds keeping the magizine in place. With in the first few shots the mag flies out. I cleared the holster in the area where it contacted the button and solved the problem.

Try checking contact points on your holster with gun in it. Hope this helps

Frederick Haring

[hopalong]

A couple of my buddies had the same problem. they both installed stronger mag release springs in thier guns and have not had any trouble since.

Good luck with it and the Nationals.

HOPALONG

[sps]

thank you all!

the mag. rel. is standard with no button.

HOPALONG, i was thinking the same, but have no idea where to find on. in the meanwhile i cut a piece from an old spring i had and put it next to the existing spring. it did make it a bit stronger, but the action is not smooth at all (chchchchchch.........)

but i guess you cant have in all, can you?

[Bear23]

Brownells has a nice supply of springs that are extra power.

[sps]

bear23, i just orders the try pack which included the extra strong mag catch spring.

i did some dry fire experimation today and i found out that the mag catch is probably the culprit. the little piece of metal that goes into the magazine is rather short and in dry fire there is one magazine that kept falling off the gun.

However, the rest of the magazines handled the defect mag catch and stayed in place. so now i think that the problem is both a defect mag catch (because in a different mag catch all 3 magazines functioned without any problem) and one problematic magazine (because the other two functioned well with the defect mag catch).

sounds confusing? i think I'm a bit, but at least now i know where to start from.

[sps]

today i changed the magazine in a new one. on dry fire it seems to be OK . i'll take it with me to the range on thursday to test it.

Edited March 21, 2006 by sps