cheers623 Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 (edited) Hey guys and gals, I was hoping to eventually buy some Hsmith tuned .40 S&W magic mags, I bought his .38 Super mags and they are works of art! However, with his recent reduction in work load, so to speak, that is not a current possibility. So, I bought a set of Bolen Springs and followers and and 4 new STI 140 tubes for my limited gun. Well, they dont' work and the followers roll over. Does anyone have any wisdom to share as far as tuning the Bolen Springs and followers for STI tubes. I tried them in the 4 Dawson tuned mags and 4 Brazos tuned mags I have and they don't work in either set. I know the tubes need to be tuned but what about the followers and springs? Any help would be appreciated greatly, as usual. By the way, I am using Dawson SNL +1 base pads. Best regards, cheers623 DVC Edited April 9, 2009 by cheers623 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quade Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 i thought i'd experiment with different base pads and followers since i haven't been shooting long. i have a couple of brazos tuned mags with grams followers and some thunder mountain mags with sti followers. both function great. i bought a bolens kit for my 170mm mag. spring, follower and 4mm base. my mag went from 26 to 29 rds. but that sucks when they get stuck in the tubes when the follower rolls over. i even had bullets between the follower and the bottom somehow. so after some testing i started only loading 28. that worked until i went to Double Tap a few weeks ago when it happened again and turned a 15 sec. stage into a 30 sec stage. so i don't think you have tube issues. you have bolen issues. i WON'T buy bolens again. some people have good luck with them. but i don't. kinda like the ford or chevy thing. i'll stick with what i know works. grams or stock. i did just ordered an arrendondo insert from dawson #501-006 this week to see if that will solve the rolling over problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter hornby Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 Hey guys and gals,I was hoping to eventually buy some Hsmith tuned .40 S&W magic mags, I bought his .38 Super mags and they are works of art! However, with his recent reduction in work load, so to speak, that is not a current possibility. So, I bought a set of Bolen Springs and followers and and 4 new STI 140 tubes for my limited gun. Well, they dont' work and the followers roll over. Does anyone have any wisdom to share as far as tuning the Bolen Springs and followers for STI tubes. I tried them in the 4 Dawson tuned mags and 4 Brazos tuned mags I have and they don't work in either set. I know the tubes need to be tuned but what about the followers and springs? Any help would be appreciated greatly, as usual. By the way, I am using Dawson SNL +1 base pads. Best regards, cheers623 DVC on thing Howard told me about my 140 STI tubes is that you cannot load more then 21 rounds without doing a whole pile of work. he said if you wanted more then 21 you were better off to go with SVI tubes. i understand it has to do with the cuts on the STI tubes (two vertical) vs the SVI (one large which is longer.) i hope i got it right about the differences. i know i got it right about the number of rounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
want2race Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 To get my Bolen follower to work in my 170 mag (.40 cal) I grooved it to hold the first round in place. The follower rolls over a little but since the first round stays put it works. My Bolen follower looks more like a stock SV on top. I cut the groove in it with my dremel. Just tested it last weekend. 26 rounds of .40, no failures. As for the tube, I did smooth the inside of the ribs a little. I grind them down on the inside and then polish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shooterbenedetto Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 I have tried bolen parts and never have luck with them.they are not reliable. I went with STI and grams and I can say that it works 100% all the time. I only stick with my 27rd plus one in the chamber and never fails me even at big matches. If I go more than that, I'm always gambling? Stick to reliability! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMITH Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 The Bolen parts work great in tuned tubes that have had specific adjustments made for the enhanced capacity they provide. If you don't have tuned tubes you shouldn't use them, if your tuned mags weren't tuned for them you shouldn't use them. Don't blame the parts when they are not used correctly. If the parts are used correctly and you have problems get with your mag tuner for assistance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 Bolen stuff works great if you know what you're doing or take the time to find the right combination. To say that they're bad, not reliable or anything else is completely untrue. I've got plenty of mags with Grams parts, but had a major issue with them a while back. Tuned STI 38 tube (140mm), Grams 13-coil spring and a Grams 11mm basepad is supposed to work just fine....at least according to Beven in several posts I read. Well, that combo did nothing but have the follower roll and bind up for me with 22 or 23 in the tube. I had to add the Arredondo inserts to prevent that and now they'll run with 23 perfectly. So, if the combination isn't right and things don't work, it's not necessarily an unreliable or bad part, it's just being used wrong. R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolex Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 Like HSMITH said: DONT blame the parts!I tryed Bolen on all my tubes SV/STI at one time or another-did not work. Grames on the other hand did. BUT once the mages where tuned, and I now have 4-140mm and 3-170mm all with Bolen they all work fine. So just my exp. that tuned Bolen will work, other than that you might just want to stick with Grams. I still have/use 5 140mm tubes with Grams and they work fine- Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rooster Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 There is no mention on Manny's website that you need tuned mags for the Bolen set up to work. If this is so then They should say so. I just ordered a spring and follower to try I sure hope it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intel6 Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 I have dropped Bolen parts into 8 different untuned 9/38 SV mags and they all work fine. The only time I had and issue with them was when I loaded too many rounds and went past the ledge on the body of the 170's. Neal in AZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkeeler Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 Warning read this! http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=76420 Don't make the same mistake I did. BK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheers623 Posted April 9, 2009 Author Share Posted April 9, 2009 Sorry guys, did not mean to start a flame-on thread. To be clear, I was just looking to see if there was anyone who had information about getting these parts to work. I have the Dawson DVD on mag-tuning and as stated before, 8 tuned magtubes by 2 different tuners. Hsmith, am I correct in inferring from your post that the tubes have to be specifically tuned for Bolen followers? If this is the case then I will just give up on it. If not, then anyone else who knows how to get these to run please chime in. Again, I am not trying to blast Bolen parts, just want help getting them to run. Thanks for everyone's patience. Cheers623 DVC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear23 Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 Maybe Bolen can chime in if he is on this site? Seems to me he'd want to sell his product without having to fuss with things too much. I run bolens in my SV mags with no mag tuning. I of course get the feed lips adjusted. What exactly needs to be done to the mag to get it special tuned? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkeeler Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 Maybe Bolen can chime in if he is on this site? Seems to me he'd want to sell his product without having to fuss with things too much.I run bolens in my SV mags with no mag tuning. I of course get the feed lips adjusted. What exactly needs to be done to the mag to get it special tuned? Inside and outside of the tubes need to be adjusted properly. BK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John2A Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 The one thing that I can say for 100% certain is that before I sold my edge I bought the Dawson mag tuning kit. It tells you the demisnions for the feed lips and the tube deminsions. So I formed the mags to those deminsions installed the Bolens follower, spring and 4MM base pad, no salt shaking, could hold 20 reloadable and 21 in two of the mags. Only ran 20 though, was scared that they would puke right when I did not want them to. The other thing that I do/did to all mags is to polish the snot out of the inside and outside of the mags to a high shine. That has made the differnce on the reliability aspect of the mags. I could run 20 all day and not have any issues. If you spend some time with the DVD you can pick up some good tips but the first pass can be a little disappointing but listen and learn. He never states what needs to be done to get 21 22 rounds out of a 140MM 40 tube but to get the most reliable mags with what you have. He uses the standard STI tube, follower and spring. So take this for what it is worth. If any one knows jalepeno001 he bought the gun and two mags have not heard if he has had any issues so that has to be a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear23 Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 Maybe Bolen can chime in if he is on this site? Seems to me he'd want to sell his product without having to fuss with things too much.I run bolens in my SV mags with no mag tuning. I of course get the feed lips adjusted. What exactly needs to be done to the mag to get it special tuned? Inside and outside of the tubes need to be adjusted properly. BK But what does that mean exactly? Are they using mandrels? If so, i want one. Maybe someone could teach us exactly what they do since no one really does tuned mags anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkeeler Posted April 9, 2009 Share Posted April 9, 2009 Maybe Bolen can chime in if he is on this site? Seems to me he'd want to sell his product without having to fuss with things too much.I run bolens in my SV mags with no mag tuning. I of course get the feed lips adjusted. What exactly needs to be done to the mag to get it special tuned? Inside and outside of the tubes need to be adjusted properly. BK But what does that mean exactly? Are they using mandrels? If so, i want one. Maybe someone could teach us exactly what they do since no one really does tuned mags anymore. You can still purchase tuned mags complete from Brazos Custom and maybe Grams. It is not worth my time to tune them myself found that out. BK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f250sd Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 I know of a local shooter and friend that has been tuning mags for a while for himself and friends. He is looking to step up and start doing em for everyone now. Adrian is currently setting up a web sight and I think an ad in frontsight magazine sortly. When I get more info I'll post it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahtsay Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 FWIW, I have used Bolen followers and springs on STi mag tubes and SV mag tubes without any problems at all. However, it didn't work with the Rescomp tube that I have. The follower was also getting stuck near the middle. For the Rescomp, I used Gramms and it has been working pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julien Boit Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 (edited) With the rescomp tube bending the last coil of the bolen spring to make the follower sit straight solved the problem for me. Holding the spring with the front of the follower looking at you and bend it to the left side. Edited April 10, 2009 by Julien Boit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahtsay Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 Julien do you mean the coil where the follower sits? Or the last coil as in the one that touches the basepad? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julien Boit Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 Not the one where the follower clip. The coil under . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahtsay Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Thanks Julien, I'll try that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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