All posts tagged Sig Sauer magazines

European firearms and trying to find replacement magazines

promag magazinesWe recently heard about a change in several of our Factory magazines, from Glock to Walther, there have been changes to the material and designs.  Some of our customers may not notice the difference, and in all honesty, sometimes we can’t tell the differences but they are there.  Some of the Beretta Factory magazines have gone up a few rounds with their stand capacity magazines.    I’m not sure of all of the changes that are taking place, we usually find out from our customers when they are the first to find out or someone asks for the new version of a mag.  Recently we’ve been getting  a lot of calls about Walther and CZ magzines and if there are any alternative manufacturers.

We’ve sold a good bit of Walther P99 magazines and recently we have moved several Promag Magazines for the CZ.   Today I had to do some research for a customer on Promag Magazines and find out if a CZ 75 PCR would run the  CZ75 magazines and Promag couldn’t give me a definite answer since they didn’t have the technical info on the gun, this seems to be the story every week around here because there is always some new variant of a firearm and nobody knows what “other” magazines will work with it or what holster they should by.   See previous blog posts about researching firearms and their ability to be accessorized or the availability before you buy.

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Glock Factory magazines vs after market?

I remember almost 20yrs ago a company called USA magazines, and after the first Assault Weapons ban, that was about the only manufacturer I knew that made 30rd magazines for the Mini 14, but I had really bad experiences with them.   The majority of the problem was with the followers and this seems to be a pretty common issue.   If you move machinery from one location to the other and have any minor changes in the equipment, that slightly out of spec magazine is going to jam up in your firearm and that is pretty much what the problem is with after market magazines.   I have not the time or the energy to test out after market magazines because I actually started using them and then learned to only buy Factory mags but now that there is another run on firearms and magazines, some people are tempted to buy what they can.

Should you bother putting your money into something that is not a factory item?  If you don’t have any other options a brand like Promag magazines Promag magazines has a pretty good reputation and some of our customers have told us that they use them in their AKs and or in the Walther PPK or Ruger LCP we can give you that.  There’s nothing wrong with having a bunch of magazines that are in your range rotation but for primary use, i would stick with magazines that have been tested or just stick with Factory magazines.  Many companies stand by their magazines and have warranties so also do some research into that before you buy.

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Bring out the 45acp’s for the Zombie Shoot

This weekend will be the 2nd Contagion Zombie shoot at the New Holland rifle and pistol club.   It often amazes me at the selection of firearms that you see at these events and one of the most common things I do see is an increase in the number of 45acp guns.   Shooting steel with 9mm guns can be a lower knock down rate.  It’s kind of funny how people say the energy is the same form a 124gr Nato round vs a 45acp, but when it comes to hitting steel, they are not the same.   The 45acp especially the 1911, Sig 220, Springfield XD and Glock 21 are the most common and every once in awhile we do see a few H&K firearms.

When it comes to shooting a 45acp,  I personally think American Eagle ball ammo is probable the best round to carry, even though some may say that HP ammunition has improved so much that it’s a better option.   I have never felt like carrying ball ammunition in Wilson Combat Magazines meant that I was going to be punching holes through every wall in the house because from my experience the 45acp does not penetrate as much as the 9mm ball ammunition.  There are so many 1911 guns out there that I could not say that the 1911 is a dated firearm that can not handle various types of ammunition, but you do have to be careful about the GI versions of the gun and hollow point ammunition.

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10rd magazines for 1911s?

This is something I’ve only delved into once and it wasn’t a great experience.   Back in the early 1990’s we had all of that assault weapons ban BS and and aftermarket gun magazines were everywhere.   Some of us that owned certain firearms ended up with unreliable firearms that should have been durable.   $90 Glock magazines were not uncommon and $14.99 for a jamming Mini 14 30rd magazine from USA magazines, which I believe is been long out of existence.   Many people fell back on revolvers and there was a big upsurge back into the 1911 because it was one of those guns that was originally designed for fewer than 10rds which was what the Assault Weapons Ban limited you to.

So some of us messed around with aftermarket 10rd magazines and all of the ones I tried failed pretty quick.   We tried to make the 1911 into it’s highest capacity that we legally could, but the balance pretty much got messed up.   Gun magazines, even a few rounds bigger than standard capacity can make the gun imbalanced or make it harder holster.   There are a lot of reasons to use 10rd magazines like Wilson Combat magazines or Chip McCormick which have a good reputation in competition shooting, but they will protrude considerable.   This may cause snagging on shirts ect if you are considering using one for CCW.   If you’ve ever practiced with you’re gun, which you should have, firing 8rds and reloading is probable a better CCW than thinking a 10rd magazine is going to give you more protection.

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Speed loaders and training courses

I was fortunate to attend a sniper competition a few years ago where I must have learned more about combat than every before.   About 40 students were attending this training competition even and given the rules for attending the match.   Everyone was told to arrive with unloaded firearms, but to keep all of their gear in the cars and attend a safety briefing.    Well, one of the  best events for this competition/training even occurred in the first 30 seconds after the safety briefing.   Everyone was asked if they understood all of the safety rules and when everyone said yes, it began.    The Instructor explained the first stage of the shooting event.   Everyone was told to grab their gear from their car and immediately return to the firing line, unload the gear and engage the targets.   The attendees gave us a big smile while the students/competitors did an “Oh, Shit!”

I sat and watched every student run back to their car which was about 15-30yds behind the firing line, I noticed varying types of rifle cases and rifle bags, some shooters showed up with loaded magazines and others had to manually load the guns, as soon as they were ready to shoot, they engaged the targets.   I believe they had 6 minutes to take down all of the targets from 100-200yds.   The variations in time to engage the enemy targets varied by several minutes.   Anyone that had a M4 Carbine or 30rd magazine that didn’t have loaded gun magazines or didn’t have a speed loader, was the last to engage the targets.   I saw only 2 people out of 40 engage the targets in the first 5 minutes.   Maglula speed loaders are must for anyone serious about using a carbine for self defense, unless  you have the military style loaders.

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Rotate your ammo and rotate your mags

There are various stages of CCW experience, those that have made the mistakes, those that have witnessed the mistakes and those that are doomed to see both.  Although a gun owner may be observing all of the firearm safetey rules there are still many things to keep in consideration when CCW a firearm.   Even though a gun hasn’t been fired, if it is being carried it will fill up lint or the gun can become dry.  I have carried guns through out the summer months and found out that I’ve rusted out screws or pitted firearms.  Clean your CCW guns for reliability sake, but also for protection.

It is extremely important for you to rotate your carry ammo.  Many reloaders know the importance of having the proper bullet crimp to prevent bullet setback, but this is something that is inevitable going to occur if you keep closing the slide on the same bullet.  Even if you are not shooting up your ammo, rotate the ammo in your gun magazines to make sure you are not slamming the same first round.  Defensive ammo can be expensive and I realize that you aren’t going to want to shoot it all up after a couple times of cleaning  your ammo.  If you rotate just an 8rd magazine full of defensive ammo, you should be able to dissassemble and clean the gun safetly about 24 times with the same magazine.

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