All posts tagged Wolff Gun Springs

Uploading magazines, single stack and double stack

I use to upload all of my guns until a bad experience occurred to me with several of my gun safe firearms.   I mostly buy used firearms and my Sig 229 in .357 sat in a gun safe loaded with 12+1.   I bought the gun  used and replaced all of the magazine springs with Wolff gun springs, did a range test, and then when the gun passed the range report, I loaded it up and put it away in the safe for 9 months.  Thinking that taking this gun to an IDPA match would be a good way of testing it out and making sure it was reliable, I just took it with me and give it a run.

I had another Sig 229 with me, but this was in 40 S&W and it was also loaded to capacity.   Needless to say, both guns failed on me.   I  have a Colt 1911 with 8+1 rounds of 45acp in a Wilson Combat magazine and it has never failed me.   The only problem I have with it is that I need to really make sure the magazine is seat properly because it barely clicks in.   All magazines have been downloaded by at least 1 rd and since then, all of the guns have passed range tests even after long term storage.  Be careful about what you read on the internet, uploading many guns for long periods of time will decrease reliability.

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Wolff gun magazines and Wilson Combat

I finally got to pick up a few of the Wolff gun magazines that some of my friends have raved about and I’m still trying to find out how I didn’t know about these for so long.  I guess getting stuff made in the  gun accessories and firearms industries is getting easier now and many companies can go out there and just find somebody with the tooling.   These did feel more like Chip McCormick magazines and they were fairly close in design.   The one thing I know to monitor on 1911 metal magazines are the followers which is something I’ve had problems with in the past.  Usually it was the less expensive and practically considered to be thrown GI 1911 magazines.

Something I’ve seen happen on less durable 1911 magazines it that they will not hold up very well at all if you one up the guns.  If you have an 8rd magazine and put one in the chamber and then load it back up to capacity, you are putting slightly more tension on the magazines and the cheaper mags, and the magazine springs will fail you.  Wilson Combat magazines, Wolff 1911 magazines and Chip McCormick magazines will hold up.  I had problems with Colt magazines, GI magazines and some MecGar magazines when I did this and always had 2nd round malfunctions.   I’ve learned to not on up the guns, but single stack magazines seem to handle this better than double stack.

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Taking a gun apart is even easier than you think

It was only a few years ago that I thought that I needed to schedule some time with a Glock certified gunsmith so I didn’t have to sit and read a book about assembling and disassembling a G26 which is always a royal pain.  Even though guns are fairly simple, there are always little tricks to holding a gun and knowing how to wiggle difficult parts out, no matter how many times I’ve read my directions for installing computer software or putting my damn kids legos together, a good old instruction video is better.   I  was really happy to see that Otis sends out CD and DVD instructions with their cleaning kits which probable saves there customer service department a lot of headache phone calls.

I have a few AGI gun videos I strongly suggest picking them up, but now in the age of youtube.com it’s easy to find someone who has posted there own instructional videos and I have found some really good ones.   Please be aware that I am not saying that youtube is a great source for valid info because I have seen plenty of poor gun handling skills which I wish would be removed, but as much as there are some bad points about the internet, there are plenty of good ones.   Installing gun parts and accessories if done incorrectly may mean damaging or breaking your gun or the part you are trying to install.   I know a few gun shops that limit the amount of gun accessories that they carry because they are tired of the complaints about how the gun parts were broken when they got them.

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gun parts and tools and thinking ahead

I recently got myself into a situation with a CCW gun wear a magazine that was stored for a long time ended up not functioning properly even though the springs in it were fairly new.   I believe the Sig 239 pistol magazine had less than 100rds through it when it was left loaded for approximately 2yrs.   I’ve heard debates about single stack pistol magazines holding up better than double stack magazines,  but I’ve come to the conlusion that it is NEVER a good idea to leave a full loaded rifle or pistol magazine for more than a few months.   It’s best to rotate your carry ammo especially if you are cleaning  your sidearm fairly often.   After about 3 chamberings of any ammo, the ammo really should be used and not loaded back into a firearm.  Bullet separation is something that will eventually happen, and the last thing you want your gun to do in a defensive situation is to blow up.

I highly recommend getting a gunsmithing video on dissassembling or assembling your firearms so that you can familiarise yourself with firearm maintenance.   A big problem I have run into when doing maintenance is having the right tools to actually take guns apart and replace hammer springs and firing pin springs.   A Glock pistol is probable the easier to take apart and for just about $5 you can pick up glock dissasemble tool to replace any Glock parts you think you need replaced.   Do a search on youtube to see if you can find any free instructional videos, but also check with AGI or the manufacturer because there’s a good chance something is posted from the factory reps.

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Wolff Gunsprings

Wolff gunspringsWolff Gunsprings is a manufacturer of precision springs for firearms including recoil, hammer, mainsprings, magazine, firing pin, striker and other firearm springs. Our proprietary spring material and processes provides high quality, reliability and proven performance not found with other springs. With over 55 years of experience exclusively with firearm springs, you can be assured that when you choose a Wolff gunspring, you get the best!

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