When I purchased this gun in February it came with two stainless steel magazines. I have not been able to load the magazines with the slide closed no matter how hard I “slapped” it in. It just would not go. I have to have the slide locked back in order to get the mag in. With the slide open the mag does not fit tight, it goes up and down about 1/4 inch. When I rack the slide it is finally tight but it has caused over time, some failure to feeds. I thought I it would work itself out (over 1,500 rounds later) but it hasn’t and the failure to feeds are increasing.
At the same time I bought the gun I bought an extra mag. It was different than the other two in that it was black. The stainless steel ones had no marking except for "45 ACP". The black one was marked ACT-MAG ITALY. It works, in that I can load it with the slide closed and no mis-feeds.
I made some measurements and found that the distance from the mag lock hole to the top of the mag just under the bullet head on the black one is 1.056 and both of the stainless steel ones are 1.130. I believe this is why the stainless steel ones won’t go in when the slide is closed where the black one will.
I have emailed S&W customer service to replace the two stainless mags with the black ACT-MAG.
Anyone else seen this problem? Other suggestions?