1911 Magwell Help

[Mydogmax]

Just installed a Smith & Alexander mainspring housing and magwell in my 1911. Neither of my mags will lock into place. One mag is an ACT which came with the gun, the other is a Mec-Gar. If I take off the base plates they'll go in but otherwise no. Any words of wisdom from 1911 experts out there. I'm not familiar with the 1911's. Have not shot one in many years. Here's pics of magwell and mags.

 

[Kanewpadle]

Never heard of this before. Your symptoms suggest the floor plates are too wide.

Buy some Wilson 47D magazines. Costly but worth every penny.

Wilson Combat 1911 Magazine | 8 Round .45 ACP | Full-Size-Wilson Combat

 

[diamonback68]

I can't really tell from the photos, but the butt plate is obviously hit your new magwell extension. You may have to sand off some of the plastic of the butt plate where it's interfering.
The Wilson's are the same width as the mag whereas the butt plates of the ACT, like mine, are wider.

 

[WC145]

As has been pointed out, you need mags with different floor plates or you need to modify the ones you have.

I'm wondering why, if you're not familiar with 1911s, were you changing anything on it to begin with?

 

[gm272gs]

I concur that it has to be the floor/butt plate width on the mags.

 

[vonn]

Wilson mags work fine with my 1911with the same setup.Nice looking gun like the grips.

 

[O2Guy]

Remove the mag well.

 

[jlrhiner]

Hi! My name is Jim and I'm paranoid.

Why would you want your gun to only use your magazines? Ditch the magwell so it has interchangeability with othe 1911 mags.

 

[H Richard]

That magwell will only work reliably when it is "relieved" to accommodate all the various types of magazine base pads. I'm sure if you tried Millet or McCormick 10 rd magazines they wouldn't work either without modification. If you want to keep that magwell, take it to a mschinist or gunsmith and have them open up the profile (considerably).

 

[Mydogmax]

I've installed the magwell for a couple of reasons. One, I like the looks of it. Two, it adds a little bit more length to the grip.
Bought this Girson 1911 at Buds for $365. This is my "learning" 1911. Have not picked up a 1911 for many years so I thought that by buying one on the cheap I could experiment before forking out $1000 for something really nice. I've done a lot of research on 1911's plus have spoken with a number of people about them. Ask ten people which is best, and you'll get ten different answers.
I think I'll play around with the base plates and try to modify them.
BTW. I've put 50 rds through it. No problems.

 

[gm272gs]

I have an extended mag well on one of my 1911's and it accepts every mag I have, I have 7-round, 8-round, and 10-round mags from Colt, Wilson, Kimber, and Chip McCormick. They all have base pads, and they all fit in my flared mag well extension. I think the problem is those funky mags floor plates, not the mag well.

 

[Mike Grasso]

Most 1911 parts are NOT plug and play.
They need to be hand fitted by a 1911 Gunsmith or Armorer.

Your case in point.

I took the following picture of three "identical" 1911s with "fitted" magwells.
You can see how different magazines fit them differently.

The magwell is fitted to the frame so that a magazine will be accepted in the side base to weapon fit and the front base to weapon fit.

Check these on your's... look where I placed the arrows and look at the fit.

IMEO, have a competent 1911 Armorer or Gunsmith fit these and other parts. You noticed I said 1911, not all GS's have enough experience with the platform to do it right.

Feel free to PM me with any other questions.

Mike

 

[WC145]

Don't know why you'd need a longer grip but form needs to follow function. If you add something to your gun for looks that renders it useless it's time to rethink what you're trying to do. A good rule of thumb with any new gun is to run it for a while before making changes, at least long enough to determine if it actually needs anything changed or "improved".

 

[Mydogmax]

Most 1911 parts are NOT plug and play.
They need to be hand fitted by a 1911 Gunsmith or Armorer.

Your case in point.

I took the following picture of three "identical" 1911s with "fitted" magwells.
You can see how different magazines fit them differently.

The magwell is fitted to the frame so that a magazine will be accepted in the side base to weapon fit and the front base to weapon fit.

Check these on your's... look where I placed the arrows and look at the fit.

IMEO, have a competent 1911 Armorer or Gunsmith fit these and other parts. You noticed I said 1911, not all GS's have enough experience with the platform to do it right.

Feel free to PM me with any other questions.

Mike

Thanks Mike for your unbiased answer. I have found that the ACT & Mec Gar mags have larger base plates and do not fit in the Smith & Alexander magwell. I did go to the range today. Got a couple of Kimber mags and they worked perfectly. They have much thinner (all around) base plates. Thanks for photos. I now have no use for the ACT & Mec Gar mags. Do you want them?

 

[WR Moore]

Might I suggest Metalform magazines? They work and they're reasonable in price. If you want/need base pads, the Pachmyer pads can be installed without too much fuss.

BTW, Lyman Products owns the Pachmyer brand and produces the products now.

 

[Rastoff]

The 1911 can be a finicky beast when it comes to magazines. The problem is the "low end" 1911s are really not well made. Case in point, here is a set of Hogue Gripwell grips on a Rock Island Armory 1911:

Note how the mainspring housing doesn't match the grips properly.

Here are the same grips on an Ed Brown:

The fit is almost perfect.

So, what happened? This is simply a case of differing tolerances. The RIA, not being built as stringently as the Ed Brown, does not meet the standard for a 1911 exactly. Thus, after market things, like grips, don't fit easily.

This is partly why you're having trouble.

 

[Mike Grasso]

Most 1911 Smiths purchase their magwells with the MSH hole undrilled.
They then fit it to your weapon and then drill it, just to deal with that problem.

 

[goldenlight]

Never heard of this before. Your symptoms suggest the floor plates are too wide.

Buy some Wilson 47D magazines. Costly but worth every penny.

Wilson Combat 1911 Magazine | 8 Round .45 ACP | Full-Size-Wilson Combat

He NEEDS the ones with the EXTENDED basepad. You should know better than to hand out bad information like this.

 

[Mydogmax]

He NEEDS the ones with the EXTENDED basepad. You should know better than to hand out bad information like this.

Actually I think those would work also. From want I've gathered, it's not the length but the width of the baseplate. I did purchase two kimber mags at the local range yesterday. They have just a small metal baseplate on them. ($24.95/ea) Both mags fit & worked fine. I later noticed that there was some other Kimber mags there that had changeable baseplates allowing for a little more length but not width. Those would probably work too. At any rate thanks for all the help and advise. Oh, a thanks again to Mike Grasso for the pics and the words of wisdom.
"Most 1911 parts are NOT plug and play".

 

[Rastoff]

He NEEDS the ones with the EXTENDED basepad. You should know better than to hand out bad information like this.

Before you speak down to a forum member you should get your own facts straight.

The Wilson 47D has an extended base plate. In fact, in this case, it will work better than the mags he has because the standard 47D base plate doesn't flare out. This means it won't interfere with the magwell.

Referring to the excellent picture posted by Mike Grasso, the gun on the left is what a 47D would look like. As you can see, it works well with a magwell.