3rd Gen mag question

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About a year ago I bought a very nice 457 as my first .45 ACP semi auto.

It was a pretty good deal, actually a very good deal, part of which included seven magazines. Five of those were factory mags and two were aftermarket. I don't know which brand the aftermarket mags are as they have no markings at all.

Like all prudent firearms owners I took the gun to the range with a few boxes of ammo and all the magazines to try it out.

I got through three magazines with no problem, but the fourth one wouldn't fire double action. That's how I carry and how I fire my first round, so it's important that work.

The fifth and sixth magazines were fine, but the seventh experienced the same failure to fire double action.

After banging my head against the shooting bench, it dawned on me that the problem only occurred with the aftermarket magazines.

I held one of each magazine side by side and compared them. They looked almost identical, but not exact. Still, field stripping the gun and putting empty magazines into the receiver, I couldn't find a difference.

My best guess is that something in the construction of the aftermarket mags doesn't disengage the magazine disconnect and thus it won't fire that first round. For some reason, when the trigger is cocked, the magazine does disengage the mag disconnect and the gun fires.

This isn't a huge problem because I just marked the aftermarket magazines for range use only. Still, I'm curious as to what the critical difference might be.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.
 
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No ideas but I stick with SW mags and springs and out of the 21 years my oldest pistol(4506) has never causes any problems.
 
I agree with both of you. Funny thing is, I have a couple of aftermarket mags for my 3914 that work perfectly. I've still relegated those to range only use as I've found that even used S&W factory mags are completely reliable.
 
Like others have said, I also have never had any trouble with S&W factory mags.

I have seen aftermarket mags that are off just a few thousandths of an inch in critical areas or have a slightly different feed lip angle that cause feeding problems.

Having said all that, does anyone have any experience with the 17 round MecGar mags for the 5900 series?
 
Like others have said, I also have never had any trouble with S&W factory mags.

I have seen aftermarket mags that are off just a few thousandths of an inch in critical areas or have a slightly different feed lip angle that cause feeding problems.

Having said all that, does anyone have any experience with the 17 round MecGar mags for the 5900 series?

I have 2 of the 17 round Mec-Gar magazines. They work perfectly in my 5906, with every kind of ammunition. They aren't stainless steel, unfortunately, but they work great.

Mec-Gar made most (all?) of the the S&W 'factory' magazines, at least for the 3rd gen. semi autos.

Mec-Gar makes the 'factory' magazines for other manufacturers, including Sig, and Beretta. They are very high quality magazines, though I would bet there are some semiautos they may not work well in.

That's a pretty safe bet, of course.:rolleyes:
 
another +1 for mec-gar - I've got four of them for my 5906 and they work perfectly
 
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