[mini14jac]

I got two of the Promag blue 10rd mags from CTD.
The fit well, and seem well made.
The bottom of a Ruger 5rd. mag fits perfectly.
It looks like Promag is using some heavy duty springs too.

I have a really hard time getting the 10th round in both of the mags.
If I do force it in, the mag won't fit in the gun with the bolt closed.
If I put it in with the bolt open, the first round jams.

Has anybod tried trimming a coil off of the mag spring?
I haven't shot them yet. It looks like they will work fine with 9 rounds loaded.
I'll probably get out my Dremel tool and trim one spring, just to see what happens.

 

[cajungeo]

I would voluntier to do mine, but I misplaced my wire cutters. (Just kiding, truth is I'm gutless, and I'm afraid of ruining a good mag). You may want to study how the bottom of the spring goes around the end plate. I put mine in backwards, and the nose of the bullets tends to go down.

 

[drc]

I have the same problem with my promag 10 rounders too. I took them apart and came to the conclusion that problem is probably not the spring. There seems to be enough room for the spring to fully compress. Instead, it just seems like the mag body is just a tad too short to fit 10 rnds. The shape of the follower and the retention plate limit how far the follower can go down. What I did notice though was that the spring retention plate is made out of a thick plastic vs. the steel retention plate in the factory 5 rnd mag. Additionally, magazine floor plate also has a very thick plastic lip that together with the retention plate effectively reduces the capacity of the magazine to 9 rounds.

As an experiment, I swapped the steel retention plate from the factory mag into the promag, and re-assembled. I found that this significantly improved the magazine's ablility to load and cycle 10 rounds. The only drawback seemed to be was that occasionally, the last round would pop out of the magazine as the bolt was extracting/ ejecting the 2nd-to-last round. I think that the spring was acutally a little too short or that the follower might have been binding a little bit on the mag body. The next step would have been to trim/sand the follower edges a little and to stretch the spring some but I didn't get that far yet.

The factory mag functioned very well w/ either the plastic or steel floor plate. The only problem is extra 5-round factory mags are too expensive to buy solely to harvest to retention plate from to fix the promags.

For now I am happy to just use 9 rnds in them. I do hope that promag does address the issue and fix the problem in later production runs. Otherwise they are really nicely made magazines. Hopefully the AWB will sunset in '04 and promag will be able to put out some 20 & 30 rounders that are as nice for under $30.... one can dream, eh?

drc

Also, cajun is right about not putting the spring in backwards. I did that on one and it would not feed properly afterwards. Luckily I had another to take apart and realized my error.

 

[mini14jac]

Well, I had two mags, so I trimmed a coil on one of them.
Guess what?
It will feed 9 rounds just fine, but the spring is not strong enough to push the last one up.

Oh, well!

The other Promag 10 round mag would either eject the last live round, or jam it against the feed ramp.

So, here's my plan:
For fun and general use, PMI 30rd mags.
For bench, Ruger 5rd mags.

That works.

 

[Mughi-14]

I had to file off a significant amount of the mag catch button on my Pro-Mags (I have two). Neither would fit in the RR with 10 rounds and the bolt closed, neither would work reliably with 9 rounds (bolt wouldn't strip the top round out), neither would fully lock in, empty or loaded (they both hit my toes as they fell out of the rifle under recoil; cut me too).

I'll measure the amount tonight with my calipers if you're interested. Once filed, they load into the rifle easily (RR 188 series), they strip rounds well (I think the bolt was dragging on the feed lips originally), and they lock the bolt back (failed only once to do so that I can remember).

Nice little mags, but every single steel mag I've bought (ProMag, Masen, and Triple K) needed monkeying into the feed well or filing down. Only Eagle plastic 10s fit absolutely perfectly.

Just nibble down the mag catch a little bit and see if you had the same problem I did.

Mughi-14

 

[cajungeo]

Maby instead of you guys fileing/cutting your springs, you might look at the other end. I found 2 of my 4 promags the hole where the spring fits into the follower was about .050" too low. I slotted the hole upward with a rattail, jewlers file. It gave me a little more room in the mag. All 4 of my promags I got from fourfourmag.com fed 10 rds, but 2 didn't load with bolt closed (no big deel, I just load with bolt open. I measured spring height, swaped springs, and followers, measured mag case height, no diff. Just some seem to work better than others. Now I have a 196 series, which has a shorter mag latch, than the older mini-s. The only problem I've had with the 12 mags I have is on some not holding the full amount of rounds (only my no names). Just leave out 1 or 2, they all work for me. I have Ruger, PMI, PRO Mag, and No Name El Cheepo.

Some of you guys may want to read this thread on the mag latch length issue: http://www.perfectunion.com/forums/showthr...=&threadid=1540

 

[mini14jac]

Thanks for the advice.
I hadn't thought about the mag catch, or hole.
I've just about lost my appetite for fiddling with mags.
(Glock mags, P95 mags, AR mags, AK mags,.....)
I like it when they work out of the box.

I just got two PMI mags for my P95 from Cheaper Than Dirt.
I didn't even know they made pistol mags!
All was going well, (except they would only hold 14 rounds ), until I tried rapid fire.
They both dropped out of the gun.
I have cut down my mag release buttons, and my 7 factory mags don't do this, so I sent the PMIs back too.

 

[Billc]

Mine will not lock into rifle with the bolt closed and thats not a problem for me (no kids) and all guns are loaded in my house. Comparing the factory measurements to the Prom Mag disclosed that the protrusion that the mag latch seats under was a little longer on the Pro Mag. Reducing the length (removing some from the bottom of the p rotrusion) is the easier alternative to modifying the clip latch. So, removed the difference with Dremel's little cutoff wheel and it made no difference. Appears the difference in length falls within the range accepted by the latching mechanism. Still better than any other I have found---other than factory. :usa: :2guns:

 

[Geno]

You could try leaving a fully loaded magazine for a couple weeks and see if it loosens the spring tension up a little.

 

[Billc]

Geno. Good Idea. My real problem with magazines is the PMI 40 in SS. That was a real waste of money--should have spent the money on ammo.

 

[mini14jac]

Geno wrote:

You could try leaving a fully loaded magazine for a couple weeks and see if it loosens the spring tension up a little.

I tried that with a Bushmaster 10rd mag for a AR.
The mag was still too tight with 10rds in it.

I had left my Promags loaded for a week before I went to the range. They didn't loosen up at all.

Have you guys looked at the springs in those things?
I think they are getting them off of old Mac trucks!
They certainly seem to be trying to make a quality mag.

 

[cajungeo]

course, any mag over 10 rds was made 10 or more years ago, before the sept 13, 1994 ban.

 

[Fourfourmag.com]

Originally posted by mini14jac
Well, I had two mags, so I trimmed a coil on one of them.
Guess what?
It will feed 9 rounds just fine, but the spring is not strong enough to push the last one up.


That works.

Hey send me that spring your trimmed and I will get you a new one. We are working with ProMag on the problem of some rifles not being able to load a full 10rd mag with the bolt closed. Any information you guys have about the problem I will pass on to ProMag. We have a Mini 14 and Mini30 in house here and havent had any problems. I guess that is a good excuse to buy some more rifles to test right?

Anyway, same goes out to anyone else if you are having problems with any promag stuff let us know because both FOURFOURMAG and ProMag are really dedicated to customer service and we will work with you to get it fixed.

You can email me directly [email protected] or call us toll free 1-877-894-3116

Send that cut spring to:

FOURFOURMAG
3008 Edgewood Dr
Medford, OR 97504

-Mark @ FOURFOURMAG.com

 

[mini14jac]

Hey fourfourmag,
Thanks for the offer, but I've already returned it for a refund.

I will try getting some 10rd mags from you though.
I really like the mags, and would really like to get a couple that work.