Magazine mods

[1911SHOOTER]

For anybody's info, this is the log I kept for my 8 Magazines.
Mag #8 has no mods and no hiccups.  I got #8 in Feb.  all others
last year. All 8 mags have been used in both guns.
Maybe something changed at Big Green?


Mag #1:   clipped spring, 3/16 inch off follower.
Mag #2:   clipped spring, 3/16 inch off follower.
Mag #3:    3/16 inch off follower.
Mag #4:    Straightened lip on magazine.
Mag #5:    Straightened lip on magazine. 
Mag #6      3/16 inch off follower, Straightened lip on magazine, Bevelled   bottom   
                 of follower legs
Mag #7      Straightened lip on magazine
                  bevelled legs of follower
                  ground off top of follower
Mag #8      No modifications, functions perfectly.


Blackey R51      109XXR51
Shooting dirty.   So far 400 rounds of various brands.
                          Cleaned pistol after 400 rounds.



Smokey R51
Shooting dirty.     H023XXXR51
                          Operated perfectly.
                          All 8 magazines.

Blackie

[johnnysR51]

what kind of mods did u do to the mags

[1911SHOOTER]

Johnny,
     I listed the mods on my last post.   What problems are you having.
I will try to  help you out.
Blackie

[johnnysR51]

Blackie ,,iwas looking at your list of mags and noticed that u did thingsvto the mags ,,the truth is I donot know to much never own a gun
until nov 17 , and iam just learing ,sorry??, but let me tell what happen to me today I went to the gun range and it was the frist time I went with out ammo ,I was going to purchase it at the range ,I bought 2 boxes of PMC 115gr FMJ , load the mags and went to the fring line , r5elease the slide and the round was half in the chamber and half in the mag jammed had a hard time trying to rack the slide, once I got it to release I release the mag but the shell aside and but the mag back in and again release the slide and it jamm again so I just waite till they call a stop fire and went talking to see if I could get any body that had 9mm ammo ,I found a person with blazer brass 115, and purchase 14 rounds loaded 5 round in the same mag went back to the fire line and all 5 shot well no problems so I loaded 3 rounds blazer 1 round of PMC and 2 more blazer, fire both blazer and the PMC jammed findly release the round release the mag loaded the last of the blazer and fired 1,2,3,4,5,6.7. great no problems the ranger seen what happen and refunded my ammo and range tie as I would not use rthere ammo ,, can u think of anything that would make this happen,,, johnnny

[1911SHOOTER]

Johnny,
     No offense, but I would go to your local gun shop[ and ask them to
recommend an instructor for you.  If I understand, you have never owned a firearm
before.   For your safety and others, I recommend this.  Please do not take this
the wrong way.  You are welcome here, we will help you but you need some body
with experience with "Boots on the ground" to help you.
Good luck Johnny!
Blackie   
     

[johnnysR51]

thank for information ,,,,I had boots on the ground ,,, I own a shotgun for hunting I just never own a hand gun and that is why I go to the range
ill stick with the Remington ,and Blazer ammo

[1911SHOOTER]

Johnny,
     Good luck, if you need anything just ask.
Blackie

[DUTCH Van Atlanta]

thank for information ,,,,I had boots on the ground ,,, I own a shotgun for hunting I just never own a hand gun and that is why I go to the range
ill stick with the Remington ,and Blazer ammo

Sorry Johnny, but boots on the ground with a shotgun is NOT the same as boots on the ground with a hand gun.  Get some instruction, please.

[R51Fan2017]

Back to Blackie's original post. One of my mags I made the follower leg modification, and that enabled me to jack in a fresh cartridge with a full magazine inserted into the gun on a closed slide. The others not so. I need to modify them. I haven't clipped my springs, but I am kind of leery about doing that. I don't want to cause any feeding problems.

[Rocky150]

I have 4 mags....and # 3 & #4  have been pretty good without mods.  I got those at the end of 2017.  I made the 3/16 and bevel mods to the first 2 and most of the problems went away.  Maybe their production methods were improved..who knows?

Regarding Johnnys51 issues, training is important.  We all need it.  But his issue was not unheard of.  I had the same issue at my LGS/range.  However it was with their reloads.  They were really jammed into the breech and it took 2 men and a boy to extract them, each time!!!  3 of 50 were FTF's and upon inspection there was a discernible bulge at the base.  They actually replaced their resizing die after 1.x million rounds because of that..   However the same batch fired great in my Shield.  Exacting and unforgiving manufacturing, I would suggest.

[johnnysR51]

Rocky150,,
Thank for being concerned,,, in dec., I had 2wks of range training {mon,wed,fri.@ wk,} with a NRA instructor,,,,, ,and once the round did not fully exit the mag ,the mag would not release or drop out ,and had a very hard time racking the slide to move  I never got to fire 1 round of the PMC, it did it 2 {with 2 different rounds} times in a row & once when I put the PMC in the middle of the rounds in the mag , but after it did it twice I stopped an went to a person that had 9mm blazer and bought 14 rounds off him{I wanted to see if the gun went south } they all work fine.except the one round in the middle of the blazer, so iam off to the range and iam, bring my own ammo   

[1911SHOOTER]

Johnny,
     You will probably have to try several different brands of ammo to
see what your particular R51 likes best.  After you get more comfortable
with the pistol, you can look at the parts on your magazine and
get familiar with the names of the parts.
Be careful taking the mag apart, as the spring is gonna try to jump
out.  Make sure you watch which end of the spring is next to the
follower, and which is next to the floor plate. so when you re-assemble
the parts you can make sure to do it in the order in which the parts came out.
of the magazine body.
Blackie

[Pat Riot]

My experience with magazines so far is this:

I bought my R51 in October 2017. I was stoked to find a compact, light 9mm pistol that wasn't polymer framed. My first trip to the range was a disaster. I was having all kinds of magazine issues. They were hard to load, I was getting jams, I couldn't cycle the gun with a full magazine...needless to say I was pretty disheartened, but having lots of experience with 1911's and many other firearms I wasn't giving up.

I called Remington and spoke to a man named "Jennings". He told me I "have magazines from the first batch after the re-release of the R51" (I haven't been able to corroborate his comment).
He told me he would send me 2 new magazines, which he did, and he told me to try trimming 2 coils off the magazine spring and that might help.
It did. But, it would cycle on a full mag so I trimmed another half coil off the springs...yeah, I did both...duh! Anyway, the gun would cycle on a full mag and I had no jams until the last round with each mag, every time. The last round will always stovepipe.
So, I called Remington. They wouldn't replace the springs because they had none to replace them with. They aren't offered as a "spare part", yet. The nice lady I talked to said call back every month and see if they offer the springs as a spare part. So I have been doing that.
Yesterday I decided to call Remington and not talk to the parts department but I called the service department in the hopes I could sway them to just give me some springs or sell me springs. I spoke with a man that told me that they do not have the ability to offer springs or magazine parts because Remington does not make the magazines for the R51. They are made by another manufacturer. I asked him "who makes them?" and he told me that he could not tell me that, could not as in was not allowed to tell.
I asked him if magazines that are being sold are the newer magazines or if they could possible be from "the first batch" as Mr. Jennings had stated. He told me that he didn't know about a "first batch" but did know that some magazines where faulty when the Gen 2s were released and that has been a problem.
He told me that as far as he knew all aftermarket magazines should work just fine. I asked him if the mags that Remington sells from Customer Service are the same as the Remington magazines that can be found at Buds, Grab-a-gun, Midway, Brownells, etc... were all the same magazines that Remington sells and he said that he thought that they were IF they were sold with the Remington brand name on them....

Which is how I found this forum. I was looking for Magazines and debating on paying Remington $30 per or risking buying less expensive mags from other sellers and I found this forum and Blackie's mod recommendations on the followers of these magazines.

Blackie, thank you for finding and testing this mod. I appreciate it.

Have you called Remington and told them about this mod? Maybe they can help others with this info.

Anyway, after finding Blackie's mod I think I will try buying magazines from a vendor that sells them for less than Remington and if they have issues I will modify them using Blackie's recommendations.

I still have 2 mags with mag springs that are too short but if I can figure out who manufactures Remington's mags I will ping on them for springs.

Oh, I kind of figured maybe Mec-Gar may be the mag manufacturer because of the way the mags are made but the man I talked to at Remington said that the R51 mags are made in the US. Mec-Gar mags are made in Italy, or at least the ones I have encountered are. I also tried researching to see if Checkmate manufactured R51 mags but found nothing there either.

Regards,
Pat Riot

[1911SHOOTER]

Pat,
Go to Big Green's website, send them an email and tell them that your mags are acting up.
If they do like every other time some body asked them, they will send you a couple of
new ones.  The 2018 mags seem to be cured of the plague of the other Gen2 mags
I have 8 Mags,  and all but #8 have been modified.  #1 thru #7 I got in 2017. #8 I got
in Feb of 2018.  It ran like a singer sewing machine. (or if you are from the younger
generation, like a Dodge Charger)!
BTW,  Numrich has R51 mags for $22.70.  I do not know the age of them though.

Blackie.

[Pat Riot]

Blackie,
Thank you. I did get 2 new mags from Remington.

I just ordered 3 more from Grab-a-gun at $15.35 each. Pretty good deal and they list it as the Remington part number, They also have RM380 mags for $15.55. The R51 mags were $14.96 last week.