Magtech ammo And Slide Lock

[JeffBeatty]

I recently shot several hundred rounds of magtech through my 97.  I noticed that the shape of the bullets nose is ever-so-slightly different enough that occasionally it will lift up on the slide lock, causing the pistol to not cycle properly (the slide stays back).   This is especially evident if the magazine spring isn't that strong.  What happens is that as a round gets stripped off and loaded into the barrel, the round underneath it will slide forward a bit.  When the slide opens the next time, and the next round moves up for loading, it will bump the slide lock.

After close examination of my slide lock, i determined that there was some room for some 'custom' work.  I hit it a little with a coarse dremel bit, then a fine one, then 600 grip sand paper, then some flitz.  The result is a very shiny, smooth surface that still holds the slide open every time, yet allows more space for the round to move by.

How you can tell if you have this problem:
Remove the slide/barrel assembly, set it aside, and re-insert the slide lock pin.  Then take a magazine loaded with a few rounds and insert it, examining the space between the nose of the round and the slide lock.  I then stripped off a few rounds (causing the underlying rounds to slide forward), held the magazine release in, and slowly moved the magazine up and down.  It was obvious at this point that some material on the slide lock had to go.

I know I could go for stronger mag springs as well, but the interference was enough that it warranted some elbow grease.

By the way, magtech shot consistent patterns (at least at 10 meters).  It seems to be quite 'clean' ammo as well.

Thanks to all of you who helped me determine this problem, and the path to take to fix it.

[Walt-Sherrill]

This problem has been encountered with 75B/85B and 85 Combat guns (mine) in the past.  

Your remedy is one I first suggested here about a year ago.  

I had some mags that would cause the same problem when other mags didn't.  (The "bad" mags were symptomatic regardless of the gun in which they were fired.)  

New Wolff mag springs solved the problem, but the problem itself was indistinguishable from the slide stop issue which I experienced with my 85 Combat back when I first got it.  Mag springs did NOT help that problem.

For others: I'd try mag springs first and if that doesn't work, tweak the slide stop.   Be careful: the slide stops are NOT CHEAP (when replacement is not under warranty.)

[JeffBeatty]

Walt, you are absolutely correct.  You should NEVER hit ANY firearm with a dremel unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing.  In my case, the round was actually bumping the slide lock as it went past.  It was doing it on all (3) mags the first time I went to the range.  I figured that all 3 couldn't be bad.

Thanks for the info.