Magazine take-down

[kb2wji]

Someone had asked me to post some how-to pics of taking a magazine apart. This is an old mag I had laying around from a Sig P220. Most mags come apart the same way.

First, depress the button on the magazine base plate, which will allow the base plate to slide off.



Make sure you keep your thumb over the base plate, because the spring will want to launch it into the one place in the room where you'll need a coat hanger to fish it out Take note of which way the spring goes into the magazine. Sometimes it matters, sometimes it doesnt. This spring is tapered so it's pretty obvious.



Once you ease out the spring, you will now have all of the pieces out of the magazine (the follower will just fall out piece of cake)



Clean the pieces, and clean the empty mag. Try to clean up any oil you use so it wont attract too much gunk. Now, re-assemble the same way. Put the follower back in (it'll only fit the correct way). Then put the spring back in.



Now put the little button gizmo (sorry, forgot whats its called) over the spring, and compress it with your thumb so it sits flush.



Now just slide the base plate back on, making sure the button gizmo clicks back into place.



Thats it!! Some mags are tricker than others. Once you do this once or twice it will be a 5 or 10 second process.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Rugerguy]

Thanks what do you use to clean them? same stuff as the fire arm?

[kb2wji]

yea i'll spray down the parts with break free, then clean them a little more with rem oil spray. Make sure you wipe the excess oil off, otherwise the mags will collect lots of dust and ****

[FLSlim]

A point of information. Some mags don't have a removable base. I have a 1911 mag (maybe it's a Wilson??) that requires the spring to be compressed and held in place (e.g., a nail through the mag perforations), then the follower is twisted and finessed through the top of the mag.

[kb2wji]

Yup some are a little different. It's been a little bit now, but I posted the pics for another member who has a Kahr, and wanted to take his mags apart. The Kahr mags come apart the same way as my Sig. The Sig mags were just larger and a little more photogenic Good to know about the Wilson mags though

[samefly]

any chance of reposting the pics? They're not showing up for me.

[kb2wji]

Sure. I'll put them up tomorrow. I'm not near a computer now.

Sent using Tapatalk

[kb2wji]

Samefly, sorry for the delay. I got sidetracked and forgot all about it. This works for most magazines, but not all. If you have something different let me know and i'll try to help you out. 99 times out of 100 its easy as pie.







Just pay attention to the direction that the spring goes back in. Sometimes its obvious, sometimes its not. And sometimes it doesnt matter. The rest of the parts will only go back the correct way. I usually Rem-Oil the parts, but make sure you wipe them down, because excess oil will just collect crud.

[Dulass]

re. I'll put them up tomorrow. I'm not near a computer now.

[jimmr]

Yep, if you put the spring in the wrong way the mag does not work so well.
Good stuff, thanks.
Anyone know how to do the old High Standard mags? No bottom plate removal and follower seems pretty long to finesse.