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• tennmike Senior Member Posts: 27,457 Senior Member

  November 2015 #2

  If I were going to replace the spring, I'd change the follower, too, just because. And I'd do a comparison on the feed lips of the magazine that is stovepiping to one that doesn't. Absent a defective follower, the feed lips would be my first most likely suspect; if they release the cartridge too soon, as in being spread at the front, the cartridge beneath pushes it up too fast and makes it stovepipe. And a bent follower makes it worse. And that's applicable to all magazines.

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• JKP Senior Member Posts: 2,541 Senior Member

  November 2015 #3

  cpj wrote: »

  Sell the "LE only" mag on the Internet to a sucker for an inflated price. Then buy a new mag. They ain't that expensive.

  
  Thought about that but don't want to sell something that isn't in good working order.

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• BAMAAK Senior Member Posts: 4,484 Senior Member

  November 2015 #4

  I have one of those LE only mags, still works great. I have read the springs are rated for 10 yrs.
  
  Mike, Glock followers are plastic but they can wear out.

  "He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm."
  
  -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and politician

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• tubabucknut Banned Posts: 3,520 Senior Member

  November 2015 #5

  I have never had a problem with the mag springs. But as Wambli said it is not expensive to replace them.

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• Bigslug Senior Member Posts: 9,327 Senior Member

  November 2015 #6

  Stovepipe, as in failure to eject, which in turn is very often failure to properly extract? Those are extractor, extractor spring, and very rarely, ejector issues. Tear your slide down and clean everything first. Then start looking at new parts.
  
  But as for your magazines. . .that'll be failure to FEED (round stops before clearing the feed lips of the mag). If it clears the mag, then you might be getting failure to CHAMBER and LOCK into battery. Again, I'd be looking for filth in the extractor channel and on the breech face first.
  
  Pretty much all my Glock repair/rebuild experience is with the .40 caliber guns, so I can't really say how much of this directly translates to your .45 magazines.
  
  The .40's are up to at least follower revision #9. Followers #1 through #5 used a different mag body than the #6 and up ones do. #1 through #5 followers had a hole that clipped onto the end of the mag spring wire, just like you see in an AR mag. #6 and up snap onto the top of the spring.
  
  What I have noticed is that the #6 and up followers and accompanying mag bodies do a much better job of keeping the spring close to its original shape, and I haven't witnessed the same tired spring, failures to feed issues that came up when the old springs started to bow in odd directions.
  
  A re-springing can work wonders, but if you're thinking you may have to go to war with it some day, I would just buy a stack of new Gen 4 mags (they'll work in a Gen 3 just fine).

  WWJMBD?
  
  "Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee

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