Future Range Experiment

So, in the Shooting Sports forum I posted about the issues I had with the new mags I purchased for my Ruger Standard. I also posted about this over on the Ruger Forum and after some short discussion, I decided to experiment.

I compared the design of the new mags to the original and there did not seem to be any drastic differences between the new and the old. At least nothing significant enough to cause the issues I’ve been having.

However, the thing that kept bugging me was the springs. The old style has a spring that ran all the way back and forth across the inside of the mag and supports the entire follower. The new one simply has a tight circular spring that runs up the front of the mag and only sits under the front part of the follower. They are also VERY stiff. Even for new mags, these are some crazy stiff springs. They sat fully loaded in the case for 3 months and are still this way. No break in at all. I really feel like the design and the stiffness of the springs were pushing too hard on the front of the follower which was causing the over feeding issue and creating jams in the gun.

With that idea in mind, I disassembled one of the mags, pulled the spring and cut about a 3/4" inch section off the bottom. I then I used a lighter to get the end red hot, reshaped it back to level so it would set properly and reassembled the mag. I tested it by loading the mag and hand ejecting each round. Low and behold, no feeding issues and no jams. The final test, of course, will be at the range. If this one works as it should after my invasive surgery on it, I will repeat the process with the others. It will have to work as consistently as the old magazine or I won’t bother with the rest.

I still feel like Ruger should be working on fixing this issue. I don’t like DYI’ing something straight out of the box in order for it to function properly. It gives me a new experiment for the range though.

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I’ll try to get some posted when I’m off on Wednesday. Didn’t think to stop and take pics while I was performing the surgery.

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Pure Genius!

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Cartoon Popcorn GIF by SpongeBob SquarePants

LoL @Robert

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@WillieB if it does work well you can take a couple pics of the others you modify.

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Might go that route. I really don’t want to tear the mag apart again. :grin:

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I know this update has been a long time coming and I wish I had better news to report. The spring modification did NOT work with the new mags. Exact same issues as before. Those things turn my grandpa’s Ruger into a jam-o-matic. Still runs flawlessly with the original magazine but the new mags just do not work.

That means I stick to using only the original magazine or buying used ones for $150-$250 each. Sort of takes it out of the running as a competition gun even though she is a true tack driver otherwise.

I’m really not happy, Ruger. :rage:

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Seems like the manufacturer should do something there.

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There have been a lot of complaints about these magazines and Ruger just turns a deaf ear for some reason. :roll_eyes:

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Time to move to different weapon then …huh?

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I just won’t be using Grandpa’s Ruger for competitions. The original mag works fine so it will still make regular trips to the range for plinking.

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