Tuning Tripp Cobra mags

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MartyK2500

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At the range I have been having a bit of trouble with my .40 cobra mags
Model is 9R-40SW-RG
First of all, my 40 rounds would not fit. Even factory ones that are 1.117'' barely make it. So 1.180'' reloads definatly did not work.
I removed this plate to help, There used to be a plate in the rear of the mag, now gone. I have kept half the mags with the plate, and still got factory rounds, the plate does not make these more or less reliable so far when bullets fit.



Even before I removed backplate, my follower flipped on me a few times. Here is a picture


The front of it flips out of the mag, then ejecting the mag is next to impossible.
I am not liking the flex follower right now, on their website they speak of hybrid followers, only in .45, anyone tried these with a .40? or found a way to tune the flex one better? I guess with the backplate now out I could order a 10mm flex follower, should of maybe started with ordering 10mm mags off the start.

When performing mag changes, mag gets stuck 1 times out of 5-6. The bullet is too far forward and rubbing inside the frame, underneat trigger.
And last but not least, I had to dremel/polish mag opening joint on top, as all the followers would get stuck on the same burr right out of the box, before even going to the range!

So far I am not impressed out of the box, as in my 9mm single stack, my 10+ metalform mags required no attention off the start and are still running strong 5000+ rounds later. So any experiences with tuning these up would be cool, I am getting there, but reliability is still not 100%, which even prevents me from switching to major atm.
 
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Marty - when you ordered the mags, did you order the regular or long version? The long version is if you load your .40 rounds long. It sounds like you do load long and that the mags you have are the regular version (hence the backplate). Removing the backplate is likely throwing the follower off as I think the regular version has a different follower.

I bought my Tripp mags a couple years back and have had no problems with them at all. I did snip about one length of coil off but that was the only tuning I did.

I also had a problem with the mags occasionally sticking and would not drop free. I thought it was the mags and sanded them down slightly. This was actually not the issue. It turned out to be that the mag release was slightly sticking. Did a bit of fitting and that solved the problem.

My suggestion would be to call Tripp and explain the problem to them. I have called them a couple times with questions and they have been very helpful.

By the way the 9mm MetalForm mags you sold me work great.
 
removing the follower effectively makes them a 10mm mag (what you want when you load long), so if you want metal followers you need the 10mm followers or the hybrid ones. I have the hybrid ones, they work just fine for .40 which is why I assume they dont make a .40 specific one and do just the .45.
 
Newbrunny,on tripps website i have not seen long versions.
They have 9 rounds 40 and 10 rounds 40. Then i guess the full bullet lenght are called 10mm.
I got the 9x40 since they fit the box, i was scared of mag issues with 10x10mm system that fit the box, seems tight.
Besides i still lug the 9mm around which covers minor. I may have to tune the mag catch, but its working great with empty mags, or with metalforms full of 9mil. As soon as a cobra has got 4-5 rounds in before dropping the bullet is too far forward and dragging inside grip/frame.
Yeah metalforms are great, at some point i did have 9mm cobra mags and we're not working good, i traded for some metalforms and they work great without tuning anything!

Heavenisalie, i am very happy to know that you have tried the hybrid follower. I can profit from your R&D so i don't buy unecessary parts! So yeah, by removing backplate my mags are now 10mm so to speak. Why did you switch to hybrid follower?
Did your mags start off as 10mm or .40?
 
The TRipp mags I have are I think called "system mags" or something like that. When I ordered these a couple of years back, they were not on Tripp's website. You had to call them directly to order them. That is when they asked factory or long. They also guarantee that these 10 rounders will fit the IPSC box - they actually specially designed them to do so. Now it was a tight fit but it did fit no problem. I think a call to them might get this sorted out for you.
 
Forgot to mention at the 3 gun practice today, I did encounter something strange with the 10 round MetalForm mags. No issues whatsoever when using the mags but when we were done the practice, I had two full mags left. Manually unloading those mags was really difficult. The 9mm rounds did not want to come out. Again no problem feeding and functioning. I don't really consider this a problem as I usually unload the mags the way they should be which is into a target - was just a good laugh trying to get the rounds out.
 
I got the 9 rounds 10mm for my "long" .40cal reloads. Also the 10 rounders do not fit in the canadian box. I was told they are not super reliable anyways.

cheers
 
Newbrunny said:
The 10 round Tripp mags fit the Canadian box. I shot a number of level 3's and the Nationals last year with them...
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Depends on your pistol. I could not fit a SAM Omega in the box with system mags. No amount of shaving the baseplate would have worked. Whatever, Wilson 9 rounders work good for me.
 
Newbrunny, thanks for the info, I should of called them before ordering at the time.
On another website, I have seen that removing backplate converts your 40cal mag into 10mm mag as long as you change the follower.
I will not go into system mags as I have a 9mm for minor anyways.
And yeah, when metalform mags are full, they are a ##### to unload. I usually use the pin on my mag brush to pry them underneat before pushing them out, works well.
The other guys are using Dawson Precision single stack mags and have to do the same, DPs bought the mag bodies from metalform so it's basicly the same mag, with a dawson sticker, a bit nicer basepad, and an inflated price.

Raks, what kind of rear sight you got on it?
My STI ranger ll has a Novak cut, it barely fits the box with normal 10x 9mm mags. Sights have to be fully pressed it and it rubs hard.
My STI Trojan has bomar cut, has a big magwell, in the box with 9x 40cal mags (exact same size as 10x9mm), it fits with some space to spare very comfortably.
 
raks said:
Depends on your pistol. I could not fit a SAM Omega in the box with system mags. No amount of shaving the baseplate would have worked. Whatever, Wilson 9 rounders work good for me.
Click to expand...

You are right on this. My Ranger II is some effort to get into the box with the Tripp mags. There is a method to do it rather than just jamming it in. The first time getting I had it checked in a match, I thought I was going to open. But fortunately I had a couple of people on my squad that made a few suggestions on how to fit it in. Followed their suggestions and it fit in - barely but it did fit. If the rear sight was any higher then it might have been an issue.
 
MartyK2500 said:
Newbrunny,on tripps website i have not seen long versions.
They have 9 rounds 40 and 10 rounds 40. Then i guess the full bullet lenght are called 10mm.
I got the 9x40 since they fit the box, i was scared of mag issues with 10x10mm system that fit the box, seems tight.
Besides i still lug the 9mm around which covers minor. I may have to tune the mag catch, but its working great with empty mags, or with metalforms full of 9mil. As soon as a cobra has got 4-5 rounds in before dropping the bullet is too far forward and dragging inside grip/frame.
Yeah metalforms are great, at some point i did have 9mm cobra mags and we're not working good, i traded for some metalforms and they work great without tuning anything!

Heavenisalie, i am very happy to know that you have tried the hybrid follower. I can profit from your R&D so i don't buy unecessary parts! So yeah, by removing backplate my mags are now 10mm so to speak. Why did you switch to hybrid follower?
Did your mags start off as 10mm or .40?
Click to expand...

I have 9 round 10mm bodies, got the hybrid followers because they looked cool and heard good things about how they fed. My standard follower 9mm mags work fine but .40 always sucks to make work properly in a 1911 so I wanted any advantage I could get
 
MartyK2500 said:
Raks, what kind of rear sight you got on it?
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When I tried to fit in the box it was with the stock Omega 6 sight (it's very Novak-like). The flat top slide of an STI Ranger is what allows for the fit. Flat topping the slide drops your sight plane a fair bit and adds the wiggle room needed for the system mags. YMMV
 
raks said:
When I tried to fit in the box it was with the stock Omega 6 sight (it's very Novak-like). The flat top slide of an STI Ranger is what allows for the fit. Flat topping the slide drops your sight plane a fair bit and adds the wiggle room needed for the system mags. YMMV
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its not the flat topping that lets the gun fit, its the bomar style sight. bomar sights are cut into the slide where novak cut sights sit on top of the slide. I'm farily certain I'll be doing some interesting milling to get my omega 6 to fit the box

edit: the flat top does help some, but the sight is the real reason
 
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Newbrunny said:
You are right on this. My Ranger II is some effort to get into the box with the Tripp mags. There is a method to do it rather than just jamming it in. The first time getting I had it checked in a match, I thought I was going to open. But fortunately I had a couple of people on my squad that made a few suggestions on how to fit it in. Followed their suggestions and it fit in - barely but it did fit. If the rear sight was any higher then it might have been an issue.
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Please share tips. OP, sorry for sidetracking your thread but very interested in this.
 
Its all good as long as we speak of single stack 1911s, the more i talk or hear about em the more i get to know about em ;)
Raks, novak and bomar are not just brands, but style of cuts on your slide.
My sti ranger has the novak cut, which means any sight compatible with novak cut.
What helps me A LOT, is having an adjustable novak sight. When it came time to fit the box, i could depress sight in.
It was rubbing all the way down. I just couldnt image having a fixed novak sight, i would of cursed that box.
I do prefer the bomar style of my trojan, its more of a target style sight and easier to ignore the rear sight with.
Novak is more the carry type stuff.
 
Yes, I know about sight cuts. My Ranger as I tested with the box has the standard Novak cut not a Bomar as reference by heavenisalie. I have Bomar style sight on my Para, and I'm pretty sure they sit even lower than the sights on my Ranger. Regardless, one pistol would fit (STI) one would not (SAM) the main difference being the flat topping on the STI. Not trying to derail the thread, just sharing my experiments & observations.

The sights on the Omega would have to be lowered about 1/8" to fit the box with a Tripp System mag:
 
These are fixed sights on the Sam and look high and pointy.
I am 99% sure that putting adjustable sights would allow you to push in the sight when it comes box time
 
MartyK2500 said:
These are fixed sights on the Sam and look high and pointy.
I am 99% sure that putting adjustable sights would allow you to push in the sight when it comes box time
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I am 100% sure that the adjustables I had on hand would not fit the box, including the Novak style TAS adjustable sight that STI sells. Yes of course the slide could be machined, Bomars etc etc... Others are welcome to go down that road. For the sake of one additional round per mag for a cheap game gun I really didn't feel it was worth my time or $$.
 
juancarlos said:
Please share tips. OP, sorry for sidetracking your thread but very interested in this.
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Kind of hard to explain without showing. Do not put it in flat. Rather put the barrel/slide in first against the back wall of the box. If your rear sight compresses, then do so. Now ease the grip in. If it is a little off the bottom, that is ok - just as long as the box's slide (that ensures the gun fits inside) will slide across. I am likely not explaining this correctly but hopefully this helps.
 
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