I just bought 3 MecGar mags for my Browning Hi-Power .40 from Brownells recently. I've found that all three will not feed the first round from an open slide. If you insert the mag with the slide closed and then load the round by racking the slide they work fine. It doesn't seem to matter how many rounds are in the mag or what type of ammo. The OEM mags (which I understand are made for Browning by MecGar) don't have this issue.
Browning expert Stephen Camp made these comments in one of the articles on his website. It appears I have a 40 similar to his.
Quoted from.... http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/HiPowers9mmvs40.htm
"Reliability: As most know, Mec-Gar is the maker of the "Browning magazines." This has been the case for quite a few years and has always been so for the forty Hi Power. With my 9mm Hi Powers, either the factory magazine or the Mec-Gar has worked perfectly in quite a few pistols. With my particular forty Hi Power, such was not the case. It showed a strong preference for the factory magazine. Other folks' Hi Powers worked fine with either.
Even though Mec-Gar makes the magazines that come with the Browning guns, the followers are not the same. At least this was the case when I owned my .40 Hi Power. The Browning magazine follower had a "skirt" type arrangement around the bottom of the follower while the Mec-Gar used the traditional "two fingers" protruding or a single oblong post in the middle that the recoil spring attached to. As best as I could observe, the latter two allowed for some tipping forward of the cartridge when the slide hit it from the rear. My pistol would frequently fail to feed on the first shot with a full magazine when using the Mec-Gar magazine, but worked fine with the Browning. I changed the followers in the two magazines and the Browning magazine would cause problems while the Mec-Gar worked perfectly. I've not seen any current Mec-Gar forty caliber followers, so I do not know if this has been changed or not. It should be noted that the Mec-Gar magazines causing me problems in my forty worked perfectly in two other forty Hi Powers with the same ammunition.
Other than that, I've noted no reliability issues with the .40 Hi Power. Extraction and ejection have never been a problem in any .40 Hi Power I've seen or shot personally.
While it may have changed and my main observations are based on but one .40 Hi Power, I did find that the 9mm was more reliable with Mec-Gar magazines. From the Browning-marked ones, there was zero problem with either."
Browning expert Stephen Camp made these comments in one of the articles on his website. It appears I have a 40 similar to his.
Quoted from.... http://www.hipowersandhandguns.com/HiPowers9mmvs40.htm
"Reliability: As most know, Mec-Gar is the maker of the "Browning magazines." This has been the case for quite a few years and has always been so for the forty Hi Power. With my 9mm Hi Powers, either the factory magazine or the Mec-Gar has worked perfectly in quite a few pistols. With my particular forty Hi Power, such was not the case. It showed a strong preference for the factory magazine. Other folks' Hi Powers worked fine with either.
Even though Mec-Gar makes the magazines that come with the Browning guns, the followers are not the same. At least this was the case when I owned my .40 Hi Power. The Browning magazine follower had a "skirt" type arrangement around the bottom of the follower while the Mec-Gar used the traditional "two fingers" protruding or a single oblong post in the middle that the recoil spring attached to. As best as I could observe, the latter two allowed for some tipping forward of the cartridge when the slide hit it from the rear. My pistol would frequently fail to feed on the first shot with a full magazine when using the Mec-Gar magazine, but worked fine with the Browning. I changed the followers in the two magazines and the Browning magazine would cause problems while the Mec-Gar worked perfectly. I've not seen any current Mec-Gar forty caliber followers, so I do not know if this has been changed or not. It should be noted that the Mec-Gar magazines causing me problems in my forty worked perfectly in two other forty Hi Powers with the same ammunition.
Other than that, I've noted no reliability issues with the .40 Hi Power. Extraction and ejection have never been a problem in any .40 Hi Power I've seen or shot personally.
While it may have changed and my main observations are based on but one .40 Hi Power, I did find that the 9mm was more reliable with Mec-Gar magazines. From the Browning-marked ones, there was zero problem with either."
