P99: inserting full 10-rd mag when in battery

hobbes

hobbes

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Went to the range and wasn't able to jam in a full 10-rd magazine in my Walther P99 (brand new) when slide is forward (in battery?). But the range warden then suggested that i load only 9 rounds and after that was i able to slide the mag in without extra force. Have you guys heard of this before? Apparently the 10-rd mags need a little bit more space after the 10 rounds before you can insert a full mag into the gun. However, when the slide is open, i could put the 10-rd mag in no problems.

Warden said that even though the mags were 'original' (came with the box) they were still outsourced to Maggar (Italy)? Did the plastic bit at the bottom have anything to do with it?

Do you need full 10 round mags to be competitive in IPSC or will you be ejecting mags before you use it up?

Thanks!
 
I had the same problem with my P99 when it was new. They would go in, but just took way more of a push home than they should have. The problem goes away after the mags get a little broke in.
 
what critter said... the spring is just really strong when new, you'll probalby find it tough loading the 10th round as well...
 
What is the stopping force that is causing the difficulty in inserting the mag? Is it the top of the slide or is it that metal rod that sticks out from the top of the mag well? If it is the former, i would be more inclined to slam the mag home but if it is some metal piece, i might be hesitant in case the piece breaks.
 
My mags are still new... If I wasn;t counting ammo when loading that last round would get forgotten thinking I reached the end at 9.

As for sliding it in I've never had trouble with that :D,

fed
 
Welcome to the world of gimped 10rnd mags - The Glocks (legal 10rnd mags) also suffer from this.
It might improve over time, but don't worry it's nothing you did :)

If you can find them, get a high capacity magazine that is pinned to 10 rnds. That will solve your problem.


The real challenge is inserting 10 rounds on a closed slide, then try to rack the slide to chamber a round... good luck :D

From my past experience you can try leaving them loaded for a few weeks (more like a month) and that might help; I ended up getting high-caps.
 
This totally bites. Paid an arm and a leg for a decent firearm and then this arbitrary 10 round mag thing screws things up. Dang.

Thanks for the advice, everybody.
 
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I think the Walther's engineering and design are still excellent. The mag spring is simply slightly too long or too strong.

(and therefore the suggested fix was to either file down the follower ever so slightly, or else compress the spring, or remove a small amount of the spring. Compressing the spring seems like the easiest and least invasive, and therefore the first thing to try...)

I read something where a Browning Hipower and Steyr AUG owners (both excellent firearms) also had the same problem so it's not uncommon.
 
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Try leaving the mags loaded for a few days. I wouldn't want to file anything unless it was a last resort. I had a P99 with no problems with it other that my holster tore my front site off half way through the day. Are all your mags causing a problem or just a few? Xray
 
Common problem to all "factory" 10 round mags. The reasoning behind it is that the factories are concerned that if they put out a mag that holds 11 by accident, they'll get shut down (and they will)

Fixes include the aforementioned weakening of springs by leaving them loaded overnight a few times. Others tried on other guns is shaving the bottoms of the followers a bit and cutting off a loop or two of the spring.
 
Xray said:
Try leaving the mags loaded for a few days. I wouldn't want to file anything unless it was a last resort. I had a P99 with no problems with it other that my holster tore my front site off half way through the day. Are all your mags causing a problem or just a few? Xray
Click to expand...

All TWO of my magazine do it... Heh. Which begs the question. When i purchase another batch for IPSC, i'll probably have to address them as per all your kind suggestions as well. Something to do i guess.
 
I just cut out a loop of the spring on each of my mags for my P99. No problems at all. Although I never had your specific problem to begin with, cutting out a bit of spring does make it a lot easier to fit in the 10th round.
 
hobbes said:
Went to the range and wasn't able to jam in a full 10-rd magazine in my Walther P99 (brand new) when slide is forward (in battery?). But the range warden then suggested that i load only 9 rounds and after that was i able to slide the mag in without extra force. Have you guys heard of this before? Apparently the 10-rd mags need a little bit more space after the 10 rounds before you can insert a full mag into the gun. However, when the slide is open, i could put the 10-rd mag in no problems.

Warden said that even though the mags were 'original' (came with the box) they were still outsourced to Maggar (Italy)? Did the plastic bit at the bottom have anything to do with it?

Do you need full 10 round mags to be competitive in IPSC or will you be ejecting mags before you use it up?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I have the same problem with my Walther P99. AND I had the same Italian mags too (with the blue ramps). Those mags are horrible. One of them actually came apart (the floor plate broke off!!!) while i was shooting because it was cold and it just couldnt handle it.

But yeah, until i get a better mag brand, i load 9 rounds instead of 10. Peice o' crap.
 
There are two different "blue" ramp factory mags, to get around a minor loading problem they had in some guns with some mags. Loading in battery is usually just a new mag problem, tight spring. Leave them loaded and the problem will go away eventually. They usually can be slammed home. Once the mags have about 500 rounds through them in the gun, they should settle down.
 
Skip said:
There are two different "blue" ramp factory mags, to get around a minor loading problem they had in some guns with some mags. Loading in battery is usually just a new mag problem, tight spring. Leave them loaded and the problem will go away eventually. They usually can be slammed home. Once the mags have about 500 rounds through them in the gun, they should settle down.
Click to expand...

yeah, settles them down so much that they fall apart! spring flies one way, floor ramp goes the other...and theres me...looking at my walther in shock, wondering what the HELL just happened.

italian mags.......
peice
o
crap
 
I had a similar problem with some 10rd 1911 mags. Until the mag springs weakened, I would just insert the mag as far as it would go and then gave the bottom of the basepad a smack to ensure the mag was locked in place. I thought about cutting springs but, well, they came with that number of coils for a reason and when the springs geet broken in properly, there is no insertion problem. Cutting springs is a short term solution but I am not sure of any long term consequences.

Besides, it is more fun to break in the mag springs with shooting rather than snip some coils ;-)
 
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