So much debate over which magazine is "best" for this or that 1911 pistol warrants pointing to a few things that seem to have escaped notice by many.There are two basic magazine types. One is the modern version with the parallel feed lips and early, abrupt release point, and the original with its tapered lips and late/gradual release point. The first type is what I refer to as the "wadcutter" magazine, and the second, the "Hardball" magazine.
The wadcutter feed lip design began with the AMU when the Bullseye shooters discovered the excellent Hensley & Gibbs #68 bullet along with the fact that feeding from USGI magazines was often a hit and miss proposition...which led to designing a die and anvil that formed a timed release point in the tapered feed lips. A "hybrid" of sorts that presented the cartridge to the chamber correctly while providing an abrupt, timed release point for the shouldered, semi wadcutter bullet, and it worked well. So well, in fact, that Colt started using the hybrid design for its magaines that were sold with 1911 pistols in the early Series 80 days. Here, Colt had a magazine that would work equally well with hardball, the shorter OAL hollowpoints, and the long-nosed SWCs shoudl the shooter so choose,
As to why the tapered feed lips work so well can be seen in the photo. With the tapered lips, the rear of the cartridge rises as it moves forward, lowering the angle of entry into the chamber and placing the rim nearly under the extractor before final release so that if the round escapes the magazine too abruptly, there's only one place it can go.
Pictured are two 7-round magazines with the “tit” on the followers. The one on the left is a parallel lip or “wadcutter” design and on the right is a tapered lip “Hybrid” design…which provides the rise at the rear AND a timed release point that comes a little later than the former design…though not quite as late as the original.
The cartridge has been stopped by the follower bump…as intended…just before the final release point. This point is identical to the one on the original follower, and final release is effected only slightly earlier than the original, with one small difference. Rather than releasing the round suddenly, the GI magazine releases a little more gradually with the last part of the taper acting as a brake of sorts. A final redundancy that works to insure that the magazine doesn’t lose control of the round until it’s well under the extractor.
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