Interarms Colt 1903 magazine

[Sid]

I bought one of these recently. If I remember correctly it was about $55 with no return permitted. Well it turned out to be an expensive piece of junk.

I took it to the range today and loaded it with 5 rounds of commercial .32 ACP. Upon firing the first shot the magazine dropped right out of the magazine well. I tried this several times and it happened every time.

When I use the original mag that came with the pistol it always functions perfectly. Over the past 30 years I have put many thousands of rounds through this gun and never had this experience before.

 

[RickB]

The company that is making the reproduction 1903s for Colt is selling magazines that are apparently pretty good.
For thirty years I've been reading that modern mags for the '03 and '08 are junk, but I've read some good reviews of these:
http://www.usarmamentcorp.com/parts/part-page-usac/83

 

[James K]

Those mags must be pretty bad; it is fairly common for magazines to not engage properly with a push button type catch, but to fail with a heel type indicates the mag is badly out of spec.

Sometimes those magazines can be made to work OK simply by filing a bit off the bottom rear so the catch engages better, but having to do that with an expensive magazine is frustrating.

Jim

 

[tallball]

FWIW, I found out the hard way that over the years the 1903 magazines changed slightly. The one I purchased did not have a certain groove cut in exactly the right place.

 

[Sid]

I just discovered the cause of the problem. The magazines have different dimensions. Using a dial caliper I found that the body of the original Colt mag was 1.07" in width. When inserted into the pistol the heel catch moved forward and closed with an audible click.

By comparison, the body of the replacement mag was only 1.063" in width. When inserted into the pistol the heel catch did not move at all. In sum, the mag was too narrow and was not made to original tolerances.