[dgallegos]

Lots of posts lately regarding mags. Some of you expressed concerns over the ProMag line of magazines. Although I have no experience with the 9mm version, I have three .40's that seem to work very well. So far there has been no FTF or premature slide lock problems.
My particular gun is a 1999 model with the old slide stop spring and orange mag followers (See the FAQ site about details regarding mags and slide lock). When I first bought the weapon, I was concerned about these problems. I purchased three ProMags and one Walther blue-follower mag for comparison. So far they all work fine.
I would like to hear from the .40's out there if you are experiencing these problems and what, if any, steps you have taken to correct it.
I am considering purchasing a new-style slide lock spring and additional new blue-follower mags from Walther if this problem is widespread out there. Walther is willing to exchange mags, but I have yet to do it.
On another note, attached is a couple of pics of the mags. In response to an older thread about the gap of the mags, here's a close-up of the ProMag in the gun. For the price, the look is very clean.
The second pic is a comparison of (left to right) ProMag, early Walther (orange), new Walther (blue). Only the new Walther has the notch at the top. But the ProMag follower is nearly identical to the new Walther blue.
If you are considering purchasing the ProMags, the price is right, and (so far, fingers crossed) no problems.
Comments? Suggestions?

 

[dgallegos]

Attached Image

 

[jeff92k7]

My personal preference...the baseplate on that promag looks ugly especially in the pic where it is in the gun. It just doesn't look like it was designed for the gun.

To answer your questions: I have never had a feeding problem with either type of magazine that I have. However, both mag types that I have are recent ones and both have blue followers. One style is the ten round that came with the gun, the other is the twelve round LE mag (standard for other countries). Both are MecGar made. ...see attached and following.

10-rd...

 

[jeff92k7]

12-round LE...

 

[dgallegos]

jeff92k7:
How long did you have to wait for your LE mags? My dealer didn't have any in stock when I picked up the weapon, and so they are "on order". Yeah, right.

 

[jeff92k7]

I ordered mine from a dealer in Denton TX. They had to order them twice because whoever they order them from, lost the first order. It wound up being about 2 months to get them.

I guess it figures...

two months = two extra rounds

 

[Martini13]

dgallegos It looks as though the ProMag doesn;t have the plastic bottom. Does this mean you can load more than ten rounds? Or, is the follower thicker?

 

[dgallegos]

Unfortunately, still ten rounds. It has that funky dimple in the magazine tube near the bottom that doesn't allow the follower to pass a certain point.

 

[Synister1]

You can fit 12rnds of 40 in the preban 17rnd 9mm mags.

$39.99

And yes they do work.

 

[Martini13]

Question? Would the use of the preban 17rnd 9mm mag be legal in the 40s&w?

 

[NoviWalther]

Hi all, quick question.

I recently purchased a Walther P99 .40S&W. I have put less than 200 hundred rounds through and have broken 4 butt plates on the magazine. Yes, 4. No one at the gun range nor at Galyans has seen anything like this. Waiting to hear back from Smith and Wesson.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Does anyone know if there are metal butt plates on the market?

Thanks

 

[acrashb]

Quote[/b] (NoviWalther @ Dec. 31 2003,3:04)]I have put less than 200 hundred rounds through and have broken 4 butt plates on the magazine.  Yes, 4.

That's odd.  I slam them home hard, and go through maybe 10-20 changes per week, week after week.  No problems.

Are you ejecting them onto a concrete range floor?

 

[dgallegos]

I had the same problem (but not as many mags!). Contact Walther service and they will send you out new floorplates free of charge. For additional info, check out the thread "Bug or Feature". According to Walther, they had a bad batch of floorplates and, unfortunately, this is a common problem.
I am not aware of metal (or otherwise) replacement plates for the Walther / S&W factory mags. If you find some, let me know. For my range mags, the ProMags work good and are a lot cheaper to replace!
Happy Shooting!

 

[gunmanguns]

are you asking if you can put .40cal bullets in a 17rnd 9mm magazine?

 

[NoviWalther]

.. No, I have not been dropping any of the magazines on the floor.  All of the floorplates are cracking at the base in the very front of the magazine while in the gun.  The last one cracked after just ten rounds.
... I haven't had a problem receiving new plates it just sucks when you can't even sit at the range for half an hour. Plus, this broken little piece of plastic is rendering the gun inoperable.

We all no how useful an unloaded gun is.

 

[P88]

I sure hope that if they switched the material or composition of the floorplates, that they didn't do the same with the frame of the gun itself. That could be very bad!

 

[Walther-hicaps]

I can't tell you for certain if there was any change other than the color between the orange and blue followers because I have never seen a "Stinking 10 rounder". But I do know that the reason for the orange follower was simply for easy recognition between a .40 S&W from a 9 mm which has a black follower.

The first 10 round .40 S&W' came with orange followers. Then Walter decided to color code the .40 S&W 10 rounders with the blue follower for easy recognition between the hicaps with orange followers and the "Stinking 10 rounders".

This was the only reason for the color change!

 

[dgallegos]

Negative.
If you go to the FAQ homepage, the design of the magazine tube was changed to prevent the slide from locking open with rounds still in the chamber.
I have mags of both type and according to Walther, that is the reason they changed the follower color and design.

 

[Bullit]

I just purchased a P99 and have fired it several times over the past couple of weeks. The first couple of times, the slide kept locking open with rounds in the clip and not feeding (I have the orange mags). I tried several different ammo brands, etc with the same result. Very frustrating.

This past weekend I fired several different boxes of ammo with not a single lockup. Go figure. Maybe it just needed shooting. Good gun, but I still prefer my Glock 23.

 

[Walther-hicaps]

dgallegos, from the photos you have posted it appears that the correction was made in the tubes as you have said.  

The notch is deeper and the follower now sits higher and at the correct angle exactly like the .40 S&W hicaps (see my photos in the Trading Post / Parts Bin).  So it would seem that they decided to go with the blue color for the locaps when they made this change so that it was easy to differentiate between early and late 10 rounders.

Check with your LEO buddies and let me know if anyone has ever seen a hicap with a blue follower.  I have never seen or heard of this.  Also I've never heard of this problem occurring with a hicap.  Have you?

Next time I speak with my friends who designed the P99 or someone else high enough on the Walther food chain I'll ask them about it.