Another STI repair

A couple months ago I mentioned a had a problem with two new magazines dropping out of my STI. Today I finally got around to fixing it.

I had measured the magazines and found they were 0.020″ narrower than the magazines that worked. It had to be the magazine release. So I bought a new magazine release (on the left below) and compared it to the old one (on the right).

Near the top of the picture compare the width of the material for the little “ledge”. The old one is much narrower. That is what engages the magazine. The old one is worn enough that it does not fully engage the magazine.

I replaced the release, took the gun and magazines to the range and put a couple hundred rounds through the gun without any problems other than one of my old magazines failing to lock the slide back on the last round. Yeah, I know the magazine followers are worn out. I’ll order some new ones and replace them soon. But that is a minor problem compared to the magazines falling out on the first shot.

I’ll do more field testing at the steel match tomorrow but I fully expect the magazine drop problem is fixed now.

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6 thoughts on “Another STI repair

  1. Silly question, but how old is the gun and how many magazines have been cycled through it? Seems to me that should STI owe you a mag release considering that the 1911A1 Rem that I have was made in 1943 and has had God-knows how many mags stuffed and dropped over the years.

  2. Sounds to me that an STI is a gun to avoid. I’ve seen items from the Bronze age needing less work to get up to spec.

  3. I have had the gun about 13 years. I have about 30,000 rounds through the gun. I have 16, 17, and 18 round magazines. That means I have made at least 2000 magazine changes. But I also have done a lot of both dry and live fire magazine changing exercises. One shot, reload, one shot, reload, etc…

    I suspect the true number of magazine changes is on the order of about 5,000. I think that is adequate mileage for a high performance machine.

  4. Hmmm…..thanks, Joe. We’re all aware that magazines wear out and have to be replaced eventually, usually because of feed lip wear. The idea that a hardened steel mag release will eventually wear out may not cross anyone’s mind; it certainly didn’t cross mine. I need to reconsider what I keep in my spares list, even though I don’t shoot one gun as much as you do. I have, though, shot my 625 enough that I periodically encounter minor problems, weakened springs, mostly.

    As Tam once said, if you’re not breaking gun parts occasionally you’re not shooting enough.

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