The effect of different magazines on accuracy

[Kokopelli]

Do you see different magazines affecting the accuracy of your guns? I have Walther, Springfield and a Kahr pistols as well as magazine equipped rifles. I noticed that each firearm favors a particular magazine that groups better than other, identical magazines. The group size with a particular magazine can be half the group size from another, identical make an model of magazine. I’m now marking the better mags with a sharpie to tell them apart.

Magazines do have an impact on accuracy!

[broadside]

I suppose the one mag could push on the rifle bolt or pistol slide differently and cause it to grab the base of the bullet in a way that puts different pressure on the case and any slop in the chamber could allow bullet to align to the bore slightly differently.

But the impact from that seems like "noise" in the overall tolerance stacking and user error that adds up to inconsistencies when shooting (otherwise we'd all be shooting single hole groups)

Try your test again and compare fully loaded mags to single loaded mags, and see if the "better" ones are still better

[Kokopelli]

Thanks, broadside. The user effect seems nil as my wife notices how one mag in her Walther shoots better than the second mag. I asked this question at the range last week and someone agreed that mags do affect accuracy.

[kmas]

Haven't noticed any ... I only use major brands

[alpha_romeo_XV]

Unless the magazine is causing some alteration to the ammo before or while going into battery then I couldn't explain how a mag could be affecting accuracy.

[MosinVirus]

If we are to consider bullets impacting onto feed ramps, having some mags that sit lower, have slightly different feed lips, slightly different spring weights and even shapes, then it is plausible that some mags will potentially position all rounds slightly differently in relation to feed ramps than other mags. The slide will do its job and violently slam the round into the feedramp and force it into the chamber.

The rounds that get beat more and differently from others may go off slightly less consistently I guess.

Idk.

[OCEquestrian]

Originally Posted by Kokopelli

Do you see different magazines affecting the accuracy of your guns?

Never....

Originally Posted by Kokopelli

Magazines do have an impact on accuracy!

How could a magazine impact accuracy of the gun. It has NOTHING to do with accuracy. Only the barrel / slide /sight and consistency of ammo relationship can mechanically have any impact on accuracy.

Originally Posted by Kokopelli

I noticed that each firearm favors a particular magazine that groups better than other, identical magazines. The group size with a particular magazine can be half the group size from another, identical make an model of magazine.

Based on this ^^^^ I'd say you are an inconsistent shooter who has not mastered marksmanship and looking to blame something else. Put the guns in a Ransom Rest and conduct the experiment...

[MosinVirus]

Originally Posted by OCEquestrian

Never....



How could a magazine impact accuracy of the gun. It has NOTHING to do with accuracy. Only the barrel / slide /sight and consistency of ammo relationship can mechanically have any impact on accuracy.



Based on this ^^^^ I'd say you are an inconsistent shooter who has not mastered marksmanship and looking to blame something else. Put the guns in a Ransom Rest and conduct the experiment...

I have seen people say that the first round out of the magazine will sometimes print outside of the rest of the group using the Ransom Rest. Reasoning being that it is seated differently due to being a manual load.

If that is true, then some magazines may potentially cause what I was saying above.

[Mr. Beretta]

Originally Posted by Kokopelli

Do you see different magazines affecting the accuracy of your guns?

Been shooting over 46 years. I never heard of such a thing.

I always used factory mags. If the round doesn't hit where I wanted it to, its not the magazine fault. It's mine.

[MosinVirus]

Originally Posted by Mr. Beretta

Been shooting over 46 years. I never heard of such a thing.

I always used factory mags. If the round doesn't hit where I wanted it to, its not the magazine fault. It's mine.

I would agree.
What I posted above is hypothetical/theoretical or what I have seen other people claim.

[FalconLair]

once a round is properly seated in chamber i can't see how the magazine could possibly affect accuracy

that said, if the magazine is causing a load issue that's an entirely different problem in itself

[Scratch705]

the only way i can see a magazine causing accuracy issues is if somehow it is gouging a mark onto the bullet as it is stripped from the magazine and loaded into the chamber. like a tiny burr on the front lip of the magazine.

[Divernhunter]

I do not know about one mag vs. another mag.
I do remember a test was done about the 1st round printing different from following rounds. They used a machine rest as I remember and a couple of different semi-auto pistols. They did find the 1st shot was further from the center of the group on a consistent way.

I "personally" have never tested this and am just reporting what I remember from the article. This was before the internet and all the "internet experts". Expert is--Ex= former/past tense and spurt(pert)= a drip under pressure

[tbc]

Originally Posted by MosinVirus

I have seen people say that the first round out of the magazine will sometimes print outside of the rest of the group using the Ransom Rest. Reasoning being that it is seated differently due to being a manual load.



If that is true, then some magazines may potentially cause what I was saying above.

I have heard and have seen the same phenomenon. But it could be the way the barrel locked with the slide caused by manual slide release and perhaps not the way the cartridge seated in the barrel. Just a thought. I could be completely wrong.


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[MosinVirus]

Originally Posted by tbc

I have heard and have seen the same phenomenon. But it could be the way the barrel locked with the slide caused by manual slide release and perhaps not the way the cartridge seated in the barrel. Just a thought. I could be completely wrong.


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I dont know too. Perhaps it is the slide not going into battery the same way, or something else, like the way the first round gets chambered.

All I am saying is that we all know that a round that fails to feed stops the slide completely, so we can presume that a round that fights feeding (just not enough to produce a jam) could slow the slide. So if slide going into battery differently could throw one round out of the group, then it should also be true for magazines that can induce different/inconsistent feed performance will also force the same results.

And we have all seen threads where people say one of the rounds (not necessarily the first) fails to feed in their guns. So there are some variables in how supported the rounds are based on how many rounds are under them.

There is also a reason people say you shouldn't feed the same live rounds multiple times - the bullet gets set deeper into the case and that will produce higher pressure...

So, if some rounds get slammed into the ramp more than others and there are different pressures possible, one could say that the rounds will perform differently.

All I am saying is that if the claim that first round will feed differently is true, and the claim that bullets will get set back by hitting the ramp is true, then the magazine that can change the velocity of the slide from round to round due to rounds impacting on the ramp differently could also throw variables into potential grouping factors

[MurdaJ]

If hand feeding vs magazine feeding affects accuracy, I'd imagine different mags do as well, to a degree