Why do higher cap magazines jam?

[haveyourmile]

The guy in Arizona had a 33 rd glock magazine that jammed, psycho in CO had a 100 rd drum that jammed. Ive seen numerous posts on CG talking about how higher cap magazines are notorious for jamming. I don't own or shoot anything but 10 rd mags... Can someone tell me why it is that higher capacity magazines are more likely to jam?

[Bhobbs]

Probably because the springs have to push much greater mass while the weapon cycles. The rounds don't get pushed up fast enough.

[Diabolus]

Those 100 round mags jam so much they aren't fun to shoot.

[voiceofreason]

My grandfathered 9mm & .40 glock factory mags have NO issues, including the 33 rounders.

I believe the Surefire very high capacity magazines are supposed to be pretty reliable, but I've never used them before.

[NotEnufGarage]

Improper break-in and maintenance.

Just like 1911 mags, they need to be cleaned, lubricated, cycled, cleaned and lubricated again to feed smoothly and reliably. Dropping them in the dust is all it takes to jam things up. The bigger the mag, the more impact dirt will have on them.

When I get a new 1911 magazine, I disassemble it, clean it, lube it then sit and watch TV for a while, while I'm cycling the follower up and down with a pencil, just to get it nice and smooth. Takes care of most stove-pipes and feed failures.

One little burr or some dirt, and the followers don't move smoothly.

[tbhracing]

This is Off Topic. Can you please post in the correct area.

[Citadelgrad87]

Anyone get a specific make on the drum? One thing that I have noticed is that the budget drums are fail, but I had a Beta C Mag that was flawless. Granted, I only loaded it and did a series of controlled strings, then I put it away, but is was $$ and worked well. Of course, it was several hundred dollars, contrast that with a $75 drum, YMMV.

[m03]

Anyone get a specific make on the drum? One thing that I have noticed is that the budget drums are fail, but I had a Beta C Mag that was flawless. Granted, I only loaded it and did a series of controlled strings, then I put it away, but is was $$ and worked well. Of course, it was several hundred dollars, contrast that with a $75 drum, YMMV.

I'd guess that he bought the cheapest one he could find.

[morfeeis]

This is Off Topic. Can you please post in the correct area.

No it's not, this should be in "general gun discussions" just as it is.

The one i have a 50 round 22 tear drop that would jam so much it just wasn't any fun to shoot. i still have it but it's not worth the headache (don't remember seeing it in the last few years come to think of it). i think it's just that the parts have to do more work to move more weight. My glock mags run just fine as long as they are factory magazines, my G18 mags feed just fine in my G19.

[morfeeis]

I'd guess that he bought the cheapest one he could find.

They say he spent 14K on all his gear so it may have just been a Godsend that these dirtballs guns jammed.

[bohoki]

imagine if something has a 1 in 100 failure rate with a 10 round mag that means you would experience a failure once every 10 mags but with a 100 round mag you would get a jam every magazine

generally higher than standard are made by companies that do their best but have to watch costs and weight so its a tradeoff if you want a 100 round mag that works perfect it will probably cost you 1000 and weigh 5 pounds unloaded

[shy 7th]

They say he spent 14K on all his gear...

That's the Gunsmoke (American Guns) price.

[voiceofreason]

I have crappy cheap imitation mags to run malfunction drills with. I kept these because they are fairly reliably unreliabe.

Glock and Sig

I swap out a mag for a friend when thyre not paying attention and see how they respond to a malfunction. Usually as we're about to start a course of fire. Most of the time, they dump it quickly and grab the next mag, but one time my friends swapped his wifes mag and when it stopped, turned around (muzzle stayed downrange) asked for help. When he told her "just fix it", she put the gun down, took off her holster/belt and decided she didnt want to continue. Needless to say, it was not a good day for them.

[Some Guy]

Lawlz at this thread getting kicked out of OT.

[odysseus]

Too much obscurity to answer that question over the general issues already well talked about with some drum mag applications. Meaning we don't know what he had, what ammo, what he may have done to his rifle, his ability, etc. All of that matters to a failure to load, failure to extract, failure to fire, etc.

Saying that, "higher cap" mags shoot fine. Millions of them out there...