Mimber 22 slide mags

[DrHenley]

I've been trying to get a Ciener mag for my Mimber 22 conversion slide like forever. Midway is the only place I can find that carries them, and they keep pushing back the expected stocking date.

The cheap (but expensive) plastic Kimber mags just don't "do it" for me.

Any suggestions (short of getting a different slide)?

I also thought about trading the Mimber slide for a whole GSG gun (but then what would I do with my Colt frame ).

There will be a rimfire match tomorrow, and I'm going to give the Member slide one more chance with CCI Blazers

The recommended ammo (Mini-Mags) works, but I can't afford to shoot Mini-Mags on a regular basis. I go through 200-300 rounds a session. I can load my own cast 45 ACP rounds cheaper than buying Mini-Mags!!!

[CalWhit33]

My advantage arms commander kit also highly recommends mini mags but Remington golden bullets have been flawless. Might give them a try?

Edit. My kit also recommends swapping to a lighter mainspring with both of these in place again it has been flawless. But it's brand new so further evaluation will come as it gets used more

[DrHenley]

When I first got the slide, the Remington Golden Bullets were the only plated bullet I could find.

I had a very bad experience with the Remingtons in the Mimber slide (not just once but every time I tried them). MANY misfires and squibs. Even when they went "BANG" they didn't feed well at all.


In my squirrel rifle, however, they seem to be just as accurate and almost as reliable as Mini-Mags.

[CalWhit33]

That stinks you could buy a new gun in the price if finding the right ammo that works in the gun.

[DrHenley]

The CCI Blazers got me through the Rimfire match with only one jam, which is pretty good for any 22 semi-auto.

(A little background on the Kimber mags... Only one of the three Kimber mags worked at first with any ammo, but after studying the difference between the good mag and bad ones, I discovered that the top of the feed lips had a casting sprue sticking up that retarded the slide. Once I filed that off, the mags seem to work fine with Blazers and Mini-Mags.)

I wasn't happy at all with the accuracy of the Blazers however, and by the end of the match the feed ramp was filthy, so I'm going to go back to the extremely clean burning Federal Champions and try to figure out how to get them to cycle the slide completely.

Since the Blazers seem to cycle the slide well, I think the mag problems are solved, and something else is at play.

The Federal Champions were giving me one jam every other mag or so, so I think just a small amount of tweaking should get them closer to 100%. It was obvious that all the jams were caused by the slide not going all the way back. Sometimes it would close back on the empty case.

In manually cycling the slide, I identified a couple of rough spots, mostly due to the shape of the lower part of the firing pin retainer. Instead of a nice smooth radius, it was more of a semi-rounded bevel. I got out the Swiss files and reshaped it to more resemble the contour of the firing pin retainer on my 45 slides. That should make the initial contact higher on the hammer, giving better leverage, and it should also smooth out the contact between the hammer and the firing pin retainer.

Manually cycling the slide feels much smoother now. Hopefully that will allow the Federal Champions to push the slide all the way to the rear.

[Thedragonslayer]

Dr. let us know how it works out!! Im thinking of getting a conversion kit.

[SemperFi1977m]

My Advantage likes CCI minimags and Rem golden bullets. All conversion kits are HIGHLY ammo-sensitive. Its hard to deviate from the recommended ammo without causing cycling problems. I didnt see it mentioned, but besides putting in a light hammer spring....these kits also like to run fairly wet. They need all the assistance they can get to reduce the effort to cycle the slide back with just a 22. Let us know if you get her ironed out :-)

Im looking to build a dedicated reciever for mine also as time and money allows.

[Thedragonslayer]

Thanks for te inf

[DrHenley]

Originally Posted by SemperFi1977m

I didnt see it mentioned, but besides putting in a light hammer spring....these kits also like to run fairly wet.

At first I had the slide on my DW Panther frame, which IIRC has a 17 pound mainspring. The hammer strike was not heavy enough and I was getting *many* misfires and squibs. I believe part of the problem was that the firing pin was binding and not moving freely. It has loosened up considerably now.

Then I put it on my Colt frame, which at the time had a 23 pound mainspring, and I didn't have any more misfires, but massive feeding problems.

If I had it to do over again, I'd definitely get the GSG instead of trying to fool with the Mimber slide.

Here is a list of the things I have done to try to get the darned thing working:

1 - Polished and greased the firing pin to try to eliminate misfires

2 - Changed frames

3 - Changed mainspring (23 to 19 pound)

4 - Modified two of three magazines to remove excess material at the top

5 - Tried different ammo -
--Remington Thunderbolts, (burns so dirty they won't chamber after 50 rounds, half are subsonic and half supersonic, many duds)
--Remington Golden Bullets (many duds)
--Federal Champion Plated Hollow Points (1 jam out of every 20 rounds)
--CCI Blazers (1 jam out of 100 rounds, burns a bit too dirty)
--CCI Mini-Mags (seem to be the only thing that works but are too expensive)

6 - Tried running a boresnake through every 50 rounds

7 - Polished the rails

8 - Switched from Wilson grease to RemOil on the slide to reduce drag

9 - Modified the firing pin retainer

[DrHenley]

OK, I made it through two entire matches now with only one jam, so I think the Mimber Mag issue can be laid to rest.

You just have to file down the ridge on top of the feed lips, if there is one, and it works.

Here are the last two mags I bought:



Three of the five mags I have, including the one that came with the slide, looked like the first picture when new. Two looked like the second picture.

Now they all look like the second picture...