Trouble shooting M52 magazine

by orpheoet 11/18/2015, 2:52 pm

I love this pistol, the magazines not so much. I disassembled and lightly lubed the spring and follower. It's often difficult to load the 5th round. My oal is 1.6. These magazines are from 74 and original. Once the bullets are in there and I tap the mag a few times to get the follower to force them up the gun works flawlessly. It just doesn't seem like the mags should be this finicky. Incidentally when I was using 2.6 gr WST my brass was ejecting inconsistently. No function issues just the brass kind of went wherever. With 2.7 gr they all go straight into the brass catcher. .1 gr made a perceptible difference in feel and function. I found that surprising...

by jglenn21 11/18/2015, 2:56 pm

on my wife's 52-1 the only time I had any magazine issues with the rounds hanging it was an OAL issue.. running HBWCs they were seated "just" out of the case... that all it took.. Dead flush had no issues

by AllAces 11/18/2015, 3:27 pm

I have a bunch of both the old (metal follower) and new (plastic follower) M52 magazines and have never had the magazine issues many M52 owners report. I clean mine about once every four times to the range and keep a consistent OAL on my reloads. I do have one metal follower magazine that needs a little extra push to get the fifth round in, but it always cycles.

by LenV 11/18/2015, 4:20 pm

I had the same problem with one of my 52 mags. I ended up finally removing 2 coils from the spring. It is still stronger then my other mags. I took one of the lighter ones apart and got out the measuring equipment. The strong spring is .007" bigger then my others. Started with the same number of coils but definitely stronger. With the 2 coils removed the magazine works flawlessly...but. That magazine in my pistol shoots a tighter and lower group then my other 3 mags. I have a frame mounted dot and I suspect/know the stronger mag is changing my POI.

Len

by orpheoet 11/18/2015, 4:39 pm

Can I ask what oal you use OldMaster65 and AllAces?

by C.Perkins 11/18/2015, 5:35 pm

Orpheoet;

Take five pieces of brass(no bullets in them) and load the magazine.
Any difference in how it feels on the 5th round ?

There should be no tapping to get the rounds to stack properly in the magazine...
Something is amiss.

I trim my brass to 1.130".
I use Remington's that have a little nose.
COL is 1.170" at the nose.
To the shoulder is 1.150"(add .020" for the little nose).

The other bullets with no nose will be 1.150" COL.

I have seen the bodies of the magazines squeezed so the little barrel that slides in the magazine binds up.

You need to determine if it is COL problem by doing the above experiment of loading five pieces of brass only.
I can hand cycle all empty brass through my M52-1.

Clarence

by LenV 11/18/2015, 7:31 pm

I did all the testing of my magazines with 5 cases that I sized, de-primed and roll crimped (empty case). I use a Magnus HBWC seated flush with the rim of the case when actually loading a round. On the 1 magazine that I had problems with, before removing some of the spring there just was not enough room in the magazine for the 5th round without forcing (hard).

Len

by orpheoet 11/18/2015, 8:13 pm

C.Perkins wrote:Orpheoet;

Take five pieces of brass(no bullets in them) and load the magazine.
Any difference in how it feels on the 5th round ?

There should be no tapping to get the rounds to stack properly in the magazine...
Something is amiss.

Clarence

You are exactly correct. Empty brass works just fine in the magazine. I will proceed accordingly. Thanks to everyone.

by SW-52 11/19/2015, 5:19 am

i had a similar trouble with the five round. the problem was the oal. i never clean my 52's magazines,i only change the factory springs for 10 %+ power wolff springs. i love the 52 pistols,with rust,without rust,eith scratches,without scratches,this pistols are real Masterpiece!

by Virgil Kane 11/19/2015, 7:41 am

Two things I have found with my M-52.

I trim my brass short like Mr Perkins does. Remington brass about .010 short of minimum length and keep these for use in my M-52 only. I also use Rem HBWC and there is a bit of a button on the nose, trimming short helps stop the nose or the crimp from hanging up on the magazine.

I bought some magazine springs from Numrich for my M-52 years ago. They were much stronger than the old mag springs and probably came from an old 56 Buick rear suspension but Numrich said they were M-52 mag springs so I put them in. I figured stronger was better but I was mistaken and had nothing but alibis and feed problems with those springs. I changed them out for Wolff springs meant specifically for the M-52 and have not had an alibi in 6 years of using those springs. Lesson learned!

YMMV

Virgil

by SW-52 11/19/2015, 10:20 am

Virgil Kane wrote:Two things I have found with my M-52.

I trim my brass short like Mr Perkins does. Remington brass about .010 short of minimum length and keep these for use in my M-52 only. I also use Rem HBWC and there is a bit of a button on the nose, trimming short helps stop the nose or the crimp from hanging up on the magazine.

I bought some magazine springs from Numrich for my M-52 years ago. They were much stronger than the old mag springs and probably came from an old 56 Buick rear suspension but Numrich said they were M-52 mag springs so I put them in. I figured stronger was better but I was mistaken and had nothing but alibis and feed problems with those springs. I changed them out for Wolff springs meant specifically for the M-52 and have not had an alibi in 6 years of using those springs. Lesson learned!

YMMV

i heard similar problems with sellier and bellot brass.
Virgil

by AllAces 11/19/2015, 1:44 pm

I just checked the OAL of three different ammo that all load in my M52 magazines and cycle the gun with no problems:

My own reloads, mixed brass, done with a Star press and using a Star factory crimp die, OAL = 1.161

Remington Target Ammo, OAL = 1.171

Precision Cartridge, Inc reloads, OAL = 1.164

by JIMPGOV 11/19/2015, 2:54 pm

ONE MORE THING TO LOOK AT. YEARS AGO WHEN I WAS SHOOTING A MDL 52. I HAD ONE MAG THAT HAD WHAT SOUNDS LIKE THE SAME PROBLEM. WHAT IT TURNED OUT TO BE WAS THIS. SOMEHOW THE MAG SIDEWALL HAD BEEN PUSHED IN AND WAS BINDING ON THE FOLLOWER ( THE ROUND PART WAS BINDING), RIGHT AT THE SLOT. JIM P

by C.Perkins 11/21/2015, 6:28 pm

One thing about the M52 magazines is that you are stacking rimed brass on top of each other, the bottom round is sitting farther back than the top round and the groove that the little barrel rides in is in an arc.
Rim thickness and overall length is critical.
I call it a tolerance stack.
You need to experiment until you find the right recipe for overall length and better to keep the same LOT of cases for consistency for rim thickness.
I am still on the 400 cases out of the 500.
Only have lost a couple from attrition.
Still have the 100 once fired for backup.

Overall a very excellent and accurate pistol to shoot.
The myth of being finicky is just that, you need to find the recipe and document it and drive on.

Clarence

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