Repairing pistol magazine (or is it just KIA)

[ParHunter]

Hi

While gearing up for a Skirmish at DogTag today I filled up one of my AAP magazines and it hissed back quite angrily at me. After that i could hear a constant low level air leak from the bottom.

Can you repair these mags or are they gone?

 

[Nick G]

Should be basically a standard Glock type mag. May just need the long bolt tightening up (remove the base cap to check) But yep can be serviced easily enough.

 

[Krisz]

Could be just a dried base seal/fill valve o-ring.

 

[DanBow]

I don't know if all pistol magazines are made the same but 2 out of the 3 'leak free' mags I got with my P226 leaked. I stripped them as far as I could, didn't have a valve key, and soaked the base O ring in silicone oil for a couple of hours and added a few drops of the same to the valves. All three are now leak free.

Interestingly, I used the bottle of silicone oil that came with my beard trimmer, so nothing special or expensive.

 

[Sewdhull]

Oils like this will seep around the ring and perfect the seal fixing them as you say. So good call.

Non moving o rings working like seals can degrade over time drying out if some lubricant types are used, penetrating oils or WD 40 types can cause this.

Moving ones like valves can be helped too.

So adding oils back to the o ring can help them get squishy again and also physically fill the gaps(temporarily).

I silicone oil for actual o ring lubing would be preferred, but as you have found beard trimmer oil works?

You can get to the inside by dropping oil down the top and opening the valve. You might need more oil than ideal, but nice for servicing.

Or...get a valve tool.

Grease is better for assembly.

 

[DanBow]

I have always just presumed that beard trimmer oil is silicone oil but the Wahl one that I have is a mineral oil, which is a mix of other oils. Works though, so all good.

 

[Sewdhull]

Depending on the o ring type you may have issues.

It's less an issue for static o rings but if they dry out or swell they don't fit anymore. 

If it works it works...but I'd stick with silicone oil for magazines.