Pictorial Guide to Disassembling the magazine for the PT145

[chicharrones]

The original pics are gone and not available. The video link posted above by LedJedi shows it in great detail if you have time to watch it.

[Marcus the Cat]

Ok, what gives..?

Why can't I see the pictures in the initial post in this thread..?!?!

[Czechbikr]

My guess is the age of the post and that it wasn't made into a sticky. I could use them also as I will want to strip/clean mine soo also.

[BigSkiff]

.

Ok, what gives..?

Why can't I see the pictures in the initial post in this thread..?!?!

The O.P. passed away a while back and the links to his photo site have since been taken down by his family.

[Marcus the Cat]

.

The O.P. passed away a while back and the links to his photo site have since been taken down by his family.

Oh that sucks, I am sorry to hear that.

[texastaurusguy]

Since the stickied post that existed before this one has picture links that aren't there, I thought I'd post up another to illustrate how to clean the mags. Honestly, I've never taken them fully apart until today - and they were quite dirty. I think it would be a good idea to do this every 3 or 4 range visits, if not every visit.

This example was done with my PT145 magazines. The PT111 is the same with the exception, that the base pad release is in the middle of the bottom of the pad.

The plastic cover plate on the bottom of the magazine slides off. It can be quite stubborn though. I found that a small headed, slotted screwdriver inserted in the slotted hole on the back base of the magazine will do the trick. Insert the screwdriver into the slot, then gently pry the plastic base toward the front of the magazine. Only do this enough to get it started - after the plastic base has moved, you can just use your thumb and slide it the rest of the way off. This picture is a bit hard to see, but at the bottom you can notice that the plastic base has been moved slightly toward the front:





After sliding the plastic base off, you'll see a metal plate that retains the spring inside the mag well.





If you push one side of the plate down, you'll be able to lift the other side out of the mag well retention slot:





You can now lift the plate out of the magazine, and the spring will come out as well. The plate has a hole that keeps it on the spring, and you'll need to be careful not to let it slide off the spring, otherwise you'll have to slide it back on through the hole in the plate. The follower should either come out on the end of the spring, or you might have to tap the magazine on your bench to get the follower to fall out. When disassembled, all of the parts should look like this:





Clean all parts, and take a Q-tip or something similar and clean the inside walls of the magazine. All parts should look clean, with no dirt or grit on anything.


The steps can be reversed to put the magazine back together.

[chicharrones]

I think it would be a good idea to do this every 3 or 4 range visits, if not every visit.

+1 on that. Many shooters I know didn't realize how the follower can get sticky from burned powder residue.

I agree that Cimmaron's thread needs new pics.

[jwc007]

Yeah, Cimmaron used Photobucket, and like most hosts, will delete entire accounts if not accessed within some period of time, by the user/owner of the account.

Very nice Pics TTG! My .45 24/7 OSS magazines take apart the same way, as they use the same baseplates.

One trick I have used to partially clean magazines is to depress the follower and pin the follower thru the Mag release slots, so I can clean the upper third of the magazine body, which is the part that generally gets dirty. This generally works on most magazines, and I can do it every time I clean the gun.

The .45 double stack Taurus and similar design ParaOrdnance magazines are however, more difficult to pin and best just taken apart as you have shown.

I generally clean my magazines for my Match Pistols about every 500 to 600 rounds or just before a USPSA sanctioned Monthly Match. For my defensive use handguns, the magazines are always clean.

[texastaurusguy]

I just updated all the picture links, apparently the file locations changed after we moved to the new software.

[gprod55]

Thank ya'll got her done after viewing the posts. Yeah they were dirty enough to clean but not dirty enough to malfunction. Appreciate the instructions and the pics helped a lot.