When I bought my RIA 10mm 1911A2, I tried to order A2 mags from AdvancedTactical.com (Armscor parts/support site). The showed as having plenty in stock but apparently, they were out, because my order sat for a month before I told them to cancel it. In fact, they’re still showing as out of stock at the time of this posting.
I tried looking at other places but most stores are out of stock. The only stores I saw that had them were in places like Alaska and Canada and they required $100 in purchases before they’d even consider sending to you (shipping was free, though).
I then saw in a 1911 FB group where a guy stated he’d bought Remington R1 .45ACP double-stack mags and that the mags latched into the gun. The mags fed ammo reliably into the handgun.
I decided to seek out that magazine type. Again, I had a difficult time finding a place that had them in stock, but I finally found that Century Arms carries them. I ordered two of the mags on 3/9. It is now 3/18 and they’ve arrived at my door.
The first mag latched without issue, but the second one initially would not latch. Ground the top of the mag’s catch hole just a tad. It now latches.
Both fit without issue, although latching is pretty tight…this can be fixed by ordering thinner base plates (or slightly grinding the top of the catch hole on the mag). The mags are designed for 45ACP and will hold 16 rounds of 45ACP. I loaded one mag with 10mm and was able to load 18.
I will be visiting the range tonight or tomorrow to test feeding/functionality with both mags. I’ll test with 16 rounds as well as 18.
These mags are $9-$10 cheaper than the mags Armscor sells and they appear to be more readily available. I’ve been trying to get mags since 1/31 and Armscor went out of stock around that time. I could find Para mags but didn’t want to hack/cut/file a mag. Granted, I had to grind one of the mags I bought, but it was a 10 sec grind where you wouldn’t even notice an alteration.
The base plate on the R1 mags are rather thick. They protrude from the magwell a bit, but they can be changed to something less thick (or they can be ignored for shooting purposes).
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| OEM magazine |
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| R1 magazine |
As of 3/9, Century Arms had them in stock. I’m not sure if they’re still showing as in stock but if you need 1911A2 mags for your RIA, Century Arms is currently the place to visit.
UPDATE (3/19/2021): I took off the base plate on the OEM mag to see if it’ll fit on the R1 mags. It does. So, if you buy the R1 mags, you can buy OEM base plates from Armscor and fit them on the R1 mags.
UPDATE (12/21/2021): Century Arms has stopped carrying the Remington R1 double-stack mags. 🙁