P89, P95 and P944 Magazines

cyborgt800 · Apr 29, 2016

I have all three pistols and am wondering something about the magazines.
Every site I look shows a different magazine for the P944 and that the P89 & P95 use the same magazine, however, they look identical to me, all load and cycle each others rounds despite being a slightly different caliber.
They are marked 40 cal and 9mm, but that seems to be the only difference.
Any reason they still are listed as not interchangeable?

blume357 · Apr 29, 2016

I bought a P95 a few years back and the guy selling said one of the mags was originally for a 40cal but would work in the p95... he was wrong.

cyborgt800 · Apr 29, 2016

Interesting....I had no trouble switching them. Everything cycled without fail.

roylt · Apr 29, 2016

Cycled at the range or at the bench?
By hand is different than by trigger.

I think the difference is the mag lip opening, follower profile, and maybe the spring. The 40 cal is a slightly bigger round so the feed lips are wider to accommodate the larger diameter of the round. Also the follower is slightly different too. I have not look in awhile but the 9mm follower has a "9" cast right in it I think.

cyborgt800 · Apr 29, 2016

Both...I manually cycled them at home and also fired five rounds from the mags at the range.

blume357 · Apr 29, 2016

If it works then it works and good... but might I suggest more than 5 rounds....

cyborgt800 · Apr 29, 2016

blume357 said:
If it works then it works and good... but might I suggest more than 5 rounds....

When I'm at the range I only do five rounds at a time for two reasons; 1. That's how many across the bullets are in the tray. 2. After five rounds it gets difficult to determine where my shots are going...even on Shoot-N-See targets.

I'll try it again next time just to see if I didn't just get lucky.

roylt · Apr 30, 2016

I have both but have no reason to try the 40 cal mag in my 9mm or 9 in the 40. I guess I don't understand why someone would want to do it? 5 rounds at a time just load the mag each time.

blume357 · Apr 30, 2016

cyborgt800 said:
When I'm at the range I only do five rounds at a time for two reasons; 1. That's how many across the bullets are in the tray. 2. After five rounds it gets difficult to determine where my shots are going...even on Shoot-N-See targets.

I usually empty an entire mag.... all the rounds go in the same hole anyway, and so it doesn't matter... ;-)

cyborgt800 · May 1, 2016

roylt said:
I have both but have no reason to try the 40 cal mag in my 9mm or 9 in the 40. I guess I don't understand why someone would want to do it? 5 rounds at a time just load the mag each time.

Curiosity mostly...plus it would be nice to buy mags that fit multiple guns....I have a few that officially share mags and it can be quite handy.

Cheesewhiz · May 1, 2016

Just because you can do something, doesn't mean it's a great idea.
If that off caliber magazine would jam up, it could damage that magazine and then you would have a magazine that won't work for its intended rounds any longer.
The other consideration is if you had a magazine holding the wrong rounds and mixed up and loaded it into the the other pistol, you would have a problem there. Mixing things at the range is never a good idea, I've seen it done and the results are not good.

cyborgt800 · May 1, 2016

Well, since the 94's magazines can load .40 or 9mm and actually fit in the 95 and 89 anyway the problem (If it IS one.) exists regardless if I do it intentionally or not.
Other than a difficult to see stamping, the different magazines appear identical.

The whole thing initially sparked my interest simply because While at the range I accidentally swapped the magazines. I now place the 94 among the .45's instead of the 9mm's so it doesn't happen again. It's way too easy to mix the 9 and 40's up....especially when you have 9 pistols spread out on the tray.

That's all beside the point. The point of my question was if they load, fit and function, why are they sold as different and incompatible magazines?

Cheesewhiz · May 1, 2016

cyborgt800 said:
Well, since the 94's magazines can load .40 or 9mm and actually fit in the 95 and 89 anyway the problem (If it IS one.) exists regardless if I do it intentionally or not.
Other than a difficult to see stamping, the different magazines appear identical.

The whole thing initially sparked my interest simply because While at the range I accidentally swapped the magazines. I now place the 94 among the .45's instead of the 9mm's so it doesn't happen again. It's way too easy to mix the 9 and 40's up....especially when you have 9 pistols spread out on the tray.

That's all beside the point. The point of my question was if they load, fit and function, why are they sold as different and incompatible magazines?

Because the dimensions are not the same. Take out a vernier and measure the different magazines and see for yourself but the opening between the lips are not the same and the followers are not the same, the magazines are not the same.

...and why do guys layout their pistols and magazines at the range like it's show and tell?

Keep one flippin' gun and its magazines on the bench or whatever and leave the rest of your stuff in a range bag. Guys that display their wares at a range are just begging for an accident.

Al James · May 1, 2016

Cheesewhiz said:
Just because you can do something, doesn't mean it's a great idea.
If that off caliber magazine would jam up, it could damage that magazine and then you would have a magazine that won't work for its intended rounds any longer.
The other consideration is if you had a magazine holding the wrong rounds and mixed up and loaded it into the the other pistol, you would have a problem there. Mixing things at the range is never a good idea, I've seen it done and the results are not good.

I always find peoples mistakes while cruising for brass. I usually pick them up and take them home and I have a little bucket for them. I usually spend a little time trying to run forensics on them to determine exactly what happened. I couldn't find my bucket off hand but I had this one laying on the bench handy for pics.....223 headstamp fire formed in a yet to be determined chamber. Shows a badly offset primer strike [just barely ignited] split neck, shoulder, and catastrophic failure in the body. This made a mess of someones day if I had to guess.

Back to the OP,

We had this 9mm vs 40 cal P series magazine discussion at length several years back. There was a very pleasant and knowledgeable member here that went by COFFEEPOT. Many posts here have disappeared over the years but you may be able to search his old posts regarding the subject.

IIRC, there were body, feedlip, follower differences and the mags went through several design changes. The original no crimp bodies allowed loaded mags to rattle which annoyed some. The 1994 AWB reduced the capacity 1 round to comply which brought about the Crimped bodies. If I remember right switching the mags was not recommended as a general rule because all of the variances throughout the years in both the P17 40 cal and P15&P18 9mm mags.

So you may have an early P17/11 that works perfectly and you trust but when you buy a different P17-10 it may not be very reliable. Or worse yet, it may be 99% reliable which only allows for a Murphy moment.

I would recommend just getting the appropriate mag to remove the variable and just as cheap insurance. I do share your fondness of interchangeability but in this case I always just bought separate mags for the 40 and 9mm PC carbines and P series pistols. Good luck and let us know how they work with live fire loaded to full capacity.

hittman · May 1, 2016

Search for him as COFFEE POT ~~ two words. He hasn't logged on since 2012 but there's lots and lots of his posts still here.

Al James · May 1, 2016

Thanks hittman!

cyborgt800 · May 2, 2016

Al James said:
Back to the OP,

We had this 9mm vs 40 cal P series magazine discussion at length several years back. There was a very pleasant and knowledgeable member here that went by COFFEEPOT. Many posts here have disappeared over the years but you may be able to search his old posts regarding the subject.

IIRC, there were body, feedlip, follower differences and the mags went through several design changes. The original no crimp bodies allowed loaded mags to rattle which annoyed some. The 1994 AWB reduced the capacity 1 round to comply which brought about the Crimped bodies. If I remember right switching the mags was not recommended as a general rule because all of the variances throughout the years in both the P17 40 cal and P15&P18 9mm mags.

So you may have an early P17/11 that works perfectly and you trust but when you buy a different P17-10 it may not be very reliable. Or worse yet, it may be 99% reliable which only allows for a Murphy moment.

I would recommend just getting the appropriate mag to remove the variable and just as cheap insurance. I do share your fondness of interchangeability but in this case I always just bought separate mags for the 40 and 9mm PC carbines and P series pistols. Good luck and let us know how they work with live fire loaded to full capacity.

That makes sense...especially since I bought it used...the 94. I was simply curious because it did fit and work, then went I was looking for more mags online I saw a difference.

As for someone's smart ass comments about laying all my pistols out at the range....I was doing it because I bought a bunch recently and wanted to fire them all AND because I LIKE to...I don't care what anyone else thinks. My friend and I bring everything and trade back and forth and have a great time.
As for showing off...not likely as we work nights and tend to go to the range in the afternoon on weekdays when it's empty!

Cheesewhiz · May 2, 2016

Let me get this straight, you admitted to mixing up your magazines while at the range and shot 9mm rounds out of a .40SW magazine in a 9mm gun and I just cautioned against this in my first post and I'm a "smart a##? I only later pointed out the possibility of a potential unsafe act after you described how it happened, Rick understood what I was getting at.
If you did this mag switch you could have just as easily switched up and put a mag loaded with 9mm into a .40SW pistol and that would be an unsafe act but I'm a "smart a##".
Do you know how often that happens? A lot and sometimes no one gets hurt and sometimes someone does.
I go to the range very often when I'm in town and I've seen a bunch of things on those occasions like a guy who shot a hole in his booth because he caught an "unloaded" gun as it fell off his over crowded bench. Have you ever looked at all the holes and dents around the booths at a range? That wasn't caused by termites and woodpeckers those are caused by unsafe acts.
I just want people to be safe, going to the range should be safe and fun recreation, like bowling, no one gets themselves shot bowling. Smart a## signing off for now but I wouldn't recommend to you calling someone a name when they point out things to you.

Added note: I have another incident about a local range accident where a crowded bench came into play, I wasn't there at the time but did see some of a video. The ending was not good at all.

cyborgt800 · May 2, 2016

YES, I said smartass. It was in reference to your projecting and judgment on having more than one gun on the tray...thanks dad!

I also previously said that because of the slip I now place the 94 in with the 45's so as to avoid the issue.

FWIW I place everything down with mag out slide open when not in hand.

mrmike7189 · May 8, 2016

some people can't take constructive criticism and resort to name calling. not very mature.

P89, P95 and P944 Magazines

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