Ruger P & Sig 226 mag discovery

I own several Ruger 9mm p pistols... have recently been leaning toward Sigs and as many of you know bought a Sig 226 last year... at least price wise a much higher end gun... $1,000+ verses around $300... I was putting my Ruger PC9 carbine away and went to look at the magazine for it (which as you know is the same as all the Ruger 9mm p pistols of late... looked similar to the Sig's... and so I decided to do a test between the two different magazines... with snap cap loads it appears that the magazines are 'almost' interchangeable... both will chamber and eject the rounds with simple racking of the slide. the problem and difference is the cut out hole where the magazine catch latch goes....

This is really 'frightening' because it might just lead to another project of modifying some magazines and doing some range testing.....

I've read that Ruger SR9 magazines and S&W M&P9 magazines are also identical except for the magazine catch notches.

The Sig mags are tight in a Ruger... at first I thought it was the width of the mag but it is actually the front to back length. About 5 one thousands of an inch more. Since I've got a good number of Ruger mags that is what I will modify if it works... but I do need to ask, maybe in the smithy section how to make a square or rectangular hole.

how to make hole... drill and file.

As I mentioned the Sig mag is a little bigger front to back and really tight in a Ruger... very little wiggle for the Ruger in the Sig... but I will probably give it a try on one of my Sig mags... I have 5 Sig mags ... as compared to 25 to 30 Rugers

roylt said:

how to make hole... drill and file.

Click to expand...

+1 Mark the location and outline the hole, then drill the center with a drill bit slightly smaller. Also drill out the corners of the marked opening with a very small drill bit to form the radiused corners. Use a jeweler's file to file the opening it out to the lines.

The problem is the foot of the Sig magazine is canted at a greater angle than the Ruger and so once the hole is made it won't seat in far enough.... I filed the hole more but now it sits to high in the PC9... seems the solution is to stick with just modifying the Ruger ones... still need to run to the gun range and test the one Ruger mag I've modified to see if it works in the Sig p226.