Ditto on Ed Brown's trade-in deal. In my experience the mags you get are EB-branded Checkmates! You can't do better than that.
Here is the deal on Training Mags as I see it.. if we do not experience and practice immediate action drills in response to various unpredictable failures to feed magazine issues.. IMO training is lacking .. I keep a butt ton of good mags around ( I bought more than 100 Chip McCormicks.).. Sold some to offset my costs and kept the rest.
I also keep several mags I know cause function failures.. as I said before I paint the bottom half of them blue marking them as training mags and when I am training they go into the mix.. I don't want to see the blue paint while I am shooting and in fact if I do I know I have taken my eyes off the target/threat which is something I do not subscribe to. They fail at random times in random ways and I deal with that.. IMO It is a good thing making them a useful training tool.
We are not going to mix a blue training magazine into our service mags for the same reason we do not mix snap caps into our Service Ammo.... Because a key requrement in safe shooting is we pay strict attention at all times to what we are doing which something we just have to do .
Now some of the fellas rebuild their mags here and for say IPDA shooting or just training in general . If your not a Latham.. that makes sense to me for many reasons (not the least of which you get an excuse to mess with your 1911 stuff ).. but for defensive purposes once the feed lips need to be "realigned:" Springs need to be replaced.. IMO one should avail themselves of that Wilson trade in program and/or relegate a portion of those magazine to a training role making them/ setting them aside as described.
Last thing..
Cleaning.. I would like to get some feed back on what fellas think about the following..
After a day of shooting (any defensive arm) .. I clean the weapon at the range before I head out.. then I shoot a mag or two before I call it quits for the day.. Now I still punch the barrel more out of habit than anything else but I do not dissasemble that firearm if I am going to carry it as a Defensive Arm. (I punch the barrel between range sessions as well. In booth cases I go a bit OC with a small flashlight to make sure I did not leave a piece of the patch behind..
Next time I go to the range.. I shoot the first magazine in my Defensive Arm exactly as it is being carried no fiddling whatsoever. Yes it uses a few rounds but it keeps my inventory moving ..
I have challendged others to do so and more than once..the result has been Point, Press ,, No bang.. Even with the 1911. Then follows the puzzled expression.. (A whole nother can of worms there) not exactly the correct response to a failure to fire.
Anyway...
Flames greatly appreciated If I am engaging in wrong and or stupid thinking.. please "Learn Me" now as I am no fan of "Learning the hard way" .
"Cult of the Dummy Cord"