And this is inversely proportional to the quality of the magazine. A magazine with better springs will hold the tension at a more constant rate than a magazine with a cheap spring. Also, the surface of the lips of the magazine play a key factor here as well. The smoother and slicker the surface of the magazine lips, the less resistance it offers when pushing a round forward. This means a magazine with very smooth lips will be more consistent in its feeding because there is less friction (and therefore less resistance to forward motion) created when the round is traveling forward against them. The better the surface, the less the magazine spring tension factors in.flintknapper wrote:The Annoyed Man wrote:Wouldn't it be safe to say that, as friction against the feed lips decreases due to decreasing spring tension on the magazine spring as the follower gets nearer and nearer to the top of the magazine, the amount of spring tension on the recoil spring required to strip the round also decreases, and consequently, the speed of the slide forward into battery increases marginally?
Yup.
Also something to note is the material the cases are made of. Steel and aluminum cases are going to offer up considerably more resistance to feeding than a brass case will. Even between manufacturers of brass-cased ammo, you'll find a difference. In my personal experience, Hornady seems to make the slickest brass I've tried, and I can certainly tell the difference in the smoothness of the action when I run it through my pistols.