The main purpose for altering the magazine well opening in your grip frame is to make is easier and quicker to insert a fresh magazine. If you shoot in competitive matches such as IPSC or IDPA, you will want to consider one of the add-on magazine wells to give you the largest opening possible. In the early days of IPSC, competitors using the M-1911 autopistol quickly discovered that since the scoring system was so heavily weighted to reward speed, the quicker they were able to reload their pistol; the better score they could achieve. One of the first changes made to enhance the speed at which magazines could be changed was to machine a bevel into the frame's opening. Soon after, add-on devices were developed to make the opening even larger.

   The beveled mag well

     There is a lot of improvement to be had by simply removing metal from the existing opening. The simplest form of the mag well bevel is to machine a 60-degree bevel all the way around the mouth of the frame opening. I prefer to make this bevel as large as I can without cutting through the frame web, into the main spring housing. This will increase the opening size by approximately 15-20% and may be all you need. For concealed carry, it probably is all you need.
     The next stage of beveling would be to make the rear end of the bevel, adjacent to the main spring housing larger by machining the bevel farther to the rear, all the way into the main spring housing. This will leave the joint between the frame web and the mainspring housing more exposed to the magazine and may be a point that a freshly inserted magazine can hang up. I can eliminate the chance of this happening by welding up the front face of the main spring housing and then cutting the rear bevel so that there is no gap with the frame web.
     It's also possible to open the sides up further, by letting the bevel run into the grip panels. I don't care for this concept because you are now getting into a size of opening that can be better delivered with an add-on mag well.

   Add-on mag wells

     The add-ons come in two basic flavors: those that are permanently attached by welding or brazing (silver soldering) and those that are removable.

     The permanent mag wells are all installed by machining away the bottom-most .250" to .300" of the frame and fitting the add-on mag well to the frame. The two parts are then permanently fused together by either TIG welding or silver soldering. Once the parts have cooled, the exterior and interior are filed and machined to shape and the cross pin hole for the main spring housing pin is re-drilled. The grip panels have to be shortened to fit the mag well. Briley and EGW both supply quality welded on mag wells. The Briley is .250" tall and has several fancy cuts on the exterior. The EGW is a more desirable .300" tall and does not have the styling cuts that the Briley does. The EGW part, being taller, allows it to be beveled at 60 degrees and not go past the well to frame joint. The Briley is factory beveled at 45 degrees.
     Richard Heinie makes a similarly designed mag well that I consider being a permanently installed mag well. Instead of welding or brazing, it is attached with four screws that are concealed by special supplied grip panels. Unlike the previously mentioned EGW and Briley products, the Heinie's grip panels wrap over the sides of the mag well. It is .300" tall and has a 60 degree bevel making it a good sized mag well, although it isn't as wide from side to side as the others.
     The after market is full of removable mag wells. One of the first on the market is Bill Wilson's #188 Custom Magazine Well. This part is attached to the gun by two thin "ears" that go under the grip panels and hook around the lower grip screw bushings. Compared to others, it's not particularly large and it's not used by many custom pistolsmiths. It is fairly inexpensive and often used by the do-it-yourselfer.
     Another of the old timers is the Smith & Alexander Mag Guide. It's been around since the mid-80's and is still a very popular product. It is a casting that incorporates a mag well that is made as part of a main spring housing. The mag well is open at the front end, allowing one to strip out a stuck magazine by grabbing the toe of the floor plate. It's available is blue, stainless, flat, arched, checkered, plain, standard width, narrow width, aluminum, featuring a lanyard loop, for a full size 1911 frame or an Officer's ACP size frame. S&A also makes a version of their mag guide for the Para-Ordnance high cap frame. The S&A is the most-installed mag well in my shop. I offer some enhancements such as side bevels on the outside of the mag well, rear blending; both to make it more comfortable in concealed carry. The S&A mag wells are sized so that the inner edges will match up to a non-beveled mag well opening. To install an S&A (as well as most of the others) on frames that already have a beveled mag well opening, the mag well lips will have to be ground back to match. If you install it on a beveled frame, you will have a mis-match that prevents a smooth transition from the mag well to the frame. The S&A has cat-in checkering that is okay for traction, but short on appearance. I can sharpen the checkering into the conventional appearance.
     A mag well with similar characteristics to the S&A is available from Ed Brown, called the Maxi-Well. The chief difference is that the lower part of the unit is bolted on to the main spring housing. The purpose of this feature is to allow the user to be able to remove the added on portion, when desired. To me, it's another bolt to have to keep tightened. The checkering on the main spring housing is cut and is very nice. It's available in a variety of configurations for 1911's as well as for Para-Ordnance models.
     Wilson Combat also makes their version of the "part of the main spring housing and open at the front" mag well. The Wilson product is called a Speed Chute. It comes as a flat, checkered MSH with a mag well that is attached by two "fingers" that fit into interlocking slots in the bottom of the MSH and is retained by the MSH pin. Wilson promotes the ability to remove the funnel for concealed carry, much like the Ed Brown.
     Caspian offers it's "Race Ready" frame with a mag well cast into the frame. It has an enclosed toe, but Caspian has recently released a "Tactical" version that has an open toe. The Caspian product lengthens the frame, just like all the mag wells that attach to the main spring housing. It takes a special length MSH available from Caspian.

   Pros and Cons

     The removable mag wells that are open in the toe are fairly easy to strip a stuck magazine from. That's a plus, when you have an empty gun and the magazine won't fall free. The weld-on or brazed-on mag wells with a closed toe are a good bit more difficult to strip out a stuck magazine from, because you'll have to pinch the magazine's base pad by the sides to pull it out.
     For mag wells that add length to the gun, you will need to use magazines that have base pads tall enough to consistent lock the magazine in, when inserted. Magazines that have no pad are difficult to seat quickly with any of the mag wells that add to the length of the frame. It's mostly a moot point because most premium magazines come with pads.
     It's not unheard of for a brazed-on mag well joint to fail, allowing the mag well to fall off. It doesn't happen often and is normally caused by contamination of the metal or from being attacked by chemicals used in the plating process. When I install a weld-on mag well, I use the TIG welding process. I have more confidence in my ability to deliver a trouble free product with TIG than I do with silver solder or brazing.
     I've heard concerns expressed about the durability of the removable mag wells should the gun be dropped, bending a mag well "leg" over and trapping a magazine in the gun. If your occupation puts you at risk for high impact possibilities to your pistol, then maybe you want to consider a weld-on mag well, a simple bevel, or Caspian's tactical mag well. Having had to "align" the leg to match the frame bottom on a few guns, I can attest that it takes several significant impacts to move a leg at all. Probably not a big worry.

   John's Picks

     A matched-to-the-frame, S&A mag well is probably the best bang for the buck in a mag well for a single-stack 1911 built for match use. The permanently installed mag wells are attractive and the Briley sure stands out, but a weld-on wouldn't be my first pick for a competition gun. A good 60-degree bevel is all I need on my carry gun. I like to cut the bevel back into the main spring housing on my personal guns, but am equally happy without it.
     The single biggest gain in performance related to magazine changes is one that you'll have to give yourself. Without learning good magazine changing techniques and practicing them regularly, the biggest mag well on the market won't keep you from blowing a reload. The good thing is that a practiced person can do quite well with no more than a bevel.