[jaydee]

Springs by far... The best are made by Wolff.

The standard colt follower is fine, but I have junked most of those mags... Before I did, I had tried the Wilson 8 round followers in them, and they worked fine.

 

[RickB]

Colt factory 8-rounders use Shooting Star followers. SS mags work great in my Colt, as do other company's tubes with SS followers.

 

[ranger]

I've replaced my factory Colt and Kimber followers with the Pachmayer follower. It's convex (rounded, shaped like a cartridge)and these seem to have improved their reliability, especially on the last round. Also used it on a couple of "no-name" mags, where the improvement is more noticeable. I got some at Siegle's (of Oakland) going-out-of-business sale. Liked them so much I got a couple more, just under $3 each from Cheaper Than Dirt.

I have a couple of 8-round conversion followers, I forget the name, from Brownell's (not the Wilson brand.) These have a little ball bearing in a plastic follower. It seems just a gimmick, the follower is flimsy, and the last round has been less than 100% reliable. I don't recommend these.

I just got a Wilson brand 8-round conversion yesterday, but haven't put it in yet, will let you know how that works.