Magpul Glock 17 Magazine Review

This is a guest post by JR Grounds

After waiting what seemed like an eternity, I finally received my batch of Magpul Glock magazines. These were the new version which has been re-designed after Magpul had issues with the original attempt. A friend of mine had a new Glock 17 he needed to break in but didn’t have time. I had a case of ammo, a free weekend, and a desire to test these magazines, so it was a perfect opportunity.

I fired 1,000 rounds over a two day period. In order to push the magazines as much as possible, I only used two, which meant each magazine received 500 rounds of abuse. Even more important, I was doing speed reloads, where each magazine was dropped once empty. Too be fair, I was on a grass range, so the drop didn’t really have much of an impact, but I have actually seen some cheap magazines fail this simple test.

The pictures in this article were all taken after the 500 rounds. As you can tell, they still look fairly new. I never had any issues during the weekend, including pushing them at magazine capacity +1 in chamber. Granted at 500 rounds that is just over 29 reloads, which isn’t a lot of cycling on the spring, but I doubt Magpul will have any issues in that department. I felt if they would fail, it would be something that would pop up fairly quick.

Some people will point out these magazine bodies are 100% polymer without any lining. Although that is a different design from Glock OEM magazines, the design has worked well in thousands of AR PMAGS, and I don’t see why it won’t hold up well in the pistol format. At approximately $12 versus $20, you can get almost twice the number of magazines for the same investment. If you are like me and show up to training with 20 magazines already loaded, that is a $160 savings.

The follower is anti-tilt design, and moves smoothly in the body. The lips are thick and do not appear to be prone to breaking even under a routine amount of torture.   The body itself is very sturdy, and even when I stepped on it during a moving drill, it showed no signs of damage, not that I expected it would. Reloads are easy up until about the 15^th round, with only the final 2 needing a bit of muscle. It will accept the standard OEM Glock magazine loader if you want to save your thumbs.

If I had to find one complaint, it would be the lack of round indicator holes. The only indication it has is the full capacity indicator, letting you know you have successfully loaded 17 rounds. While this isn’t a major deal for most instances, it can be a bit annoying when you are doing specific drills which require you to load a certain number of rounds in your magazine. Staying focused and counting rounds is a solution, but it would still be nice to have the familiar round indicator holes.

Overall I think Magpul has another successful product. The price puts it as the best option available for those who like stock up on magazines but still want something reliable.

 

JR Grounds is one of the founding members of The Civilian Crisis Response Team, a group of like-minded individuals committed to protecting their families and their communities in the time before the first responders arrive. You can find out more at www.civilianprotector.com