Glock 35 and ETS Magazines: Problem Solved!

C

chardin

Moderator
A while back, I couldn't get 16-round ETS magazines to function in my Glock 35. This was a source of great annoyance to me; the magazines worked in my Glock 23 just fine. Posters on another forum I won't name were not terribly helpful.

ETS itself tried its best, but we couldn't figure it out.

Months later, the problem is solved. I may have had some hand in its solution. I found a slight imperfection in the Glock 35 frame that might have impinged on the rounds and filed it away lightly. Or maybe it was just breaking in the magazines with the Glock 23 in the meantime. I truly do not know, but the magazines work now.

Has anyone else had this issue with these magazines? ETS said they may have had other customers with a similar problem.
 
Haven't used the 16 round mags, but I have a 30 round mag I used in my G35 and had no trouble.

I've read of other issues with the ETS mags in Glocks, but I'm thinking those people probably ran one brand of crappy ammo through it and never tried any of the "good stuff" just to see if the issue repeated.

I think the best choice one can make with these ETS mags is test test test them. Break the springs in by loading them and letting them sit overnight, don't use steel case ammo, and don't get rough with these magazines, they don't have any steel in them, unlike standard Glock mags.
 
In my estimation, the polymer of the follower and the feed lips are soft and using steel case ammo will likely wear those parts of the mag quicker. Steel is harder than brass and aluminum, I'd rather use the softest cartridge metal possible.
 
I use brass-cased Winchester 155-grain white-box ammo. It's the same thing I use in my Glock 23. There's no reason to suspect the ammo based on the data I have.
 
In my estimation, the polymer of the follower and the feed lips are soft and using steel case ammo will likely wear those parts of the mag quicker. Steel is harder than brass and aluminum, I'd rather use the softest cartridge metal possible.
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Steel, brass and aluminum are all tremendously harder than the plastic parts of the magazine. Any of those metals will, without deforming/flexing AT ALL, easily deform a plastic part if pressed against it with enough force.

If one of them were so soft that it deformed/flexed when pressed against plastic then it might cause less wear than the others, but that is not the situation here.

If that is your concern, you can ease your mind. The hardness differences in metal cases is a total non-issue in terms of wear to the plastic parts of the magazine.

The surface finish of the cases might make a difference, with rough cases causing more abrasion wear than smooth cases, but that has nothing to do with the metallurgical makeup of the cases.
 
My Gen4 G21 sees a steady diet of steel & aluminum jacketed ammo and I only use Glock OEM mags with this 21. IMHO, a problem with an aftermarket Glock magazine is justification for sticking with Glock OEM mags. I've had good luck with the Magpul 15 & 17 rd. PMAGS for my G17 & G19. If Magpul comes out with G21 mags I'll try a couple, until then it's strictly Glock mags for that one.
 
JDBerg said:
My Gen4 G21 sees a steady diet of steel & aluminum jacketed ammo and I only use Glock OEM mags with this 21. IMHO, a problem with an aftermarket Glock magazine is justification for sticking with Glock OEM mags. I've had good luck with the Magpul 15 & 17 rd. PMAGS for my G17 & G19. If Magpul comes out with G21 mags I'll try a couple, until then it's strictly Glock mags for that one.
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I'm not sure where your remark about OEM magazines should fill in the Glock Malfunction Thread Bingo card. Is it "Non-OEM parts" or "cheap magazines"?
 
It's not just a Glock issue.

I bought aftermarket magazines for a number of my handguns during the AWB when OEM mags were hard to find and prohibitively expensive. Since the AWB expired, nearly all those aftermarket mags have been disposed of since most of them either didn't work as well as OEM or quit working altogether. Now I buy only OEM mags and mags from OEM suppliers such as MecGar (for some handguns) and the Italian company that makes mags for Beretta. For all my handguns.

In the long run it's cheaper because they hold up much better and because they work.
I found a slight imperfection in the Glock 35 frame that might have impinged on the rounds and filed it away lightly.
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For what it's worth, this is not a good general recipe for a positive outcome. In general one should avoid, at all costs, modifying a gun that works perfectly in factory configuration to try to get it to work with aftermarket parts.

1. If the gun works in factory configuration then the problem isn't with the gun, it's with the aftermarket part.

2. The gun is expensive and difficult to replace, the aftermarket part is, almost by definition, cheap and easy to replace.
 
The aftermarket part in this case was superior for my constraints, worked in other guns, and was fun to diagnose as a toy problem. I believe in playing with things when the cost to doing so is acceptable and the chance to learn something is high. Therefore, while I understand you are reasoning from base principles you favor, I come to different conclusions in this case.
 
Interesting. I've never had a problem with ETS Glock magazines. However, like any other relative newcomer to a specific market, it can and will have issues. I suspect that they will evolve their product like everyone else.
 
By the way, the imperfection I removed from my Glock 35 would have worried me regardless of any magazine issues. It was visually distinct and seemed likely to impair the smooth feeding of rounds from the magazine. That its removal seems to have affected the ETS magazines more than the OEM magazines is interesting, but more of a happy accident than a primary aim.
 
chardin: said:
I'm not sure where your remark about OEM magazines should fill in the Glock Malfunction Thread Bingo card. Is it "Non-OEM parts" or "cheap magazines"?
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My remark about OEM magazines doesn't fit anywhere in your Glock Bingo Card, I don't have any malfunctions with the G21 that I use only OEM magazines with, and I don't have any malfunctions with the G17 and G21 that I use the Magpul and OEM mags with.
 
For all the praise ETS magazines get, I haven't found them to be acceptably reliable in my 17, 19, or 9mm AR carbine.

On the other hand, I've found the much-maligned Korean Glock mags to be perfectly reliable (though I still only trust them for range use).
 
JDBerg said:
My remark about OEM magazines doesn't fit anywhere in your Glock Bingo Card, I don't have any malfunctions with the G21 that I use only OEM magazines with, and I don't have any malfunctions with the G17 and G21 that I use the Magpul and OEM mags with.
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I understand. I am curious to try the Magpul magazines.
 
Fishbed77 said:
For all the praise ETS magazines get, I haven't found them to be acceptably reliable in my 17, 19, or 9mm AR carbine.

On the other hand, I've found the much-maligned Korean Glock mags to be perfectly reliable (though I still only trust them for range use).
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Interesting. What's the most common failure mode you see with the ETS magazines?
 
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