A new shooter asked me to make this post for her, after she brought me a new 30-plus-round aftermarket magazine she purchased for her Glock 19.
It appears that she had loaded the mag up to capacity at the range, and managed to fire off six or seven rounds before the magazine (not the gun) failed.
When I looked at the rather long, all-metal magazine (not polymer-coated and obviously not factory-Glock) I discovered that the cartridges had nose-dived into the magazine’s front wall, and were effectively stuck. No amount of shaking would dislodge them. Not wanting to deform the magazine’s feed lips by attempting to remove the cartridges from above, I removed the base plate (under high spring tension) and extracted the remaining 9mm’s from underneath. (There were well over 20 cartridges left inside.)
The magazine does not appear to have any welded seams on the front wall, but was too long to “feel through” to detect any roughness on the inside, even with the spring and follower removed.
Question is, is this a standard occurrence in mega-capacity magazines like this, or did our newbie friend just pick up a lemon? One wag suggested that it was a faulty design to start with, pointing out that 30-round mags in machine pistols like the UZI are always perfectly vertical, not slanted like this particular example.
Was he correct? (Newbie will be monitoring this thread for any insights/helpful advice you can provide.) The best I could advise her was to tap the rear of the magazine against her palm for every 5 rounds she loaded (six taps in all).
It appears that she had loaded the mag up to capacity at the range, and managed to fire off six or seven rounds before the magazine (not the gun) failed.
When I looked at the rather long, all-metal magazine (not polymer-coated and obviously not factory-Glock) I discovered that the cartridges had nose-dived into the magazine’s front wall, and were effectively stuck. No amount of shaking would dislodge them. Not wanting to deform the magazine’s feed lips by attempting to remove the cartridges from above, I removed the base plate (under high spring tension) and extracted the remaining 9mm’s from underneath. (There were well over 20 cartridges left inside.)
The magazine does not appear to have any welded seams on the front wall, but was too long to “feel through” to detect any roughness on the inside, even with the spring and follower removed.
Question is, is this a standard occurrence in mega-capacity magazines like this, or did our newbie friend just pick up a lemon? One wag suggested that it was a faulty design to start with, pointing out that 30-round mags in machine pistols like the UZI are always perfectly vertical, not slanted like this particular example.
Was he correct? (Newbie will be monitoring this thread for any insights/helpful advice you can provide.) The best I could advise her was to tap the rear of the magazine against her palm for every 5 rounds she loaded (six taps in all).