Metal Glock mags for increased capacity flush fit mags adn better reliability...

[TED]

Glock mags are fatter mostly because they have thicker walls.

If you used metal mags you could thin the walls. This could get you an extra round or two by improving the stacking of ammo. Not much of a factor in 9mm, but certainly in .40, 10mm, .45, .357 SIG. This could improve reliability if the stack was more neat.

TED

[HeruMew]

One of the biggest complaints that occur from that is when they add metal mags, you need a metal mag release.

Not a big deal, but the metal mag (as they have been released in the past with metal mags) will wear down the polymer mag release until it no longer holds the mags.

Other than that, sure, it could be done. Would it really be worth it? I dunno... Only way I would buy a metal Glock mag is Mecgar. Just nothing else would "feel" right for me to trust my life on when we know OEM work fine.

My thoughts on this matter, for what they're worth.

[DirectTo]

This could improve reliability if the stack was more neat.

What reliability issues have factory mags given you and how have you decided the stacking of the rounds was the issue?

Glocks already have a capacity advantage over a lot of other guns with similar frame sizes, frequently offering 2-3 more rounds than their competitors with similar frame/mag sizes. Why mess with a proven system to replace parts with something that may or may not work, especially with mags already $20 or less?

Mec Gar has made big business reliably expanding the capacity of factory mags, but do yourself a favor and pick up and ETS translucent Glock mag and load it to capacity. The ETS mag is very slightly longer than the factory mag, but you'll see there really isn't much room to work with in there. Going metal really isn't going to help that and is going to add a whole new set of complications.

[Kain]

Never had any meaningful reliability issues with factory glock mags, aftermarket sure, by not factory and that included some truly old and well used mags. So not sure reliability would be increased in glock pistols, perhaps if one was looking at a carbine or a glock mag fed AR, but I have a feeling any reliability issues there would be better solved by using a man that wasn't single position feed then trying to re-engineer the mag issue, at least in this case. Yes, I went there.

I am not sure how much capacity could be gained by going to, relatively speaking, thin walled metal mags either, and even if capacity could be gained I am not sure how practical would be to use since you'd likely be going into a situation with an odd stack that would possibly affect reliability. Also, unless you are using something like the KCI mags, factory glock mags are pretty damn rugged, and as much as I hate to say it, I would say going to a metal mag would likely result in a decrease in the magazines durability. As well as the above mentioned issue with mag released.

[MegademiC]

I thought glocks had some of the best mags?
I don't recall ever hearing of a glock mag issue. I would not want to tamper with them. I'll take less capacity for the reliability. The balance is great already.

[Singlestack Wonder]

Another "fix" without a problem....

[NongShim]

I would love a metal only mag. The mags are already metal, they just have plastic on the outside. It was probably all a gimmick back when first released to go, "look at all the plastic!"

Metal mags would be much slicker than plastic and would shoot in and out during reloads much more quickly. Ever shot any other plastic framed gun? They all have slick metal mags and are sweet! I say this as an almost exclusive glock shooter.

[Tomahawk_Ghost]

It says something about the durability of glock mags when there are preban still being used today. I like them as they are.

[TAZ]

Didint Glock initially use non metal lined mags and had issues with mags bulging. I wasnt into Glocks for a long time, but I do remember there being a big deal about metal lined mags vs non.

Not sure what the issue we are trying to solve with metal mags. Having a a mag body with a wider inner dimension may not be something you want. The rounds need to stack at certain angles in order to reliably feed and transition into a single column at the feed lips. Widen the stack and you may get binding and eventual failure.

About the only thing that metal mags could have solved while keeping capacity the same would have been a reduced circumference grip. Maybe the grip wouldn't have felt like a 2x4.

[Joe R.]

Originally the Glock 17 was made for military use. The first magazines were made to not drop free as it was felt that manual removal of the magazine would help prevent loss on the battlefield. (Single shot semi-auto pistols suck.)

The American market demanded that the magazine drop free so the magazines were quickly modified with the steel insert. Some magazines will still swell to the point that they stick a bit in the magazine well. This problem can be corrected by lightly sanding the top third or so of the magazine (where it normally gets hung up) on a FLAT surface with 400-600 grit wet/dry sand paper. I have never seen a Glock magazine that this mod did not work on and I kept 150 pistols running for a number of years.

As far as a steel mag that would hold more rounds, I really don't see this as an issue. With the current crop of aftermarket high capacity mags like those from MagPul and ETS there is no reason for them. Is far as steel mags being more reliable than OEM or even the aftermarket polymer mags I would argue that point as well. There are very few (read just about zero) issues with the OEM magazine design and geometry. You only need to look at the issues Para Ordinance had with magazines to see that steel magazines are not a sure thing when it comes to high cap magazines in regards to reliability.