I've looked at a couple in the stores and they are black.

That's a good question. I don't know, but I should. The website description on the M&P says "stainless steel barrel/slide and structural components", but I don't know if that includes the mags. I'll try to remember to ask our armorer next time I see him, but that won't be until about two weeks from now.

No.

However, I heard through the grapevine...

That at one time they considered offering a stainless "accessory" magazine for those that want them.

It is rumored that some stainless mags for M&P's exist for experimentation, and may be in use somewhere...north of the Mason-Dixon line...

I sincerely doubt that there is such a thing as a straight or concise answer to the matter.

Give it time...the details will fall out.

Well...there it is.

I guess if they work, that's all that matters, but they feel like a weak link to me; they feel thin and wimpy to me; don't feel as substantial in the hand as a GLOCK mag.

Yeah, the plastic feels much better..........

Umm, I'm not trying to pick a fight here, but I've seen more than one plastic Glock magazine crack open for no apparent reason and jettison its contents. I have never seen that with an M&P magazine, nor with any other steel magazine.

HRF

My M&P magazines feel pretty sturdy to me and they work. I'm gonna guess just as strong as Glock's plastic mags.

Sigmas have SS mags right? Just seemed odd. I was wondering if they we're coated stainless or something.

My Sigma mags tarnish like nickel.

quote:

Originally posted by makeminestainless:
Sigmas have SS mags right? Just seemed odd. I was wondering if they we're coated stainless or something.

SIGMA mags are not stainless. If I remember right some sort of nickel finish with a built in lubricity feature.

quote:

Originally posted by makeminestainless:
I've looked at a couple in the stores and they are black.

Who knows what they do on agency special order, but the commercial ones are blued steel in 9mm and 40 and some sort of steel with weird splotchy finish on 45, which I understand is going to change.

Glock mags are both steel (liner) and polymer outer shell..........they are sturdy enough.
The steel liner is to provide a little weight so they drop free...........

quote:

Originally posted by Anton Chigurh:
Glock mags are both steel (liner) and polymer outer shell..........they are sturdy enough.
The steel liner is to provide a little weight so they drop free...........

Not so. Original Glock mags were all polymer - well before they were ever imported here.

The first ones with steel liners were requested by the Austrian military and the liners were only on 3 sides, which allowed the mags to expand when loaded so they would not drop free, a requirement of the Austrian contract.

Because Americans wanted them to drop free (everyone envisions themselves in a gun fight doing a speed load - which is far less likely than accidentally activating the mag release button and losing your mag), the liners were made with four sides to help prevent expansion of the mag tube, thereby allowing, or making it more likely, that the mag will actually drop out when the mag button is pushed and released before the mag body has cleared the receiver.

Thus, it is not the extra weight that causes them to drop free, but the effect of the four sides to the steel liner in helping to make sure the mag does not expand as much when filled.

The mags that shipped with my MP45 are blued steel. They WILL rust if not cared for properly. That was my only dissapointment with these guns.