Alternative polymer mags for M&P

[RenoHuskerDu]

Christmas Eve found me cleaning and organizing all the 9mm M&P carry mags used by our family. One oddball son chooses to carry a 10mm Glock, but we do allow him at the table still.

Anyway, after a couple of years, the dust sure builds up in there towards the bottom. And the ammo brass loses its luster. But I only found one dinged case out of hundreds. It's going down range in about 20 minutes.

All the Shield Plus mags are still shiny new. What I did find was several of the duty size MP 2.0 mags sporting little bits of rust. They function check fine, but I just don't like even a speck of rust. And it makes me long for - gasp - my halcyon Glock days before I became a Smith family. The nicest thing about a Glock isn't the crunchy trigger or horrible blocky look, it's the polymer mags widely available for a song.

Oh, if only P-Mag were to bring out mags for our Smiths. What a great Christmas present that would be. There are ETS mags for us but reviews are decidedly mixed.

 

[mscampbell2734]

Unlikely.

Metal mags in handguns is a huge upgrade. Going metal means the mags are made of thinner material, making the grip diameter smaller. A big issue when talking handguns. Every plastic gun maker after Glock stuck to metal mags because of this.

Pmag Glock mags work fine because the Glock started as a plastic body mag. Pmags work fine in ARs because they can make the mag thicker because it's not inside a grip frame.

 

[Racer X]

any aftermarket M&P 10mm mags yet?

 

[RenoHuskerDu]

Unlikely.

Metal mags in handguns is a huge upgrade. Going metal means the mags are made of thinner material, making the grip diameter smaller. A big issue when talking handguns. Every plastic gun maker after Glock stuck to metal mags because of this.

Pmag Glock mags work fine because the Glock started as a plastic body mag. Pmags work fine in ARs because they can make the mag thicker because it's not inside a grip frame.

Dang, I never thought of that angle. It makes a lot of sense now that you mention it. Thinner, stronger walls means thinner mag well and slightly wider double stack. I guess I should just bite the bullet, as it were, and maintain my metal Smith mags.

I will freely admit that laziness and being able to toss them carelessly around are probably the main factors that cause me to pine for polymer mags. I was still competing IPSC with a G35 and carrying a G27 when Magpul P Mags came out, and I bought a passel of them for a song even in France where we lived at the time. A shorty mag in the G27 riding high, and a couple longer spare mags under my other armpit.

The night before we left France for good I invited a cop buddy over to give him ammo etc that I could not ship back home. I said "Hey Jaques, do you see a gun on me?" Lifted my shirt ... NO. Then I lifted it up to my armpits and he said "you rascal you!" in French with a huge smile. I gave him that G27 btw. For every one registered firearm in France, there are an estimated twelve that are unknown to the gubbmint. Across the border in Germany, the ratio is estimated to be even higher. Can you say "powder keg?" ...