Bought 2 Promag magazines

[Okie21]

I was at a gun show last weekend in Harrisburg, Pa. I bought 2 new S&W M&P 17 round magazines. Today I removed them from the packaging and realized they were NOT factory mags. They're Promags. They were in S&W packaging just like the rest of them in the pile. GRRR!!!!
I don't remember what gun shop was running the booth where I bought them so I'm stuck with them. I did a quick search and found many negative reviews. I took them to the range today and had 2 failures to return to battery with these magazines. Never a problem with my factory mags.
Oh well, nothing I can do about it. I'm stuck with them. Just needed to vent.

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[ken158]

If they were in factory packaging, call the factory and ask them if promag was a contractor and send them back to S&W.

 

[Saudade]

Who did you buy them from? Can you post pics of the packaging? How did you tell they are Promags?

 

[Jeppo]

Were the packages completely sealed? In order to open the authentic packages, you have to cut or tear the white label. Either way, I think I'd contact the show organizers and point out they have a thief in their midst.

 

[DMSC]

I have one ProMag 17rd mag. It was included in a 3 mag deal. Two factory 17rd mags and the ProMag.

The only reason I haven't chucked it in the trash is, it makes a nice Barney Mag for IDPA! [emoji16]

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[Spokes]

Pro mags are so bad. I bought one and it disintegrated inside my gun. Had to take it to a smith to have my pistol repaired..

 

[ScaryWoody]

I have a 1911 that has feeding issues with the expensive Wilson Combat magazines while the ProMag's feed fine. Weird.

 

[TTSH]

ProMag was never a supplier to S&W so let's get that fantasy out of the way first.

I'd like to know if these ProMags were in a sealed, clear, square plastic S&W packages (like all other current production factory S&W magazines)... or were they in those soft plastic "zip-lock" magazine-size baggies you see at the gun shows, typically with used/refurb'd magazines in them (even though they show S&W trademarks on the labels)?

I'm betting the latter.

 

[Roadtrip]

Probably a customer that switched mags in the package and paid for ProMag packages.

Several years ago, I bought a few ProMags for the M&P. One disassembled itself on the first shot. Sent them back to ProMag and four months later they sent replacements that have worked ok. However, I would NEVER trust them except for benign range use.

About a year ago I decided to try ProMag again for my VP9 since HK mags were very hard to find at the time. The ProMags would not function correctly in the VP9, so I sent them back to the internet store I bought them from for a refund.

Verdict? IMO, ProMags are utter cheap dangerous **** and the company should not be in business.

 

[stavey]

I have several 32 round promags. Maybe 3-500 rounds through each and zero issues. Not sure about the 17 rounders . But I love the 32 rounders. Gotta love mag compatibility, here's a 32 rounders in my 9c

 

[Okie21]

I tossed the packaging right after I opened them. And that trash bag has been thrown in the dumpster. I won't be diving in anytime soon haha. As far as I remember, there was a stack of S&W factory mags. I grabbed 2 off the stack and paid for them.
Days later, I opened them up and loaded them. That's when I saw that the base plates say "Promag". If I remember correctly, they were pretty easy to open, NOT sealed. So they very well could have been switched. By who, I don't know.
I should have known better. They were $25 each. I picked them up and the guy offered them for $20 each, then quickly dropped down to $15 each. So, like the old saying, if it seems to good to be true...
I'll just keep them for the range until they break. In the meantime, I'll get factory magazines elsewhere.

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[NCW Ray]

Since the M&P's seldom malfunction, you now have great training mags for malfunction drills!

 

[Okie21]

Since the M&P's seldom malfunction, you now have great training mags for malfunction drills!

You must be a "glass half full" kinda guy

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[NCW Ray]

You must be a "glass half full" kinda guy

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Yep!

And rather than admitting you got hoodwinked on your purchase to everyone on the forum, you could have said "I was at a gun show last weekend in Harrisburg, Pa. and I saw 17 rd Promags for $15 so bought 2 so I can practice my malfunction drills since my M&P very seldom malfunctions and I needed a way to practice them!"

 

[Fishslayer]

I have a 1911 that has feeding issues with the expensive Wilson Combat magazines while the ProMag's feed fine. Weird.

Lemme guess... the WC 47D, right? Overpriced & overrated. The 47D were known to be problematic and WC fixed it with the ETM. I fixed both of mine with new followers and 7rd springs.

As for Pro Mags, I actually have had OK luck with them in a FEG DA90 that has since been sent down the road. At present I have a bunch of 10 rounders for my Mini 30 and they seem to work OK after I enlarged the pin holes that became too small with the plating.

But given a choice, friends don't let friends buy Pro Mags.

 

[0849]

If you place them on the ground and stomp the top end of the Promags really flat they make reasonably good door stops.

 

[mrsmitty62]

I bought a 17 round pro-mag for my compact 9. Shot it the other day, ran great, worked with the 147 gr 9mms, plus just found a grip adapter, so the mag looks better, and fits better....

 

[dan323]

I have 2 - 10 round pro mags for my 9mm Shield. 1500 rounds, no issues.

 

[birdshooter]

My Kel Tec Sub 2000 came with a 17 round ProMag and i bought a 32 round ProMag to go with it. Both have functioned flawlessly in the Kel Tec but have been abysmal in my M&P 2.0. Stick with S&W mags in your M&Ps.

Really stinks that you got stuck with them. A solution? Buy a Kel Tec Sub 2000 that takes S&W mags. They are a ton of fun!

 

[Uzitiger]

Pro mags are so bad. I bought one and it disintegrated inside my gun. Had to take it to a smith to have my pistol repaired..

I had good performance from Promags. I hear a lot of complaints but my Promags work fine. If they weren't any good, I would have let users know it.

I have some steel mags made by Promag for my Model 59 which are excellent as are the ones made for the Model 69 which I used on a Kel Tek P11 hand beater.

 

[Okie21]

Been a few months and I haven't had any more failures since that first time using them. I do get a "gritty" feeling as I load them and the spring compresses. I took them apart and didn't find anything wrong inside.
And even though I wasn't too impressed with them, I ended up buying 2 Promag 17 round magazines for a surplus Beretta 92s that I recently bought. Magazines are hard to find because the mag release is on the heel of the grip. I found 2 at my LGS/indoor range, so I grabbed them. Those work fine.

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[Beauetienne]

I have several 32 round promags. Maybe 3-500 rounds through each and zero issues. Not sure about the 17 rounders . But I love the 32 rounders. Gotta love mag compatibility, here's a 32 rounders in my 9c

I just received a 32 count for a Beretta. Good to hear something positive. Will know soon.

 

[Saudade]

Been a few months and I haven't had any more failures since that first time using them. I do get a "gritty" feeling as I load them and the spring compresses. I took them apart and didn't find anything wrong inside.
And even though I wasn't too impressed with them, I ended up buying 2 Promag 17 round magazines for a surplus Beretta 92s that I recently bought. Magazines are hard to find because the mag release is on the heel of the grip. I found 2 at my LGS/indoor range, so I grabbed them. Those work fine.

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OEM Beretta mags have the notch for the heel release.

 

[Saudade]

I had a few for my FS M&P 9 and my Mini 14. Had "fail to feeds" on them. Some of the Mini 14's would not even fit in the mag well. A couple others would fit but not lock. Had to file the tab down to fit. Granted, they were half the price of Ruger mags but took too much work to fit them and they were still unreliable.

If yours work, Carry on!!

 

[Okie21]

At the range today, one of my M&P Promag magazines failed. I had a FTF, dropped the magazine and saw the remaining rounds loosely bouncing around inside the magazine. As I carefully removed them, I could see the mag follower was stuck. I grabbed that mag and my other M&P Promag magazine, walked over to the trash can and dropped them in.

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[00 buck]

PRO MAGS. Suck......the end

 

[hoc9sw]

When GM was closing up, and stuff was heavily marked down, every mag off the rack was gone EXCEPT the ProMags. Story I heard later was that they finally sold them as a batch to a gunshow booth guy for $5 each.

 

[Walt Sherrill]

Pro-Mag has a crappy reputation, but they do sometimes make mags that are OK.

Years back, when there was a limit on mag capacities, I got my first 9mm compact CZ, and you couldn't get hi-caps for them. Pro-Mag made a bunch of mags for the CZ-75 Compact in .40, a gun that CZ designed but never imported to the U.S. (or anywhere else, except maybe in very small quantities.) I bought several and had great success, as did many members of the CZ Forum. They held 13 rounds and ran fine. The mags for the full-size CZs were more trouble than they were worth, but not the "compact" mags.

I also had some good success with some CZ-75B full-size factory 10-round mags from CDNN (which I used in IDPA.) When I opened the package, I found (on the rear of the label card inside the package), that they were made by Pro-Mag. The front side of that label card looked exactly like other CZ factory mags. As best I could tell, and over the years, those mags were identical in every respects to the factory 10-round mags, and probably were "factory" mags, even though they were made by Pro-Mag. (I think CZ had mags made by several different firms back then; Mec-Gar didn't start making them until several years later.) These Pro-Mags never failed and I may still have one or two of them.

If the S&W mags mentioned in the original post were packaged as S&W factory mags, it may be that they were also made to S&W specs rather than the less stringent Pro-Mag standards for some mags that wear their own brand.