The Glock pistol revolutionized the worldwide law enforcement, military, and civilian handgun market starting in the mid-1980s, and its combination of durability, simplicity, reliability, accuracy, capacity, and relatively low cost has made Glocks the hottest-selling handguns in America for more than 3 decades. One of the things that keeps Gaston Glock’s design so popular is its modularity and enormous aftermarket support. Today, thanks to companies like PSA, SCT, Lone Wolf, The Glock Store, and many others, you can piece together (or buy outright) a Glock-style pistol that is constructed entirely of non-Glock parts. It truly is Lego for grownups.
Interestingly, while other long-lived pistol platforms (like the 1911) may have dozens of aftermarket companies making magazines for them, Glock went roughly 30 years before anyone outside the company figured out a way to emulate Glock’s polymer magazines (at least successfully). Thankfully, today there are several choices for those who own Glocks or Glock-compatible firearms who want more magazines for less money. Let’s go over why you may (or may not) want to consider purchasing some aftermarket magazines for your Glock.
Should you even consider using non-Glock (aftermarket) magazines?
First, let’s go over some reasons why you may want to use aftermarket Glock mags in the first place. After all, Glock magazines are (usually) readily available from multiple retailers, when there’s not a pandemic or potential gun-ban panic going on. The price for OEM Glock mags, while it has gotten higher over the years, is still not unreasonable, at around $20-$22 for the standard-sized Glock pistol magazines, and $35 or so for the extended Glock 18 magazine that’s popular for many 9mm pistol-caliber carbines (PCCs). Prices may be higher in times of social chaos, but generally speaking, Glock magazines are no more expensive than the factory magazines for other popular pistol brands, and are cheaper than some.
Using aftermarket magazines for range/training/practice can save you money
However, some people prefer having several or even dozens of magazines available for the firearms they use, particularly those they practice and train with regularly. Magazines are wear items or consumables, depending on the term you prefer, meaning they wear out with use and must be replaced on occasion. Even with standard use and regular maintenance, magazine springs and lips eventually wear out and/or crack. Drop mags in the sand or mud on the range, step on them, or drop them onto concrete a dozen times during a competition, tactical class, or practice session, and you might damage them beyond repair. Glock mags are known for their durability, but nothing lasts forever. So, for people who practice with their firearms a lot (and you should), or for people who own several Glock pistols, it’s not uncommon to buy 20 or more magazines at a time, and those costs per magazine can add up quick.
Most experts recommend that you stick with factory magazines when it really counts, like for concealed carry, home defense, duty, or serious competition, and use any aftermarket magazines for training and practice, leting them take the wear and abuse. Since the better aftermarket Glock pattern mags cost around $10-$16 per magazine, and can be found as low as $7 for some, shall we say, potentially questionable ones, you can save quite a bit of dough.
If you decide you want to try a few aftermarket Glock magazines to save the wear and tear on your factory mags, you should be aware that some aftermarket magazines are better than others. Some are suitable for regular practice, training, and target shooting, and some may give you more trouble than they’re worth, even at a low price.
So, which aftermarket Glock magazines are good enough to be considered as an option? Let’s have a look.
Korean Glock magazines (KCI, Khan, ATI, SGM Tactical, RWB)
KCI is a South Korea-based manufacturer that has been making aftermarket magazines since 1984, though we don’t remember seeing their Glock-pattern magazines in the US until about the late 1990s. As far as we can determine, this company manufactures all Korean Glock magazine brands, including Kahn, ATI, SGM Tactical, and RWB (Red White Blue). There may be some differences in the finish or the specific details between these different brands over the decades, but we believe they’re all made in the same factory. Apparently they also manufacture magazines for the South Korean military, so you know they’re at least functional.
To the untrained eye, many Korean-made Glock magazines appear identical to factory Glock mags, with similar black polymer magazine bodies and even a bonded-in metal lining like the Glock mags have. The font on the lettering above the magazine witness holes down the back of the mags makes them easier to read than Glock factory mags as well. Sometimes you’ll find a KCI mag with a bit of plastic mold flashing left around the mag lips, but that can easily be trimmed away with a sharp knife.
Video KCI Korean Glock Magazine - Review
Our experience with KCI Glock mags has been generally good, but mixed overall. We have an extended .40 caliber KCI magazine that runs okay in most guns but produces occasional misfeeds in others. However, the 9mm KCI magazines for the Glock 17 and 19 have performed well overall, as far as feeding reliability. If you drop them onto concrete with rounds still in the mag (during a speed reload or malfunction clearance, for example), you may find the baseplates aren’t as durable as they could be. Some users report that if they replace the baseplates with a quality aftermarket option like Vickers Tactical floorplates, the KCI mags have proven just as durable and reliable over many thousands of rounds as their OEM Glock mags have been.
We haven’t had the opportunity to put thousands upon thousands of rounds through our KCI mags, but the standard-capacity Glock 17 and Glock 19 KCI mags have worked satisfactorily for us, especially considering their ~$10 price point these days, roughly half that of a Glock factory mag.
Some users have also reported that the KCI magazine springs are not as strong as the Glock factory springs, and we can believe that. Our issues with our big stick .40 magazine are likely magazine-spring related. If you try some KCI mags and find the springs inadequate, you can try factory Glock springs or get some replacements from Wolff gunsprings, and we’re betting they will sort any issues. However, once you pay $5-$7 for a replacement spring and a few bucks for a durable baseplate, you’re close to the price of a factory Glock magazine anyway (or more).
Still, in our view, if you’re trying to save some dough where you can, KCI magazines for the Glock are worth a look, and more likely than not they’ll work just fine for practice, training, and range use. At time of this writing, GunMagWarehouse has KCI Glock 17 magazines for $9.99 each.
Elite Tactical Systems (ETS) Glock magazines
ETS surprised the firearms world in 2015 when they began teasing the gun media with images of a new, translucent magazine for the Glock pistol. Magpul (see below) eventually beat them to market with their own polymer Glock magazine, but ETS mags made it into gun writers’ (and consumers’) hands in early 2016, to generally favorable reviews. The see-through polymer magazine bodies ETS uses are a bit of a gimmick, but their products do stand out, and it is actually useful to quickly see how many rounds you have in a magazine. Even if you don’t have time to count the entire stack of cartridges, at a quick glance you can easily see the difference between a few rounds left and full or nearly full. ETS also sells different-colored magazine followers for a reasonable price, in case you want to categorize different loaded magazines with different colors according to the ammo in them.
Glock makes a big deal of their advanced polymers used in their pistol frames and magazines, and ETS also touts the benefits of their own advanced plastic formula, promising:
- Extreme impact resistance—won’t crack or break when dropped
- Very resistant to harsh chemicals
- Superior heat, cold and UV resistance—won’t become brittle over time even when exposed to harsh environments or extreme cold
- Translucent body—allowing you to see your ammo count and type
- Creep resistant—the feed lips and body won’t spread when being stored long term even when fully loaded
Video: ETS Group Clear Plastic Magazine Test And Review
Additional benefits of ETS’s design include a greatly simplified disassembly process, using the familiar spring-tensioned button in the center of the floorplate. Simply depress it with a punch or similar tool, and the baseplate slides off easily, unlike the Glock system which requires either significant prying (and usually swearing) or specialized tools to clamp the bottom of the mags and reduce tension on the baseplate retention tabs.
ETS’s baseplates appear similar to the Glock magazines’ baseplates as well, but the ETS design incorporates a useful lip molded into each side, which helps if you have to strip a magazine from the firearm during a double-feed malfunction clearance, as well as pulling magazines from pouches. ETS also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee and a lifetime warranty, and their magazines are made in the USA, which we love.
So, are ETS’s Glock mags ready for prime time? For range, practice, and training use, yes. Everyone has different experiences and reviews vary, but our time with ETS mags has been generally favorable. We’ve dropped them in the gravel and kicked them around during matches, and we’ve dropped them onto concrete at the range. We’ve dinged up the feed lips and deformed the nose of a couple of mags sufficiently to cause malfunctions, but with some careful filing we got those magazines back to functional condition. We have had a mostly-full ETS magazine come apart on us when dropped during a local match, and we’ve seen that happen to one or two other competitors over the years as well. However, this has also occurred when using the factory Glock +2 (plus two) polymer extensions on factory Glock mags, as well as some other magazines for different pistols, so it’s not the end of the world.
It should be noted, though, that we’ve never had a factory Glock magazine with standard baseplates ever come apart when dropping one, and we’ve never had the feedlips or magazine body become unusable even after significant use and abuse. Some Glock mags do occasionally fail to drop free when fully loaded or when empty, but we just mark those mags and use them on the range only. Every ETS mag we’ve tried has always dropped free, loaded or empty, which is a plus.
ETS offers multiple configurations and models of Glock magazines for various calibers, some of which are pretty hard to find (or aren’t available) from the Glock mothership. ETS also makes their transparent polymer mags for the SIG P320, Smith & Wesson M&P, M&P Shield, CZ Scorpion, H&K VP9 and MP5, and AR-15 families. They also now offer an upgraded Omega pistol mag for Glock and P320, in a hybrid metal/polymer style with spring steel feed lips mechanically bonded to the transparent polymer body, that ETS says has survived a 10,000 round torture test. This might be worth checking out, but at $26 they’re essentially more expensive than Glock factory magazines, so we haven’t tried the Omega yet.
So, like the KCI family of aftermarket Glock mags, we’d probably not use the standard (non-Omega) ETS mags in situations where our life was potentially on the line. We’ll stick with tried and tested factory Glock mags for carry, duty, home defense, or serious competition. But for a bargain range mag with a lot of useful features, we feel the ETS mags are definitely worth a look.
Magpul GL9 Glock magazines (PMAG)
Launched in late 2015, Magpul’s PMAG GL9 magazines for the Glock pistol have become extremely popular, and are actually used as original equipment magazines for several manufacturers of aftermarket Glock-pattern pistols. At an MSRP of $14.95 direct from Magpul, or $12.49 from places like GunMagWarehouse, these mags can save you quite a bit of money if you buy a lot of mags or are looking for unique capacity/overall length mags they offer, such as 21 round/140mm, or 27 round/170mm for compliance with competition rules.
Magpul’s PMAG polymer AR-15 magazines revolutionized the AR-15 magazine market, proving more durable and reliable than the military-accepted magazines for the platform. Similarly, Magpul hopes to disrupt the Glock magazine market with a magazine that is more durable, reliable, and feature-rich than the OEM Glock mag. Whether that’s the case in the long run is a matter of opinion, but we will say that Magpul PMAG GL9 magazines would be our first alternative choice if for some reason factory mags became unavailable.
Video: Magpul PMAG GL9 Glock Magazine - Review
Magpul pioneered the use of bright orange magazine followers in their Glock mags, a feature that Glock has since adopted on their latest iterations. The bright color is easy to see in low light, and can help determine if a malfunction is caused by an empty magazine or not. Unlike Glock factory mags, the PMAG GL9 standard magazines for the Glock 17 and Glock 19 have only one witness hole to confirm a fully loaded condition, and the hole is on either side of the magazine, rather than multiple witness holes along the back on the factory mag. Also unlike factory Glock mags, Magpul’s version uses an entirely polymer magazine body and feed lips, without a metal liner for reinforcement. Initially this caused worry that the PMAGs wouldn’t hold up to a similar amount of use and abuse, but in general that has not been the case. We have some GL9 PMAGs with thousands of rounds through them and they’re still working fine. Some argue that the standard Glock PMAG is less susceptible to the ingress of dirt and sand into the magazine body when dropped, due to its lack of multiple witness holes. We don’t know about that, but we do miss the witness holes, which make it easy to see how many rounds you have in a factory (or KCI) magazine. The extended-capacity PMAGs have additional witness holes at 10 and 15 rounds.
One PMAG feature we wish Glock would adopt is the serrated ridges around the bottom of the magazine, which provide a superior grip when stripping a magazine to clear a double-feed malfunction, or simply pulling a magazine from a pouch. There’s also a panel of polymer dimples on each floorplate so you can use a paint pen to mark your magazines however you see fit. Magpul’s Glock mags also disassemble easily by depressing the spring-tensioned circular plunger on the floorplate, and then the plate may easily be removed rearward.
As for durability and reliability of the Magpul Glock mags, we have experienced no magazine-related malfunctions in thousands of rounds using these magazines in various glocks and glock-compatible PCCs, with a single exception. The only issue we had was when stripping a mag during a nasty double-feed malfunction, the feed lips were deformed so badly by the round being pried up between the lips that the mag became unreliable afterward and had to be scrapped. However, over dozens of magazines that’s the only problem we had, and it may have happened similarly had we been using a factory magazine. Initially we were somewhat skeptical about whether a fully polymer magazine could prove acceptably durable in hard use, but Magpul’s polymer has proven to be up to the challenge. We’d still prefer factory Glock magazines for duty, defensive, or serious competitive use, but if we were forced to use only Magpul mags and were headed into battle, we’d feel pretty confident that they’d perform admirably.
Mec-Gar Glock Magazines
Mec-Gar is an Italian firm known for making some of the finest aftermarket magazines for dozens of handguns, and several manufacturers use Mec-Gar as their factory magazine manufacturer. However, until late 2024, Mec-Gar didn’t offer any options for Glock owners. But that has changed, with the announcement of their all-metal Glock mags. Yes, you read that right… Mec-Gar’s Glock magazine bodies are constructed of their proven high-quality steel.
The innovations necessary to make a stamped/welded steel magazine function in the Glock are pretty interesting. Since the OEM Glock mag is constructed of relatively thick polymer with a steel liner, the column of rounds must maintain a specific angle relative to one another in order to retain reliable function as they are pushed upward toward the feed lips. The Mec-Gar’s steel magazine body is made of thinner material, leaving more room inside the magazine. If no other changes were made, the rounds would move outward too far relative to each other, creating stiction or too much pressure to reliably slide back together to feed from the single-feed style Glock magazine lips. So Mec-Gar cleverly added two stabilizing ribs to each side of the magazine, effectively reducing the internal dimensions back to close to the Glock factory magazine’s, and ensuring reliable function. There’s also a similar rib stamped into the front of the magazine to make sure the noses of the bullets don’t move too far forward in the mag. Nonetheless, the dimensions of the Mec-Gar Glock 17 magazine, combined with the proprietary lime-green high-visibility follower, mean that the flush-fit magazine can now accommodate an additional round, for a total of 18, compared to the Glock factory mag’s 17 rounds.
Video: Mec-Gar : Best Aftermarket Handgun Magazines
Another challenge Mec-Gar faced is Glock’s polymer magazine catch. Other steel Glock magazines, such as the well-regarded Shield Arms S15 mag that increases the capacity of the Glock 43X and 48 from 10 to an impressive 15 rounds, require the addition of an aftermarket aluminum or steel magazine catch to prevent damage to the pistol and reliability issues as a result. However, the Mec-Gar’s magazine catch notch is not a sharp-edged hole cut into the magazine body. Rather, it’s a rectangular depression stamped into the body, without creating a hole. The edges of the notch are rounded and smooth, allowing the secure retention of the magazine using the factory polymer magazine catch, while preventing damage. It’s an interesting innovation borrowed from some 1950s-designed pistols we’ve seen, but it hasn’t been used on the Glock platform until now. The floorplates are also easily removed, like those of all other Mec-Gar mags.
Since the Mec-Gar magazines are so new, we haven’t been able to try them out for ourselves yet, though we’re on the waiting list at Greg Cote, LLC, one of our first choices for any magazine purchase. Both the Glock 17 and Glock 19 Mec-Gar magazines were supposed to be available by the end of November 2024, but so far, no luck. However, based on our experiences with other Mec-Gar magazines in multiple pistols, we’re confident that they’ll function extremely well, and the retail price of $18.95 is very attractive. Hopefully, we can update you in a few months once these new magazines have become available for testing.
Store your firearms, magazines, and valuables in a quality Liberty Safe
The aftermarket Glock magazines mentioned above are the only ones that we can recommend based on experience and reputation. Whether they are worth the potential tradeoffs compared to Glock factory mags is up to you, but for situations where you want more training/practice for less expense, they make a lot of sense to us. Regardless of whether you decide to try some aftermarket mags or stick with the factory ones, be sure to keep your guns secure when out of your direct control. One of the best ways is in a quality US-made gun safe or handgun vault from Liberty. Check out our full product selection online, or visit a Liberty showroom near you.
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