Glock magazines

The Amend2 Glock Magazine: A New Contender

“Does It take Glock Mags?” Is about the most common phrase you’ll see after a new gun is introduced in a pistol caliber. Its gotten to the point where it’s just a stale meme. I might be sick of reading it in the comments but I get where they are coming from. The Glock series of pistols are ubiquitous and their magazines are not only affordable but reliable and easy to find. These days a variety of weapons outside of Glock pistols take Glock magazines so its no surprise the aftermarket has taken notice. The Amend2 Glock magazine is the newest contender in a market that’s quickly becoming crowded.

Amend2 is now producing a variety of Glock magazines. This includes the A2-17, for the Glock 17 that I have here. They also have models for the Glock models 19, 22, 23, 42, and 43. Capacities vary and the G17 variant holds 18 rounds of 9mm. The Amend2 Glock magazine is noticeably lighter than the traditional Glock mags. It lacks the metal inserts of Glock OEM magazines and feels very lightweight. The magazine not only holds an additional round but has a very large base plate which is nice with a big two holding it all together. It sports witness holes for every round and a bright red follower.

First Impressions

The weight made me think the magazine felt cheap and didn’t give me high hopes. The base plate is attractive as in my experience this makes the magazines easier to retrieve from a magazine pouch. The witness holes were also impressive. The Amend2 Glock magazine takes a page out of the Magpul school of Glock mags and includes a bright follower.

Although the follower is red and not bright orange. Bright followers are great for knowing when your magazine is empty or running low in low light conditions. If you stop, pop the mag out to check how much ammo you have left the bright red followers is easy to see through the witness holes in the back.

The magazine is also cut for the Gen 4 style reversible magazine release, but not cut for an ambi release. The magazine will function with every generation of Glock of course, as well as the 80 lower Glocks from Polymer 80. Inside the magazine, the spring is strong and is attached to both the follower and lock plate. The lock plate is a big red two that’s easy to push in for disassembly and robust enough not to every break.

Range Time with the Amend2 Glock Magazine

The Amend2 Glock magazine loads easily enough and it’s not a struggle to load 18 rounds into the magazine. The magazine will also load into a gun with the slide closed when completely full. The only way I know how to test a magazine is to load it, shoot it, and keep doing just that. So that’s what I did.

I shot a variety of ammo. The ammo that seems to kill mags the most is Winchester Steel. The rounds will often hang a follower up. In this case, the Amend2 Glock magazine ate a box of 50 with no issues. With regular brass cased ammo I went through another 150 rounds. Sometimes I loaded the magazine fully, other times I loaded just a few rounds for reload drills.

I live on a sand hill and I like to let the mag just fall into that nice sugary sand. Over and over again I dropped the mag, retrieved it, and did it again. Never did the sand cause magazine failure. Also, the mag drops freely completely empty.

Placing in the mag pouch showed how awesome the base plate is for rapid reloads. It’s wide, easy to grab and makes it less likely to experience a bad grab and a case of butterfingers with the magazine.

Durability Testing

As I said before the magazine feels light, and I often associate light with low quality. This isn’t always the case though. I did a few drop tests with the magazine both loaded and unloaded from the waist and head height onto concrete, wood, and gravel. I dropped it out of the gun, and from various angles. When fully loaded the Amend2 Glock magazine would spit out a round or two when dropped. Once you got down to 15 rounds this event seemed to stop.

After dropping it, and throwing it against a plastic fruit crate a few times I loaded it up and started shooting once more. Luckily the magazine never failed. The Amend2 Glock magazine never stuttered and fed rounds over and over. No visible damage is on the outside either. Disassembly is easy and I had no problems getting sand out of the body of the magazine.

Worth buying?

The MSRP of these magazines is $16.99, but I bought mine for 11 bucks locally. 11 bucks for a magazine that performs like this is a steal. I’ve only tested one magazine and would like to test more of them before I declared them suited for concealed carry or duty. However, for competition and training, I will give my hearty recommendation. I see no issues currently, but a duty or concealed carry recommendation needs a bit more testing over a few more magazines. If you’ve done some of your own testing, let me know what you’ve found below.

Was this review helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

The Party Pouch OWB by Warlord Applications

If you’re a Glock owner you’ve likely looked at one of the many extended magazines available on the market and wondered how do I carry this? Plenty of companies make extended Glock magazines, including Glock, ETS, Magpul, KCI, and more I’d probably missing. A normal mag pouch is cut a bit too short for most and makes them susceptible to falling out, so I connected with my friend Jason at Warlord Applications and the Party Pouch was born. The Party Pouch comes in two flavors, the IWB and now he’s released an OWB model.

I initially approached Warlord Applications for a holster and mag pouch and the more we talked the more we explored the ability to carry an extended magazine in a concealed manner. This spawned the original Party Pouch IWB, and if you make something IWB you got to make an OWB option to.

The Party Pouch OWB

The Party Pouch OWB is made from kydex and is about twice as long as your average magazine pouch. It fits Glock OEM, ETS, Amend2, Magpul, KCI, and more magazines. It’s cut just low enough to carry a standard magazine as well as an extendo. Jason at Warlord Applications is pretty open to producing some interesting designs and while belt loops are my favorite he can do paddles, single clip IWB, and even Safariland attachments.

The Party Pouch fits tight to the body and disappears under your shirt. With an ETS magazine, I have 31 rounds of 9mm on tap if things get a little crazy. Let’s be clear if I’ve already chewed my way through a 17 or 15 round Glock magazine things are nice and crazy. 24, 31, or 33 rounds of 9mm doesn’t look so bad. There is also something to be said for this with a petite build. It’s hard to make horizontal room on a waist, but going up is easy enough. The Party Pouch allows you to carry basically two magazines worth of ammo in a lithe package.

Of course, if you are running a carbine or Polymer 80 that takes Glock magazines a good magazine carrier is a must-have. The Party Pouch is perfect for running carbines as well as concealed extended magazines.

Application

The Party Pouch OWB clings tightly to the body and makes it easy to conceal underneath nothing more than a simple t-shirt. Hiding a large magazine really has never been easier. The magazine is positioned far enough off the body to allow it to be easily grabbed and put into play. It does take some practice to get used to an extended magazine clearing the longer carrier, but the difference isn’t dramatic.

The pouch absolutely disappears under a shirt and carrying it during the day isn’t uncomfortable. In the right position, it pokes a little, but just a little. Even in a vehicle, the pouch is easy to wear and even easy to draw from. Honestly drawing the extended magazine in a vehicle is easier than drawing a normal magazine from a magazine pouch. It’s longer and easier to reach, especially if you have to go across the body.

There is certainly something to be said about having 30 or so rounds on tap, especially in a concealed fashion. The extra ammo is always nice. This carrier isn’t for everyone’s EDC setup, but it certainly adds another tool to the box for concealed carry.

About Warlord Applications

Warlord Applications is a veteran owned and operated company making kydex holsters, magazine pouches, and more. I served with the owner, Jason, in Afghanistan and later around the world. We were both machine gunners and served in the same battalion. If you have a particular need for a particular item contact him via his Facebook page, or find him on Instagram.

31 rounds of fun | The ETS Glock magazines

31 Rounds of Fun: ETS Glock Magazines

The Glock platform is the AR 15 of the handgun world. If you ever wanted to buy a gun just to spend another few hundred bucks customizing Glock is the way to go. Like the AR 15 you are not limited to factory magazines, you have options. Magpul made waves by introducing their 9mm magazines a year or so ago, but they aren’t the only quality aftermarket magazine manufacturer. Today we are looking some of the most unique and cool Glock magazines on the market. These are made by Elite Tactical Systems, aka ETS. The ETS Glock magazines are quite unique in design and have a number of features I find impressive. You may have seen them on my Vertx Commuter review.

These magazines are the ETS Glock 18 31 round magazines. While they are great in a handgun, I think they’re better in a carbine. With so many Glock compatible carbines out there it’s a shame to just pump 17 rounders through them. 31 round magazines do make a lot more sense in rifles than handguns. So, I’ve had a helluva good time pumping round after round through my Kel-Tec Sub2k gen 2.

Crystal Clear

This isn’t my first experience with ETS magazines. I also reviewed their AR 15 magazines, and I really appreciated the design details ETS used. One thing both the AR 15 and ETS Glock magazines have in common is clarity. Both use translucent polymers that allow you to see exactly how much ammunition you have in each magazine. We can argue back and forth till we are blue in the face if this is an advantage or a disadvantage but what’s clear is they look pretty cool.

Fragile as Glass?

While they’re clear, they don’t seem to be too fragile. In my testing, I was reloading and just letting them hit the ground, over and over. On my range that’s mostly grass and dirt, so I really wanted to see if they could hold up to something a little harsher.

So, I dropped them fully loaded (or close to it) on a cinderblock. I dropped them from the rifle, so with my height it would be a little over 6 feet. I did each mag ten times. Then because I accidentally deleted my videos I had to do it again, 5 times with each magazine. Not a single round was ejected, not a single crack, tear, or break occurred.

I knocked over my camera a few times, but that’s it. The magazines remained undamaged.

The Notable Features of the ETS Glock magazines

Besides the absolute clarity, the ETS magazines pack a few features that bear mentioning. Fit the base plates are a nice touch. They feature a raised section that is raised like shelf. This helps you retrieve the magazines from mag pouches. If you don’t like the base plates then you can swap them, since ETS was wise enough to make their magazines compatible with aftermarket baseplates.

The ETS Glock magazines also feature easily interchangeable followers. ETS makes some high vis followers you can exchange easily. These bright colored followers are also cheap and easy to find. ETS has produced AR 15 followers with tritium inserts for night time use, and hopefully, ETS will make a similar option for their Glock mags.

They, of course, fit in any double stack mag pouch, and they fit in Submachine gun pouches like the Blue Force Gear, the Yeti Wurks Sherpa and 5.11 mag pouches. You see me here wearing and rocking the Wilder Tactical pistol mag pouch.

Reliability

These magazines had zero issues feeding any ammo I tossed through them. This includes hollow points, FMJ, brass, steel and even lead-free zinc rounds. They’ve survived drop testing as well as working reliably after being exposed to sand and dirt. They run well, are deceptively lightweight and are well designed. Oh, these 31 rounders also tend to cost a fraction of what the Glock 33 rounders cost too. If you need, or more importantly, want a high cap Glock mag ETS is an outstanding option. Check ’em out here.

Photos by author.

Days of Guns: Lone Wolf G9: Pistol-caliber AR, Powered by Glock Mags

Lone Wolf’s G9 Carbine looks like any another modern sporting rifle until you check the magazine well. The G9 lower uses small-frame Glock pistol magazines, which solves the problems of previous 9mm AR carbines and makes it an affordable, reliable, and fun gun.

Modern Sporting Rifles (MSR), also known as AR rifles, are commonly used for self defense, hunting, and competition, and are ubiquitous among military and police. Whatever your application, pistol-caliber carbines are accurate, fun, great training platforms, and cheap to shoot. Lone Wolf did their homework and came up with the G9 Carbine.

Most people opt for the 9mm upper, but Lone Wolf also offers uppers chambered in .357 SIG, .40 S&W, .45 GAP, and 5.7x28mm. The uppers are matched with the appropriate GLOCK magazine, except for the 5.7x28mm, which uses top-mounted FN magazines. Buy different uppers, make different guns.

The idea of a 9mm carbine is not a new one. Submachine guns have been around for decades, but carbines are a little larger with better ergonomics and are more manageable. In 1981, Marine and genius firearms designer Maxwell Atchisson was thinking about the XM-177.

The XM-177 was a variant of the M-16 with a 10.5″ barrel. The short barrel wasted a lot of energy as flash and noise, and got very dirty quickly.

Atchisson realized that the XM-177 would be much better if chambered in 9mm. He was a genius and could just do stuff like that. His 9mm gun was a closed-bolt, simple blowback-operated select-fire machine gun.

His blowback system consisted of a heavy bolt resting against the base of the 9mm cartridge case, with a heavy buffer and recoil spring compressed by the kinetic energy of the bolt when it moves back under recoil. The stored energy of the compressed spring then drives the bolt forward back into the firing position. This eliminates the whole gas system, allowing the use of very short barrels. For close quarters, it had all the energy it needed in a small, low-recoil package, with the great ergonomics of the M-16. A 10.5″ barrel is the sweet spot for 9mm, giving nearly optimum energy.

Colt took over the project and in 1985, introduced the 9mm SMG. More interested in parts commonality with the M-16 than innovation, they came up with a rough, mass-produced product still sold by Colt today. The Marine Corps adopted the 10.5″-barrel model for the Fleet Antiterrorism Security Teams (FAST), and it was used by DOE, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service. The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Panama also fielded the SMG.

There were several problems with the SMG. A special heavy black buffer was designed to keep the cyclic rate below 1,000 rpm, as a standard 5.56mm buffer would run at 1,250 rpm. Because the direct-blowback design created such high bolt speeds, bolt catches, as well as the trigger and hammer pins, were prone to breakage. The pins were upgraded to nickel-plated stainless steel.

Colt decided to use modified Israeli UZI magazines. Their version has narrow feed lips, making them very hard to load, prone to double feeds, and they wear quickly. C Products makes a very good SMG magazine for this model.

Inspired by the SMG, Lone Wolf has reinvented the AR in pistol calibers and addressed the magazine issue by adopting the solid and widely available Glock mags.

Field testing

I gathered my equipment for the test. I had an assortment of 9mm and .40 ammo. The 9mm was mostly Georgia Arms 9mm Luger 115-grain plated total metal jacket. It is great ammo at a fair price.

I used LULA loaders to load up my mags. Some people ridicule the use of magazine loaders, but when you are loading 1000 rounds at a time, it makes a difference. I had plenty of Glock factory mags of various sizes and some 33-rounders of uncertain Asian origin.

Lone Wolf sells their guns as separate lowers and uppers to allow the shooter the greatest flexibility. There are pistol and carbine lowers, and pistol- and carbine-length uppers. If you live in a free state, $200 and an ATF form one will allow you to build your very own short-barreled rifle. The G9 design makes for a very reliable pistol if you prefer that option. Near maximum velocity is reached at about 10.5 inches of barrel, as previously stated. To avoid imperial entanglements, I used the Lone Wolf carbine lower and 16″-barreled uppers in 9mm and .40 caliber.

Making a reliable bolt hold-open for AR pistol carbines has proven impossible with current technology. Other manufacturer’s bolt hold-opens suffer from reliability problems. Lone Wolf eliminated those problems by eliminating the bolt hold-open entirely. You shoot it like an MP5 or an AK.

I ran over 2000 rounds of every stray 9mm round I could find through the first upper. All of them, even +P loads, cycled fine, but you could sure feel the difference in recoil. The .40 upper went through an equal number of .40 ball and JHP. Glock mags and the G9 carbine worked very well together. Aftermarket mags were unpredictable and were soon discarded.

Lone Wolf’s G9 uppers all have:

Quad rail free-floating rail system
A2-style flash suppressor
Properly modified bolt for use with Glock magazines
16″ barrel
4150CM ordinance steel
Button rifled 1:10 twist rate
M4 profile exterior
Non-reflective black oxide finish
Bolt is mil-spec 8620 material heat-treated to 50>55 RC
Bolt is black oxide exterior coated

There are several previous designs floating around out there. Lone Wolf guns are compatible with Colt-pattern uppers, which have an additional groove cut in them to accommodate the ejector. Lone Wolf will modify your bolt for $44.95. Olympic Arms upper receivers are not compatible. Rock River uppers will fit with modification, but their lowers use a dedicated 9mm hammer, which will not work with the Lone Wolf bolt.

The G9 trigger pull weighs in at four and half pounds, which is perfect for practical work. The G9 lower accepts any other AR triggers.

The hardware and the quad rail on the G9 are perfectly adequate, but the G9 is compatible with AR-15 parts. If you like a certain pistol grip, trigger, butt stock, or rail, the G9 will accommodate them. If you have a favorite AR-15, you can customize your G9 for the same feel.

Why buy?

If you already have an AR-15, why buy a G9? For me, the answer is training. I spend a lot of time on a range that is limited to handgun and shotgun. There are plenty of steel targets. Now, I can run the G9 Carbine using less expensive 9mm or .40 (whichever I have more of) and shoot steel targets that won’t take rifle hits. I am doing drills I never considered before, and there are not many things more fun than shooting steel!

Plus, it uses standard Glock magazines; most shooters already have a few. They are cheap and available everywhere. The new Magpul mags work great in the G9.

A red dot sight makes the G9 even more fun. I used an Aimpoint red dot sight on my G9, and the gun proved to be accurate enough to shoot ragged single holes at 15 yards with no effort at all using a variety of ammunition.

You need a G9. Chances are you already have the magazines, and there are plenty more where those came from. The ammo is available, easy to reload, and affordable. It is fun to shoot and a great training platform. You can shoot it on pistol ranges and shoot steel up close. It is so accurate that you will amaze yourself. Order up your Lone Wolf G9 Carbine today.

(Featured Image Courtesy of Lone Wolf)