“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.
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