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Thread: Glock magazine-to-magwell looseness/sloppiness?

  1. #1
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    Feb 2011
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    Colorado

    Glock magazine-to-magwell looseness/sloppiness?

    Hey guys/people more knowledgeable than me,

    I picked up a well (police) used Glock 17 Gen 2 that I've cut down to a 19 size. Love it. Well, today I thought I'd bevel the magwell a little bit from the hard transition of just having it cut flush. I got a little carried away, and beveled it on the sides about 1/2" up inside. It is smooth and mag changes are a breeze, but I'm a little concerned now about mag fit in the magwell. I remember when I got it mags fit a little more loosely than other pistols I was more familiar with, some of that might just be a Glock thing. But now maybe I added to it. If I push the magazine base around when the magazine is inserted into the pistol, I can wiggle it about 1.5mm side to side and about 1.5mm front to back. The top of the magazine, more secured than the baseplate due to the magazine catch, obviously moves a smaller percentage of that.

    I didn't think much about it when I was doing it, but now it makes sense to me that since it was a looser fit to begin with, the magazine was a little more tolerance-sensitive of the opening at the extreme bottom vs a magazine that was held in place more tightly all along the entire magwell of the pistol. I'm hoping I didn't fubar anything. I will try to hit the range soon to run some rounds through it for a function check, but thought I would also get some more-expert-than-me thoughts on Glocks and magwell tolerances.

    Thanks for any advice/admonishment.

    -Dave

  2. #2
    Member Sparks2112's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Cincinnati, Ohio.
    Do you have that much play with a full magazine or only an empty one?
    J.M. Johnston
    Host of Ballistic Radio - Sundays at 7:00 PM EST on Cincinnati's 55KRC THE Talk Station, available on iHeartRadio

  3. #3
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    Jun 2012
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    Ft Leavenworth, KS
    How much movement does that produce at the top end, i.e. the cartridge/feed lips?

    My main concern would be if the mag can tilt back enough for the slide to override the cartridge base, so be sure to check this while pushing the base of the mag forward and down (a longer G17 or G18 mag will give you better leverage), also lift up on the slide to account for slack between the rails & the slide. This may require 3 hands but should approximate the worst case geometry.
    HTH,
    Dave

  4. #4
    Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Colorado
    Thanks for your thoughts guys. I might try to snap some pictures of what I'm talking about.

    When I got the pistol, it was already loose, which seemed to me to be a design thing. However, when I was done with the beveling, it felt just a little more loose. It was at that time I realized I was a doofus and probably only needed a 1/8" to 3/16" bevel inside the magwell.

    It is loose both with an empty mag and a full mag, although it seems just a hair more accentuated with an empty.

    I will do the 'max tolerance' test to see if there is any interference. Hopefully I am making a mole hill out of a mountain. If I royally screwed things up and it does somehow affect function, I might try to rough up the area that I took down and apply some epoxy to tighten things back up...but I know that the polymer flexes and epoxy isn't very flexible.

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