Qustion about actual vs claimed capacity of Glock 17 magazine

[jd950]

Has anyone had any experiences with or have knowledge of OEM Glock 17 mags accepting 18 rounds of ammo? I am just asking from a technical standpoint, not whether one should or should not load an extra round. I am not Glock guy and have no magazines to experiment with.

Thanks.

[PNWTO]

I’ve heard of such a thing intermittently over the years. IIRC the conversations were all before the G5 mags and guns arrived.

I’ll take a later swing at my batches of mixed generations mags and report back. I’ve never tried but a lot of G17 mags seem to have a noteworthy lack of resistance while loading the last round.

[ST911]

Has anyone had any experiences with or have knowledge of OEM Glock 17 mags accepting 18 rounds of ammo? I am just asking from a technical standpoint, not whether one should or should not load an extra round. I am not Glock guy and have no magazines to experiment with. Thanks.

The designated, engineered capacity is 17rds. Stop there. Tolerances and wear may create sufficient space to force an 18th round. Also seen in G19 15rd mags.

Not seen in .40 mags, they are already pretty tight at capacity.

[Joe Mac]

I have never loaded 18 into a G17 mag, but I can report that if you're drinking beer and listening to Black Sabbath while loading mags for the following day, and not paying close attention, the 43X/48 mags WILL take 11 without too much effort... I wouldn't do it on purpose, though!

[jd950]

Thanks for the replies. I was trying to get a quick feel for the likelihood of 18 rounds being loaded in a Glock 17 mag for reasons I cannot publicly discuss, but the issue has suddenly gotten resolved.

[ssc45]

In loading and shooting Glock 17’s for over 30 years, I have not witnessed nor been able to load 18 rounds. This includes shooting USPSA where we were loading mags over and over. The caveat is that I didn’t use the standard capacity mags near as much as the mags with base pads. However, I have worn out Glock mag tubes where they wouldn’t feed bullets.

Cheers, Steve

[EDW]

I have not seen any of the beveled-upper OEM G17 mags that Glock has been selling for the past 15 years or so that would take 18 rounds.

However, I took 8 OEM G17 mags to the World Shoot in 2002 that would load 18, and would do so with relative ease, and they fed ball and Hydra-shoks through both of the two G17s (Gen2) I took there without a bobble. That was five days of seven stages a day dropping them in the dirt, loaded 18+1 to start each stage. Obviously, they were also vetted beforehand in the guns and had worked well enough that I had no qualms about their use in Pietersburg/Polokwane.

These were post-ban LEO-marked OEM mags with stock baseplates. They had the old “stepped” upper tubes that pre-dated the current beveled uppers.

I’ve kept these on hand since in case the Production rules ever turned their way again, but unfortunately Production class seems to have run off the rails for good.

[ViniVidivici]

This is why you should count while loading mags, to ensure you NEVER exceed capacity.

[JonInWA]

If anything, on my Glock magazines, particularly those used as reload magazines, I'll deliberately underload by 1 round to allow for more spring compression when reloading when the slide is in battery.

Best, Jon

[EDW]

My memory has betrayed me, as I located the mags referenced in post 7 above and found that the tubes actually have the beveled-uppers of the current OEM mags. The followers are “9mm3.” A careful count confirms that they hold 18 9x19 rounds with no difficulty.

Would that my memory worked as good as these magazines did.

[Bucky]

This is why you should count while loading mags, to ensure you NEVER exceed capacity.

Especially in Glock mags, as in years past they have been known to not have the witness holes align very well.

[LukeNCMX]

Has anyone had any experiences with or have knowledge of OEM Glock 17 mags accepting 18 rounds of ammo? I am just asking from a technical standpoint, not whether one should or should not load an extra round. I am not Glock guy and have no magazines to experiment with.

Thanks.

Yes, personal experience. I have a Glock 17 Gen 4 mag (metal liner visible in the mag catch cutouts/black follower) that can take 18 rounds. At the time this was detected it was a carry mag. Now it is old, beat up, wears a Zev extension and is filled with dummy rounds for dry fire.

[Doc_Glock]

Thanks for the replies. I was trying to get a quick feel for the likelihood of 18 rounds being loaded in a Glock 17 mag for reasons I cannot publicly discuss, but the issue has suddenly gotten resolved.

I have accidentally loaded 18 more than a few times using an Uplula.

[Coyotesfan97]

If anything, on my Glock magazines, particularly those used as reload magazines, I'll deliberately underload by 1 round to allow for more spring compression when reloading when the slide is in battery.

Best, Jon

I’m used to loading one under into Glock magazines because our range gave us 16 to load into the 17. All the Glock guys got one less round per magazine.

[jd950]

Thank you all for your input. It was technical issue related to a court case and the issue ended up getting resolved shortly after I posted the question. At the time i posted, I did not have ready access tot he magazine in question and was trying to get some general information in the absence of being able to test the issue.

[Screwball]

I managed to get 16 in my duty 19 magazine. I pulled the rounds out to switch to the new duty ammo and placing them into a generic 50 round box… one magazine didn’t stop when at the third row. Didn’t remember forcing or anything previously when loading.

But most get less because the stack gets messed up during loading. We make all the officers count them out when loading, being we don’t want issues.