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View Full Version : Mini Glocks and Large Mags (No, this isn't a porno...)



Mitchell, Esq.
05-10-2011, 07:14 PM
What are people's take here on the subject of Mini Glocks and the larger mags used with them?

Any issues of over inserting the mags on reloads to worry about?

Any issues of extra wear on the mag catch or the mag itself?

WDW
05-10-2011, 10:18 PM
What are people's take here on the subject of Mini Glocks and the larger mags used with them?

Any issues of over inserting the mags on reloads to worry about?

Any issues of extra wear on the mag catch or the mag itself?
No to all of those. Alot of people carry a G23/19 w/fullsize mags. I was one of them and never had any problems. The mag locking prevents over insertion and it's the same mag catch so it's not gonna be affected by a mag it was designed for. Glocks were designed for this so if it's what you wanna do, have at it.

Chuck Haggard
05-11-2011, 07:24 AM
You can't over insert these mags due to the design of the frame and magazine, unless you get all crazy and use a hammer to seat the mag.

I have used G17 mags in G19s and G26s for many years, never had any issues even when doing things that folks will tell you that you can't do, like rest the gun on the base of the mag while shooting, slamming the mag hone hard during reloads, etc.

Prdator
05-11-2011, 10:09 AM
Ive been carrying a full size Glock and a Sub compact Glock of the same caliber with a full size mag for the last, well since the sub compacts came out... and have never had a problem with a full size mag in a compact or sub compact gun.
This is one huge bonus of carrying two Glocks of the same caliber with full size spare mags if either gun goes down the spare mag will run in either gun.

VolGrad
05-11-2011, 01:54 PM
Not an issue with doing it but my philosophy has always been I only carry a sub-compact when I can't carry a duty size pistol. If I'm trying to lean/discreet then I also want lean/discreet re-load. I also find the longer mags sticking out of the bottom of the grip feels awkward and throws off the overall balance of the smaller gun. YMMV.

GJM
05-12-2011, 07:41 PM
I am the opposite, as I mostly shoot my G19 with G17 magazines, and prefer the extra length. Same with the G29 and G20 mags.

Prdator
05-13-2011, 07:28 AM
I am the opposite, as I mostly shoot my G19 with G17 magazines, and prefer the extra length. Same with the G29 and G20 mags.

Same here! I carry the correct mag in each gun and when I reload it with a full size mag the extra length gives me more purchase on the gun.

GJM
05-13-2011, 07:49 AM
I think HK got it just right with the P30, and Smith with their mid-size .45 -- in that they have a full length grip. Perhaps it is a function of my hand size, but the G19/P2000/HK45C are a tad short to achieve a full firing grip for me, and avoid occasionally pinching my hand when seating a magazine.

Tamara
05-13-2011, 08:16 AM
If one is going to carry a G19 with a G17 mag in it, why not just go 'head and carry a G17?

It's like these Pearce Grip Extenders and those godawful "+2" floorplates that make a G26's grip as long as that of a 19. If you're gonna do all that, why not just carry the 19 in the first place?

jslaker
05-13-2011, 08:31 AM
I thought the idea was to use the full size mags for reloads and training and use compact mags in the gun itself while carrying?

GJM
05-13-2011, 03:48 PM
If one is going to carry a G19 with a G17 mag in it, why not just go 'head and carry a G17?

It's like these Pearce Grip Extenders and those godawful "+2" floorplates that make a G26's grip as long as that of a 19. If you're gonna do all that, why not just carry the 19 in the first place?

Being mostly in Alaska, and frequently in and out of various aircraft, the shorter barrel/holster combination works better for me in aircraft, and with the most common daily use OWB holster I use -- a Mitch Rosen Upper Limit. A G17/G20/P30L/HK45/five inch 1911 carries much bigger for me than their slightly smaller cousins, and it is the grip, not the barrel length that makes the most difference in my ability to shoot them well.

jlw
05-13-2011, 04:49 PM
I'm fine using the longer mags provided I stay within one frame size of the other.

The only time that I have run into any issue is with the G37 mags in the G38 and feeding the first round if it is a hollow point.

Al T.
05-13-2011, 05:01 PM
I run a G19 fairly often and reload it with G17 magazines. No problems...

Tamara
05-13-2011, 08:28 PM
Being mostly in Alaska, and frequently in and out of various aircraft, the shorter barrel/holster combination works better for me in aircraft, and with the most common daily use OWB holster I use -- a Mitch Rosen Upper Limit. A G17/G20/P30L/HK45/five inch 1911 carries much bigger for me than their slightly smaller cousins, and it is the grip, not the barrel length that makes the most difference in my ability to shoot them well.
See, this I can understand. Similarly I can see that when one is carrying AIWB, barrel length is more important (and butt length less so) than when one is carrying in a more traditional 3:00-4:30 IWB position.

I guess my resistance comes from seeing people carrying a subcompact pistol in the traditional IWB location and then sticking grip adapters on it. "Dude!" I'd say, "Half the pistol's down your trousers! Just skip to the next size up!"

(And I'll add that, whether we're talking G26/G17 or Officer's/Gov't Model, my gut reaction is to go with the bigger gun whenever possible because it will be more reliable and be easier to manipulate when things go pear-shaped...)

JodyH
05-13-2011, 10:11 PM
I have over inserted a 17 mag in a 19.
With new mags it's not likely to happen, but with my old training mags an adrenaline filled insertion has resulted in a very stuck magazine which required a stick and few solid whacks against the table to remove.
The plastic "stop" on the magazine will wear down over time and crap happens.

Shellback
05-14-2011, 11:16 AM
I thought the idea was to use the full size mags for reloads and training and use compact mags in the gun itself while carrying?

That's what I do. When I carry G19 I have a 17 magazine as my reload and the same applies for when carrying my G26, a 17 or 19 magazine as a reload, but the 10 rounder is carried in the gun for maximum concealment.

1slow
08-26-2011, 08:34 PM
I have big hands . I always carry full sized spare mags for compact Glocks. Since 1997 no issues.
Capacity.
Not blood blistering your gun hand on a short magazine reload. Not a theory , did it twice.

fuse
08-26-2011, 09:07 PM
If one is going to carry a G19 with a G17 mag in it, why not just go 'head and carry a G17?

It's like these Pearce Grip Extenders and those godawful "+2" floorplates that make a G26's grip as long as that of a 19. If you're gonna do all that, why not just carry the 19 in the first place?

most people carry the full size mags as reloads.

G26/19 with a G17 mag is the pocket is pretty standard.

Dagga Boy
08-26-2011, 09:19 PM
In 9mm, there is very little issue with using extended magazines. In the case of the G27's, be very careful. The slide speed of the .40's can get faster than a G-22 magazine can push in them.

In the case of the "+" extensions, with a G19 mag I use G-17 springs, and with G-17's I use an 11 coil G-22 magazine to ensure reliability.

For IWB carry, you want a longer barrel and shorter butt. This is my normal mode of carry these days, so guns with G-19/HK45C length butts are ideal for me as the smallest I can go and still efficiently shoot the gun. As GJM noted, in tight vehicles and cramped confines with OWB carry, I shorter muzzle will help. I spent 4 years with my daily office being a Hughes 500E helicopter. You find out real fast about efficient use of space and what your needs are may be very different from others.

LittleLebowski
08-29-2011, 08:37 AM
If one is going to carry a G19 with a G17 mag in it, why not just go 'head and carry a G17?

It's like these Pearce Grip Extenders and those godawful "+2" floorplates that make a G26's grip as long as that of a 19. If you're gonna do all that, why not just carry the 19 in the first place?

Many of us carry AIWB and "dangle" in the space taken up by certain pistol's slide/barrel :D

TCinVA
08-30-2011, 06:42 AM
When I still had the G26 I typically carried it either in a pocket holster or in a strong side RCS Phantom. I carried the G26 when printing was an absolute no-no. I typically carried it with the standard G26 mag in the pistol but with a G17 magazine as a reload. I never carried the G26 with a G19 or G17 mag in the pistol because if I could get away with that I would generally just carry the G19 or G17 instead.

Now if I was a law enforcement officer and I was issued the G26 as my duty gun and I didn't need to worry about concealment, I would carry a larger mag in the gun.

...of course, in every department I know of where the G26 is an issue option the G19 or G17 are also available so I'd probably just carry the bigger gun. Still, if I was using the G26 and I thought I might be doing something with a higher than normal chance of needing to shoot someone in the face, I'd probably pop in a G17 mag.

Super J
09-04-2011, 06:50 PM
I've never had an issue with 17 mags in my 26.

Smaug
09-05-2011, 12:56 PM
This vid shows a G26 malfunctioning with G17 mags.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSGS9eg9XJM

Kyle Reese
09-05-2011, 01:24 PM
This vid shows a G26 malfunctioning with G17 mags.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSGS9eg9XJM

Sure does. Wonder what's up with the empty plate carrier?

ToddG
09-05-2011, 01:27 PM
This vid shows a G26 malfunctioning with G17 mags.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSGS9eg9XJM

Watched the first two minutes and saw no stoppages. Not really an effective video that is supposed to be showing a malfunctioning Glock.

Smaug
09-05-2011, 01:52 PM
Watched the first two minutes and saw no stoppages. Not really an effective video that is supposed to be showing a malfunctioning Glock.

The problems start at 2:30, I should've said that in the original post.

Rex G
09-08-2011, 07:55 AM
I favored G23 mags in my G27, unless extreme concealment was needed, which was not usually the case. The G23 mag made a perfect place for my pinkie to grip; better than a G27 mag with any type of extended finger rest. As I recall, I used G22 mags for most of the training with the G27. I cannot recall round counts; I phased out the Glocks after two years of using them, when I switched to the SIG P229 platform in 2004. (Nothing wrong with Glocks; the P229 just turned out to be a better fit.)

Frank B
09-08-2011, 09:10 AM
I always prefer to carry my G23 with a standard magazine and keep the extended mag or G22 mag as a reload. The only time I carry a extended mag in the gun, is if I´m suposed to carry open.
BTW, never experienced a malfunktion in either way.

ToddG
09-08-2011, 09:16 AM
I've seen full size (G17, G22, G31) mags in subcompact (G26, G27, G33) guns correlate with an unusual number of stoppages. When I was at SIG, one thing we'd always mention in procurement documents was that if "magazine compatibility among different guns" was going to be a deciding factor then testing should be conducted to demonstrate that the small gun/big mag combo actually worked. More often than not, the agency would just drop the requirement rather than deal with actual testing.

fuse
09-10-2011, 03:43 AM
I've seen full size (G17, G22, G31) mags in subcompact (G26, G27, G33) guns correlate with an unusual number of stoppages. .

Any theories?

TCinVA
09-10-2011, 04:57 PM
It's a lot easier for the mag to move around in the mag well of a G26 than if it was in a G17.

65k10
02-24-2012, 11:25 PM
I've seen full size (G17, G22, G31) mags in subcompact (G26, G27, G33) guns correlate with an unusual number of stoppages. When I was at SIG, one thing we'd always mention in procurement documents was that if "magazine compatibility among different guns" was going to be a deciding factor then testing should be conducted to demonstrate that the small gun/big mag combo actually worked. More often than not, the agency would just drop the requirement rather than deal with actual testing.

So would you say that using g17 mags as a reload for a g26 would be a bad idea? I was planning on that, but if I can't then I guess I need to buy some more g26 mags.

lcarr
02-25-2012, 12:16 AM
As I've discussed with GJM, I get a malfunction rate of about 1 in 100 when I use a G20 magazine in an otherwise reliable-as-a-rock G29, with multiple types of ammunition and multiple G20 magazines. It even occurs with a sleeve that should help to stabilize the mag. I just restrict myself to short magazines only, with Pearce extensions to give me a better grip.

Lincoln

98z28
02-27-2012, 04:13 PM
Interesting. I have never heard of any issues. I have put several thousand rounds through both a G26 with G17 mags and an M&P40 compact with M&P40 full size mags without any failures. That's a rather small sample size though...

EMC
02-27-2012, 04:35 PM
Looking at my G-19 15 rounder in the gun last night, I notice that the floor plate of the mag (assuming that is what would potentially stop an over-insertion) doesn't fit flush with the bottom of the frame (about 1/8 - 1/4 of an inch below the magwell), so I fail to see how a longer mag would perform differently unless the mag gets fatter towards the floor plate allowing it to sit more snugly in the well.

Not HighSpeed
03-04-2012, 01:50 PM
In my extremely humble and inexperienced opinon, maybe with a full size mag in a baby glock, the pressure of your hand grip can become uneven and can ever so slightly throw off the angle of the magazine in the gun causing malfunctions?

EMC
03-04-2012, 02:51 PM
In my extremely humble and inexperienced opinon, maybe with a full size mag in a baby glock, the pressure of your hand grip can become uneven and can ever so slightly throw off the angle of the magazine in the gun causing malfunctions?

Either this or the weight of the ammunition itself in an extended mag allows it to sit at a slightly different feeding angle, given the minor amount of play in the mag well.

LtDave
03-04-2012, 10:29 PM
Looking at my G-19 15 rounder in the gun last night, I notice that the floor plate of the mag (assuming that is what would potentially stop an over-insertion) doesn't fit flush with the bottom of the frame (about 1/8 - 1/4 of an inch below the magwell), so I fail to see how a longer mag would perform differently unless the mag gets fatter towards the floor plate allowing it to sit more snugly in the well.

I've also noticed that the newer Glock mags don't fit flush. They must have changed the length, because older mags without the cutout on the front or the ambi cutouts do fit flush.

LHS
03-05-2012, 11:56 AM
Some years ago, before I knew better, I bought a Kel-Tec P11. Despite the roughness of various components, I've put about 500 rounds through it without issue... until I tried to use some full-size 5906 mags in it. What I found was that my pinky fingers would press against the front of the mag and make the rounds nosedive into the feed ramp. When I concentrated on not touching the protruding mags, it fed fine. But as soon as I tried to run the gun hard, I would invariably press on the magazine again, and the malfunctions would commence. This has soured me on subcompact autos with fullsize mags for a while now. Granted, basing an opinion on the performance of a Kel-tec isn't exactly fair, but I have to assume the same theory holds true across the spectrum to some degree or another.

Chuck Haggard
03-05-2012, 08:39 PM
Not calling you out Todd, just sayin my experience has been different.

Its pretty much standard here to run the qual with your BUG/off-duty G26 using your duty G17 mags as the reload.

Personal guns of mine include two G27s, three G26s, two G19s, all run with full sized mags.

I have never had a malf in any of those guns, longer mag or not. I also can't recall seeing any when I was running our range and watching other shooters run the qual. I specifically, after our 2006 G22 fiasco, kept track of malfs of any type in our Glock 9mms, including the BUGs/off-duty guns. For three years there were none that could not be traced to either out of spec ammo (folded case mouth, squib, etc.) or to shooter error (firing from retention and getting body parts in the way, etc.).

We have about 350 shooters run through any given in-service training, with about 150 G26s or G19 that are personally owned being thrown in the mix.


I saw pretty much the same results when we had guys running S&W 6906s using 5906 mags, or 5906s running 20 round mags.

jthhapkido
03-06-2012, 11:12 AM
One more data point to add:

I've got a G26 with about 12,000 rounds through it. (Might be closer to 13,000 by now, but I _know_ I've put at least 12,000 through it.) Approximately 2/3 of those rounds were from G19 magazines and later G17 magazines.

As I owned a G19, I used G19 mags for reloads until I bought a G17, then I used G17 mags for reloads. :) Have shot SHO, WHO, reloaded the magazine SHO and WHO, done freestyle speed reloads and emergency reloads---have never had any failures with it due to the magazine, and that was shooting a range of bullet types from FMJ to flat-point FMJ to JHP.

From my personal experience I have no problem carrying full-size mags as reloads for my G26.

Now, your G26 might be a different story... :)

dpadams6
03-09-2012, 08:31 PM
What are people's take here on the subject of Mini Glocks and the larger mags used with them?

Any issues of over inserting the mags on reloads to worry about?

Any issues of extra wear on the mag catch or the mag itself?

Yeah. We carry the 31/33 combo at work. And i will never rely on the bigger mag in smaller gun for self defense. Everyone has a tendancy to squeeze the gun when firing, thereby also squeezing that magazine which tilts it slightly inside the gun. Have had ftf's by doing this being it is now not aligned like it is supposed to. But you will probably hear on here that its fine, but trust me its not being i've had that problem with several different glocks.

jthhapkido
03-10-2012, 01:17 PM
Yeah. We carry the 31/33 combo at work. And i will never rely on the bigger mag in smaller gun for self defense. Everyone has a tendancy to squeeze the gun when firing, thereby also squeezing that magazine which tilts it slightly inside the gun. Have had ftf's by doing this being it is now not aligned like it is supposed to. But you will probably hear on here that its fine, but trust me its not being i've had that problem with several different glocks.

:)

And I've not had a single problem with 2 26s and 2 19s (with 17 mags). (At minimum totaling over 50,000 rounds, most of which was through the one 26 mentioned earlier, and one 19.) Again, not a huge sample size. (It is more than 50,000 rounds, but I'm not sure how much more. It is, however, only four guns.)

But obviously---opinions vary. I'd be curious to hear exactly how the FTFs occurred---not supposition, but what type of failure actually happened.