Took a look at some M&P ACT Mags today...

[PPGMD]

I knew the M&P Act Mags were out, but I finally got around to acquiring two of them from Greg Cotte.

At first glance they look very much like the Mec-gar made factory S&W mags. A couple of noticeable differences, these are hot blued rather than the paint type finish on the factory mags. Followers are black. And the witness holes are on the back of the magazine.

They looked so much like the factory mags that I grabbed a 10-8 base plate out of my parts box and slipped it on one of them.




It worked perfectly fine it surprised me. I loaded it up and worked through the magazine by hand. No issues. I decided to compare the base pads with factory.



They are so alike that even the ACT Mag has a number two on the base pad. So I slipped the factory base pad on the ACT Mag.


No issues. These look like they will work perfectly fine in live fire, and I will be pulling two mags out of my range bag and replacing it with these two for now just to test them. But even though they are so alike, I think I will favor the factory magazines as my experience with hot blued magazines involves lots of rust, and CLP to get rid of it.

But hey if that isn't a concern I think these might be a good alternative, particularly when the factory magazines are hard to get.

[JV_]

Too bad they didn't ship them with a compact baseplate.

[PPGMD]

Too bad they didn't ship them with a compact baseplate.

True, but I can't see anything preventing the installation of one. In fact let me search my parts boxes I might have a compact base plate and retainer.

[PPGMD]

Nope no compact base pads. I just have the retainer plates which someone sent me when they divested themselves of the M&P pistols.

[JonInWA]

I'd be very wary of any magazines from ACT, after the heat treatment/feedlip cracking issues that were prevelant with their .45 1911 magazines, and their steadfast denial and attempt to blame the firearms manufacturers for their magazines' issues. While several years ago, and presumably long resolved, it left a very bad taste in my mouth-and I had spoken directly to the US importer himself. SIGARMS more than took care of me; they were one of the manufacturers utilizing ACT as their initial OEM magazines; that quickly changed.

Best, Jon

[JodyH]

At first glance they look very much like the Mec-gar made factory S&W mags.

I don't think the M&P OEM magazines are made by Mec-Gar.
No "Made in Italy" stamping and the design of the mags just doesn't look like Mec-Gar.
Most Mec-Gar pistol magazines have very similar followers, baseplate retention, witness hole markings and tube style.
My OEM (Mec-Gar manufactured) Walther, Sig, Beretta and Browning magazines all look like kissing cousins (especially the followers, baseplates and the font used for the witness hole numbering).
The M&P mags are different in every way.

[LittleLebowski]

Too bad they didn't ship them with a compact baseplate.

This. Mind boggling.

[PPGMD]

I don't think the M&P OEM magazines are made by Mec-Gar.
No "Made in Italy" stamping and the design of the mags just doesn't look like Mec-Gar.
Most Mec-Gar pistol magazines have very similar followers, baseplate retention, witness hole markings and tube style.
My OEM (Mec-Gar manufactured) Walther, Sig, Beretta and Browning magazines all look like kissing cousins (especially the followers, baseplates and the font used for the witness hole numbering).
The M&P mags are different in every way.

You do have a point, but the coating seems very similar to Mec-Gar's AFC. And you would think a US supplier would be willing to scale up based on S&W orders. Anyways I was just told that they were Mec-gar.

Anyways I took some more pictures, the first the springs next to each other.


As you can see the spring seems to be a couple of coils shorter. And it does seem to be a little weaker, but not all that much. The followers, other than color, seem to be pretty much identical. So I decided to put the stock follower and spring into the magazine to assemble it.


It worked fine. This is sort of related when I went to search to the compact base pad I noticed that my parts were disorganized, so I organized them.

[jh9]

Blued tubes, weak springs and black followers would give me some hesitation.

The original M&P magazines (mine was from 2006) fit that description. The springs went soft often (failing to lock the slide back and, in some cases wouldn't chamber a round when 'slam charging' or just reloading too hard from slide lock) and the tubes rusted (by reputation; mine never did).

I was never really impressed with the 1911 Act Mags I had, either.

That said, the followers at least LOOK like they have the right geometry (earlier black followers were roundish IIRC) and even if the springs need replacement the tubes should be good.

[PPGMD]

I took them to the range today. I put 50 rounds through one of them.

I am not sure if it is related, but I got a few cases of the cases flying back out me rather than toward 3 o'clock that they normally eject at.

I might get a few rounds here and there, but I won't be back to shooting the M&P full time until after the IPSC nationals next month.