Magpul 21 rd mag failure to feed

[seabiscuit]

I’d been carrying a Magpul 21 rd mag as a spare for my G19.4 and G19X, but after seeing a post (I think it was from JodyH) mentioning failures to feed hollow points from Magpul mags, I decided to try it out.

I racked all 21 147 gr HSTs through my G19.4, and the last round failed to feed. Nasty failure too - had to lock the slide back, push the round back into the mag, then eject the mag.

Now, that only happened with the very last round, so I’d basically be out of ammo anyway, but I’m switching to the OEM 24 rd for my spare now.

Is there any reliable, comfortable baseplate worth trying? OEM baseplates bite - those back corners are sharp. More cant helps, but it could be better.

FWIW, guns wear APLc’s and are carried in a JMCK AIWB rig, and I have AIWB mag carriers from him for 15 and 24 rd mags. I switched to a single PTD loop to adjust cant on the mag carrier.

I can add a picture of the FTF later if it helps.


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[Caballoflaco]

Manually cycling ammunition is not a way to determine reliable feeding of a magazine in a semi auto pistol. The only way to know for sure if a gun works with a certain magazine and load is live fire. Unfortunately, you just can’t reproduce recoil, slide velocity, consistency of grip and I’m sure a myriad of other factors by manually running the slide.


Also, it’s not considered wise to chamber a round you plan on using for self defense more than a couple of times due mainly to bullet setback that can happen during the loading process.

[Leroy Suggs]

Manually cycling ammunition is not a way to determine reliable feeding of a magazine in a semi auto pistol. The only way to know for sure if a gun works with a certain magazine and load is live fire. Unfortunately, you just can’t reproduce recoil, slide velocity, consistency of grip and I’m sure a myriad of other factors by manually running the slide.


Also, it’s not considered wise to chamber a round you plan on using for self defense more than a couple of times due mainly to bullet setback that can happen during the loading process.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This.

[WDR]

I have had failure to feed malfunctions with the Magpul 21 round mags as well, using JHP or flat nosed 147gr FMJ ammo. They seem to run 100% with round nosed ball ammo of all weights. I don't trust them for carry use, but I have a couple for range use, just because they are a nice size.

ETA: This is in actual use, not hand cycling ( which, as mentioned, isn't a good measure of reliability).

[seabiscuit]

Caballo Flaco, makes sense. But if it won’t run reliably manually cycling, I’m not going to trust it actually firing, at least until I get to the range.

Have you witnessed bullet setback? Every day, I must unload and reload my pistol. So the top two rounds get chambered quite a bit. Every time I go to the range, I make sure to fire these rounds, and I’ve never had an issue.


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[Kyle Reese]

Caballo Flaco, makes sense. But if it won’t run reliably manually cycling, I’m not going to trust it actually firing, at least until I get to the range.

Have you witnessed bullet setback? Every day, I must unload and reload my pistol. So the top two rounds get chambered quite a bit. Every time I go to the range, I make sure to fire these rounds, and I’ve never had an issue.


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OEM 24s don't seem to exhibit any of the shortcomings of the MagPul 21s. Also, I'll echo the sentiments of the posters in this thread that have pointed out that manually cycling your ammo isn't really a valid metric to determine the reliability of your 21s. My 21s don't like steel cased ammunition at all, but I came to this conclusion during live fire.

Regarding clambering the same round over and over, I'd recommend against the practice. For me, any defensive handgun cartridge is relegated to the range bag after being chambered more than twice. For carbines, it's after a single chambering.

Check out Doc GKRs take on this topic.

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/top...ink_source=app

duty ammo failure from rechambering


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[BK14]

Caballo Flaco, makes sense. But if it won’t run reliably manually cycling, I’m not going to trust it actually firing, at least until I get to the range.

Have you witnessed bullet setback? Every day, I must unload and reload my pistol. So the top two rounds get chambered quite a bit. Every time I go to the range, I make sure to fire these rounds, and I’ve never had an issue.


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Granted manually cycling doesn’t replicate firing, but I’ve had enough failures with magpul mags to not trust them. So regardless of why you got to this conclusion, I’m glad you did. The 24 rounders are awesome.

If the oem baseplate is an issue, try rounding out the back corners of the mag. You can also try older generation baseplates, vickers, or 10-8, but I think with some sand paper you could probably make them work.


I un-chamber my duty gun a few times a week. After I chamber the round a couple times, as long as there’s no setback, I just cycle it lower into the mag and pull up some new rounds. Obviously if it’s set back it gets chucked.

[seabiscuit]

I’ll double check my top rounds for setback and maybe put them deeper in the mag. They do get discolored and I make sure to shoot them at my first opportunity but I’ve never had an issue.


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[Chance]

I can add a picture of the FTF later if it helps.

Known issue: read this. I only use OEM mags at this point.

[noguns]

I use them for range use only.

I only use OEM for carry.