Every customer needs more magazines

Shooting Industry, July, 2005 by Massad Ayoob

If your customer has a concealed carry permit and a compact auto pistol to go with it, remind him that a longer, higher-capacity magazine might make sense for a spare. Since the second magazine is usually carried vertically or in a fanny pack, it doesn't bulge any more than a short one. However, the longer magazine will hold more cartridges and is easier to manipulate during the stress of a combat or tactical reload. In many models, there's a third advantage: While the short magazine can painfully pinch the little finger between its floorplate and the bottom of the pistol's frame during a rapid insertion, many longer magazines will lessen this problem.

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Pistol manufacturers have long recognized the advantages of shorter and longer magazines. Kahr Arms ships most of its short-handled micro-compacts with two magazines. One is a short, flush-bottom magazine for maximum concealment. The other is a longer version that holds one more round and has a plastic attachment that gives the shooter a spot to place the little finger.

Sigarms offers an attachment for a P226 magazine that adapts it to the shorter grip of a compact P228, providing a fuller feel and increasing the 9mm's magazine capacity from 13 to 15 rounds. SIG also makes a 10-round P239 single-stack magazine with the spacer already attached, increasing the grasping surface of the compact 9mm pistol and adding two cartridges to its capacity.

One selling point of the fast-moving Glock pistols has always been that the smaller models of the same general frame size and caliber can take the magazines of the larger ones. If the customer has a subcompact "baby Glock," like the G26 9mm or the G27 .40, those guns will take the full-length magazines of a Glock 17 and a Glock 22, respectively. Upon reloading, the G26 now holds a 17-round magazine instead of the 10-rounder it came with, and the larger-caliber G27 now has a 15-round magazine instead of a stubby nine-round magazine. Glock armorers have warned me that the only caliber this versatile option won't work with is the 10mm.

In Glock's double-stack .45 ACP models, the "small gun takes large magazines" principle also works. When I carry my Glock 30, the spare magazines are the ones for the larger Glock 21. If I must reload, I go from a Glock that holds 10-plus-one rounds of .45 ACP to one that can accommodate 13-plus-one rounds.

Replacement floorplates that add a place to put the little finger, and in some cases increase the cartridge reservoir, are more popular than ever--now that the latter function no longer constitutes a federal felony of "manufacturing" a prohibited high-capacity magazine. Pearce and Scherer are two well-proven brands in this potentially burgeoning accessory field.