S15 mags for Glock 43… Reliable?

[smokey]

Convert a G43X to take Sig P365 Mags. - AR15.COM

Firearm Discussion and Resources from AR-15, AK-47, Handguns and more! Buy, Sell, and Trade your Firearms and Gear.

www.ar15.com

...and then there's this guy...

 

[teratos]

Convert a G43X to take Sig P365 Mags. - AR15.COM

Firearm Discussion and Resources from AR-15, AK-47, Handguns and more! Buy, Sell, and Trade your Firearms and Gear.

www.ar15.com

View attachment 379081
...and then there's this guy...

Bling!!

 

[SWO Daddy]

Shield Arms mags are proof that Glock aficionados would rather die than admit the P365 is better.

 

[hogarth]

Shield Arms mags are proof that Glock aficionados would rather die than admit the P365 is better.

No. They are just proof that Glock aficionados felt left out not paying $45 per magazine.

 

[RoadDawg]

I have experienced many problems with the Gen 1 and 2 S15 Magazines.

The video RD posted is on point. He does not candy coat it.

S.A. also will charge you a restocking fee for mags that won't work.

Some Glocks have no issues with the S15 mags and others do. Some have unknown issues and the owners don't know enough about the weapon to identify the problems.

If they make a Gen3 I'll try them. I refuse to use Gen 1 & 2 in any of my family's Glocks and the ones I work on professionally.

Yes, I have used them metal shield arms magazine catches as instructed. Problems are usually not resolved by it.

Thank you sir. Your expert opinion is valued.

As I said, my intention with posting this thread was to cause folks to explore the issues and make certain that what they are carrying, is 100% reliable.
It does no one any good to have five extra rounds in a magazine, if it causes the pistol to malfunction and those rounds can’t be used reliably.

I’d rather have 10 that work… than 15 that don’t.

 

[RoadDawg]

Shield Arms mags are proof that Glock aficionados would rather die than admit the P365 is better.

Nope…

The fact that the folks are using off branded mags in their Glock pistol, simply means that they would rather have a pistol they can trust. But want more rounds in it.

I just carry extra magazines.

 

[clandestine]

Have you tried tossing either a bead of weld on the upper rear of the mag, or some other method of bumping the top of the mag slightly forward? It seems like the ridge on the front makes up for not having polymer wrapped around up there, but there's nothing protruding from the back to make up for not having polymer there.

I didn't make permanent mods to the S15 mags, but I tried a similar idea. In my tinkering it caused the magazine to be sensitive with certain ammo unless ramp work was done.

I'm not saying don't buy the magazines. I'm just sharing my experience.

My advice is free. I'm not harmed if people ignore it.

 

[clandestine]

Thank you sir. Your expert opinion is valued.

As I said, my intention with posting this thread was to cause folks to explore the issues and make certain that what they are carrying, is 100% reliable.
It does no one any good to have five extra rounds in a magazine, if it causes the pistol to malfunction and those rounds can’t be used reliably.

I’d rather have 10 that work… than 15 that don’t.

Thank you RD.

I don't consider myself an expert by any means. Im just a nerd who tries to be better.

 

[smokey]

I didn't make permanent mods to the S15 mags, but I tried a similar idea. In my tinkering it caused the magazine to be sensitive with certain ammo unless ramp work was done.

I'm not saying don't buy the magazines. I'm just sharing my experience.

My advice is free. I'm not harmed if people ignore it.

Yup. Just picking your brain on if a fix like that would make a difference or not. I appreciate you sharing your experience with this topic.

 

[CharlieFoxtrot]

Thanks for sharing RD. For what it’s worth I have a G48 MOS. I have about 400 rounds through it (mixture of 115 and 124 ball and 115 hollow points) with 2nd generation S15 magazines without a single issue. I did install the steel magazine catch. Only issue is that I found you really have to slam the magazines in to get them to seat. More so than the OEM plastics, but not so a bad habit to reinforce anyway. Going to shoot another 600 rounds at least before I switch carry guns. May not ever get to though. Wife shot it Friday and loves it, and shot it better than me.

 

[outrider58]

Thanks for sharing RD. For what it’s worth I have a G48 MOS. I have about 400 rounds through it (mixture of 115 and 124 ball and 115 hollow points) with 2nd generation S15 magazines without a single issue. I did install the steel magazine catch. Only issue is that I found you really have to slam the magazines in to get them to seat. More so than the OEM plastics, but not so a bad habit to reinforce anyway. Going to shoot another 600 rounds at least before I switch carry guns. May not ever get to though. Wife shot it Friday and loves it, and shot it better than me.

I'm confident that slamming the mags in is enough to overcome the slight flaw in the design. Part of my range ritual is mag changes. Shoot one round-drop the mag-stick in a new mag-shoot one round and repeat. I don't recall any mishaps during my mag change drills.

I can't explain the two feed-jams I experienced while shooting my W&C qual, unless it was a case of nerves.

 

[woodline]

My org issues G43Xs with the Gen 2 S15 mags and metal mag release. I won’t claim they are 100% reliable because nothing is, but issues have not been happening at a rate that is statistically significant in relation to the Glock 10 rd mags. I don’t really prefer this setup over a g19 because the G43x doesn’t fit my hand as well as it, or even a Sig P365, but it is fine.

That said, I expect outcomes are firearm and ammo dependent. I would recommend folks share what brands/types/weights of ammo they use when experiencing success or failure. Maybe there will be a pattern.

 

[Squaregrouper]

That said, I expect outcomes are firearm and ammo dependent. I would recommend folks share what brands/types/weights of ammo they use when experiencing success or failure. Maybe there will be a pattern.

147gr GD2 (100rds)
124gr HST (50rds)
124gr Fed Am Eagle (100rds)
124gr, 147gr FMJ RN handloads (easily 300+rds)
Zero issues, using metal mag catch and seating mag hard.

 

[spoon059]

Shield Arms mags are proof that Glock aficionados would rather die than admit the P365 is better.

Ha! Well played. I'm a Glock guy, mainly because that is what I've been issued, trained on and punched a whole bunch of paper with over the last 15 or so years. They are relatively affordable (especially blue label), they work and I can operate one in the dark without thinking about it. I own several Glocks and will likely continue to own them even when I retire just because of my familiarity with the platform.

I'm not sure how "better" is defined though. They are both reliable, accurate hand guns that put hate down range. The Glock is a combat pistol, it works dirty and dry. You can abuse them (you should see the condition of some of these guns at inspection time...) and they will likely still go bang when you pull the trigger. If I didn't have so much trigger time with my Glocks, I would be happy to carry and shoot a Sig.

 

[Art3]

I watch the video. Here are my main take aways:
It is about twice as long as it needs to be...but that's youtubers for ya
He really really needs dummy rounds.
To me, his whole point is invalid if he is not using the SA mag release (that, as I understand from my MDS education on SA mags, they strongly recommend). It sounds like someone who bought a Hemi that calls for mid grade or higher gas, complaining that it knocks and runs like crap on 87 octane. Would it change any of his findings? Who knows...how hard would it be to just do that and see what happens? I would have more faith in his results if he was using more than half of their system.

I do respect his philosophy of not messing with the stuff that's already engineered to work...which sounds like another vote for P365

 

[RoadDawg]

Ha! Well played. I'm a Glock guy, mainly because that is what I've been issued, trained on and punched a whole bunch of paper with over the last 15 or so years. They are relatively affordable (especially blue label), they work and I can operate one in the dark without thinking about it. I own several Glocks and will likely continue to own them even when I retire just because of my familiarity with the platform.

I'm not sure how "better" is defined though. They are both reliable, accurate hand guns that put hate down range. The Glock is a combat pistol, it works dirty and dry. You can abuse them (you should see the condition of some of these guns at inspection time...) and they will likely still go bang when you pull the trigger. If I didn't have so much trigger time with my Glocks, I would be happy to carry and shoot a Sig.

Condition?

Many LEOs are not what one would call “gun people”. The sidearm is viewed as simply another tool of the job, to be carried on the tool belt and tolerated at best, neglected at worst.

Back before retirement, I supervised the inspection of every Glock pistol issued by BPD. My squad and I found most to be clean and functioning enough to pass inspection. But there were some which were suffering from neglect and at least one which was removed from service completely. Even that one was not due to any failure of the Glock pistol.

The Glock pistol simply works extremely well in “mass Issue” situations.
For more than 36 years of carry, most of those years (since 1990) have been entrusted to Glock pistols of varying models and calibers. I never saw one fail the user when it was needed, even with what some would call a very sparse maintenance.

 

[outrider58]

I watch the video. Here are my main take aways:
It is about twice as long as it needs to be...but that's youtubers for ya
He really really needs dummy rounds.
To me, his whole point is invalid if he is not using the SA mag release (that, as I understand from my MDS education on SA mags, they strongly recommend). It sounds like someone who bought a Hemi that calls for mid grade or higher gas, complaining that it knocks and runs like crap on 87 octane. Would it change any of his findings? Who knows...how hard would it be to just do that and see what happens? I would have more faith in his results if he was using more than half of their system.

I do respect his philosophy of not messing with the stuff that's already engineered to work...which sounds like another vote for P365

That, basically, was my takeaway. He lost me when he introduced live ammunition to a gun smithing scenario. Using an "unaltered" gun as a test bed was another faux pas. It was as if he was setting it up for failure.

 

[clandestine]

I watch the video. Here are my main take aways:
It is about twice as long as it needs to be...but that's youtubers for ya
He really really needs dummy rounds.
To me, his whole point is invalid if he is not using the SA mag release (that, as I understand from my MDS education on SA mags, they strongly recommend). It sounds like someone who bought a Hemi that calls for mid grade or higher gas, complaining that it knocks and runs like crap on 87 octane. Would it change any of his findings? Who knows...how hard would it be to just do that and see what happens? I would have more faith in his results if he was using more than half of their system.

I do respect his philosophy of not messing with the stuff that's already engineered to work...which sounds like another vote for P365

The problems mentioned in the video still exist with the SA magazine catch.

Slop with the mags and mag well are the primary issue with the S15 mags in certain Glocks.

 

[Art3]

The problems mentioned in the video still exist with the SA magazine catch.

Slop with the mags nad mag well are the primary issue with the S15 mags in certain Glocks.

I believe you. I just think it was foolish of the guy in the video to leave that variable wide open.

 

[Art3]

That, basically, was my takeaway. He lost me when he introduced live ammunition to a gun smithing scenario. Using an "unaltered" gun as a test bed was another faux pas. It was as if he was setting it up for failure.

Well...he had to make sure the title still fit the video, right?

And he assured us that "it is a safe weapon," and, "will not fire"