ETS Magazines, by Pat Cascio

I’ve said it thousands of times, that when it comes down to firearm magazines, its just hard to beat those that come shipped from the factory with the firearm. Many aftermarket magazines just aren’t up to the quality we would like to have in our guns. You know something isn’t quite right, when the aftermarket mags don’t come in any packaging, and there are no markings on the mags as to what company made them. I won’t mention any particular magazines – aftermarket brands – that are still in business, but there are some big name companies out there, that produce substandard magazines.

I’m sure we’re all heard of Mec-Gar magazines, and to their credit, they produce magazines for more than 50 firearms companies. Just because a magazine that comes with your gun is stamped Colt, S&W, or SIG-Sauer doesn’t mean they actually made those mags. In reality, there’s a good chance they were produced under contract by Mec-Gar. If you are buying a Mec-Gar made magazine, odds are, they are the same magazines that come with your big name gun maker. Gun companies don’t want to be in the magazine business – first of all, they might produce more than a hundred different gun models and that requires a lot of different machines to make all those magazines. So, why not contract out to a company like Mec-Gar? Simply give the specs to Mec-Gar for a particular firearm and Mec-Gar can produce what you need.

Then we have some of those lesser magazine makers, who boast of producing magazines made out of the finest steel, with the strongest springs – if that’s true, then why don’t their magazines work – all the time? Hmmm, something to think about. So, for the most part, I stick with the exact same magazines that come with a gun in the box.

Now, some aftermarket magazines work just as well as those that come with a gun from the factory. One in particular are the Glock magazines made in South Korea – they are produced to the same exact specs as the Glock mags, at about half the price. Long story short, the South Korean military and police purchased hundreds of thousands of Glock 19 and 17 9mm handguns at a give-a-away price. Glock figured out they would make up for the sale of the guns, that were sold  to South Korea, by selling them spare parts and spare magazines. Well, the South Koreans are pretty smart…they produced their own magazines that they work just like the original ones do. South Korea saved a lot of money, and Glock lost out on selling spare magazines. So, I’ve used many of the South Korean-made Glock mags for a lot of years now, without any complaints – if I can get a quality product that works all the time, for half the price of the factory model, I’ll do so.

The ETS Brand

All of this leads us to the Elite Tactical Systems (ETS) brand magazines. They haven’t been around all that long. They are made in USA, from a translucent polycarbonate. Their literature touts these benefits:

• Extreme impact resistance
• Chemical resistance
• UV resistance
• Extreme temperature resistance
• Creep resistance — feed lips and body that won’t spread when being stored loaded, long term
• Compatible with factory and aftermarket floorplates.

I did some research on their line of aftermarket magazines and I was pretty impressed with all that I read. I especially like their extended mags, that hold 30 rounds and even 40 rounds. They produce 30-round mags for the SIG P320 9mm, S&W M&P 9mm, HK VP9 and a variety of Glock handguns in various calibers. One of my all-time favorite handguns is the SIG-Sauer P226 and P229 9mm pistols, these are some of the finest handguns made – period. They are well known for their accuracy and reliability. However, ETS doesn’t (yet) produce any 30-round mags for these particular handguns. I hope they soon produce 30-rd mags for those pistols. In the meantime, I’m “stuck” with “just” 18-round Mec-Gar mags…I don’t care for the SIG-marked 20-roundd mags at all.

My Testing

If you go to the ETS web site, you’ll see that they also produce standard capacity magazines, as well as the extended 30 and 40-round magazines for a variety of handguns. All of these magazines are produced out of a translucent (usually clear or smoke) polycabonate for the magazine bodies – and you can see the spring and follower. I like that you can see if you have any rounds still in the magazine at a glance. The followers are well designed. The ETS mags for Glocks don’t have a steel liner, like the factory Glock mags do, but I’m not concerned about this in the least. I’ve given all their mags a good test, and that included dropping them on rocks, and the mags won! All in all, I found them to be very tough, properly dimensioned, and very reliable.

The springs in the ETS magazines, are stout, to say the least. So it takes some effort from beginning to the end loading these magazines. So I recommend that you invest in a magazine loader. The ETS mags are easy to disassemble for cleaning, too – I like that. However, you’d be surprised at how many gun owners who never take their mags apart for a good cleaning, and they cuss out the gun because if fails to function properly, when it wasn’t the gun – just a filthy magazine.

Now, I wouldn’t walk around with my M&P with the 30-rd magazine sticking out of it. There are too many things the mag will catch on. However, when it comes to a reload, I’d sure have some spare extended ETS magazines ready to go. In a SHTF scenario, I would have either my M&P, Glock .40, or SIG P320 in a Blackhawk SERPA leg holster, with a standard capacity factory magazine in the gun, and on the leg platform, I’d have two more factory supplied mags for reloads. On top of this, I’d have four additional ETS 30-round mags inside of a leg magazine pouch. Now, let’s see how all this adds up: A S&W M&P 9mm that holds 17-rounds, plus one in the chamber, and two more 17-round mags in the mag pouches on the leg platform, and they 4 of the 30-round ETS mags in a leg mag pouch on the opposite leg. That brings us up to a grand total of 172 rounds available. That’s a lot of firepower to have and it doesn’t take up much room. I’d say you’d be well-armed if you were out and about.

One Odd Problem

Now, as stated, I’ve tested ETS magazines extensively and I only had one strange problem. That was with the SIG P320 30-round 9mm magazines, and it eventually corrected itself. With every magazine I have for the SIG, it would lock the slide open, with the very last round still in the magazine – very strange. I noticed at the beginning of my testing, that the followers on these mags really stuck up at a high angle. However, after loading each mag 3 or 4 times, the followers weren’t sticking up like they were at the start of my testing. The first 29 rounds always fed, but when it came to the last round in the magazine, the slide would lock-up with that last round. But it did stop doing that after the 3^rd or 4^th time the magazine was filled.

If I had to bug out on a few minutes notice, and I could only grab an AR, and one handgun, I wouldn’t feel under-armed in the least. My BOB and my A.L.I.C.E. web gear would provide me with six spare rifle mags, fully loaded on my web gear and one loaded mag in the AR.  And my Blackhawk Serpa tactical leg holster would provide me with a handgun and two spare mags on it – always loaded, and the leg magazine pouch…what’s not to like here? I’d have more than enough food for several days, and other survival gear, plus two firearms – the AR and more than likely my Glock 19X – plus there are always spare ammo cans in my truck, and more survival gear.

Blackhawk formerly produced a three pouch leg pouch for submachinegun magazines, but for some reason, they discontinued them – too bad! I didn’t some searching on the Internet and found a place somewhere in Kalifornia that is selling a 4 pocket leg pouch for 9mm submachinegun magazines. If you do a search on Amazon.com you can find these mag pouches and if I recall, they were only $12.99 each with free shipping – great deal if you ask me.

With a little bit of practice, you can hit a man-sized steel target out to 100 yards. So you wouldn’t feel very handicapped if you were forced to shoot at someone who was shooing at you from that distance. Of course, our goal is to always avoid getting into a gun fight to start with. However, when the Schumer Hits The Fan, we never know what we might encounter, and a rifle is a handy thing to have with you, along with a handgun. And, quite honestly, most people – and I’ve trained thousands over the years, couldn’t hit a man-sized target at 50 feet when they first came to me for some training. And, a lot of hunters don’t practice and miss a deer at 100 yards. So do some training and be one step ahead of those trying to do you harm.

I’m full sold on the ETS extended capacity magazines, and best part is most are around $20 to $22 – we’re talking quality made mags at a great price…and I’ve yet to hear anyone complain after a gun fight, that they had too much ammo. I purchased all my ETS mags through Midway USA and I’ve found they are a great place to do business.