Quality of ETS pistol magazines

I've heard good things about them but haven't seen it. I do know they're inexpensive. I recently bought a G48 and the 15 rounders are like $40 each plus shipping. ETS has a 19 rounders that stick out of the bottom for like $22 and 10 rounds for under $20. I ordered some to save reloading time at the range.

And I have to agree with the comment on the ProMags. I don't think I've ever owned one that worked. My first experience with them was when I bought a Mini 30 because the guy told me that "ProMag makes high cap magazines." I never bought another gun from him again.

9mmepiphany said:

I only have some passing experience with ETS mags for the Glock family of pistols. They feed very well but I was a bit concerned as to how rugged they are. They don't look/feel like they'd hold up very well if stepped on

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I don't have any personal experience with them, but YouTuber sootch00 runs over a pair with his F150, and does all kinds of other abuse to them in this video - .

I have a couple ETS Glock mags for my Extar EP9. I think I have a 22 rounder and a 31. They feel kinda cheap, but other than not liking to be loaded full, they have functioned well for me. The translucency let's you see the mag spring do some crazy stuff, and I have had to unload a mag due a bind half way through. But, they're cheap and they function well at the range. I am not sure I'd use them in any weapon for SD..
Just my $.02.

Edit for spelling error

peacebutready said:

How are aftermarket ETS pistol magazines? They make pistol mags for Glock, S&W, H&K, SIG, and maybe others.

How does quality measure up to OEM?

If quality is less than OEM, are they better than ProMags?

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I found the quality of ETS magazines vary. Never unacceptable, but sometimes not great.

Their magazines for Glock 42 rendered a stellar service for me. I have 6: 1 9-round and 5 12-round. Their reliability was impeccable, they take drops on concrete easily, even when loaded. They can easily be filled to capacity, stored and used that way. I have a few thousands rounds through them, which comes to about 500..800 per magazine.

But the ETS magazines for SIG P320 were disappointing (purchased in 2019). They are reliable, but they do not drop free. There's some friction, which is enough to keep them in the gun when the slide is locked back. The pressure of the follower ejects them when the action is closed, but obviously I want to reload when it's open. In addition, 1 of mine didn't activate the slide stop properly and I had it exchanged by ETS.

In addition, ETS chose to use their existing Glock 17/19/26/34 magazine body and just adapted the top a little bit to fit the P320. This means that the bottom sticks out and the plate does not match the grip's shape. Their marketing even tried to make lemonade from these lemons by proclaiming that "you can use your Glock bottom plates". Gee, thanks!

So, ETS magazines for Glock 42 are every bit as good as OEM magazines, but ETS magazines for SIG P320 are not as good as OEM ones.

As far as Promag goes, ETS for Glock 42 is better for sure. My Promags are not 100% reliable, and ETS magazines are.

P.S. Note that OEM magazines for SIG P320 are not uniform. They are made by 3 vendors: Mecgar, Checkmate (stamped with "C" in a circle), and a mysterious American company, identified as "J" in a circle. Mecgars are phenomenal, the "J" are quite good, and Checkmate are okay -- a little crude and have a higher percentage of lemons, at least when used by large departments. Some departments even go far enough to separate them and only permit Mecgar magazines when on duty. I can easily see ETS make a magazine that can compete with Checkmate, eventually. There's a room for improvement there. But they'll never exceed Mecgar magazines for P320.

I had very good luck with ETS mags for my Glock 17. I had three 17 round mags and one 22 round mag. No issues at all. I was using them for USPSA matches.

I have had varying luck with ProMags. Some were fine others not so good. I have used ProMags for a Shield 9mm (not good), and for a Ruger EC9S (work well). In both cases the ProMags were 10 rounds.

Glock mags are so cheap and likely the #1 reason for their reliability. Why mess with crap???

I only have the 30 round ones and they shoot flawless in the Kel Tec Sub 2000, but I have had issues with them in the Glock pistols. I also have a 30 rd Korean Glock mag that is the same way, so what I think is happening is the fixed barrel in carbines is what improves reliability, but the tilting barrel in Glocks causes issues.

Again, this is only with 30 round mags, I would have to believe that the standard length mags will work just fine.

Others mentioned the Glock 42 and EC9 and those are single stack magazines, which is inherently more reliable, so much so that even Promag has been able to make some good mags. I have a 10 rd LCP Promag and it has run 100%. Works so well I kind of would like to see Ruger come out with an LCP II with a 4 inch barrel and longer grip built around those 10 rd mags.

Could call it the LSP- Lightweight Service Pistol.

I had to return an ETS Glock mag because I couldn't insert it more than about halfway into the gun, and their CS suggestion was to insert it harder until the metal shaved the polymer body enough to insert it all the way, which obviously wouldn't work. The were very good about refunding my money, though.

I have one for my G43. It’s an invaluable piece of kit for when I want to practice clearing double feeds without having to manually induce them.

Seem to work fine for me with brass case ammo. Steel case ammo sticks to the plastic and gets hung up.

I've had great luck with ETS in Glock 42 (seven instead of six rounds), Glock 19, and Glock 23. These are all polymer80 frame Glocks but no ftf or other issues; I have about 2k rounds on all three guns.

Mine have all worked fine and I think are more durable than look. Only issue I’ve had was Glock 9mm 31 rounders really only fit 30. They have worked fine though in all my Glocks and my FX9 AR pistol. My 40 and 10mm mags all fine too. I recommend.

I got a bunch cheap. They work fine in Glocks, but not well in my Glock mag-well 9mm AR. I think the feeding issues might have been caused by dusty dirty mags - but that might also be because they are clear and I can see the grime inside.

I’ve tried the ETS mags and they seem to work fine. But I have plenty of Glock OEM and Magpul mags so I never see the point in buying the ETS magazines.

9mmepiphany said:

Are there magazines which aren't better than ProMags?

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Ladies Home Journal and Southern Living.

I only have some passing experience with ETS mags for the Glock family of pistols. They feed very well but I was a bit concerned as to how rugged they are. They don't look/feel like they'd hold up very well if stepped on

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Working in the gun selling part of the pawn industry for a long time I've seen a lot of mags that come in with different guns Some didn't look like they'd hold up well if stepped on by a housecat. Many are made by companies so proud of their product that don't have any markings on them at all. Other than handling them at the store I have no direct experience with many non-OEM mags.
When I wanted extra mags for my Bersa I asked around of the other managers of our other gun selling shops and bought MecGar and have never had an issue.