Good information here. I was looking online for Glock Mags the other day and came across the Korean Mags and wondered about them. Looks like I might have to try them since Glocks are now around $25 each everywhere I look.

Just ordered a 10 pack from Military gun supply for $113 shipped.

That would have gotten me 4 Factory mags for the same price.

Korean G18s?

I have read that the G18 mags are coming.  Maybe in the next couple months or so.

I'm thinking about picking up a 10-pack just to save wear/tear on my factory mags.

So far, the only reservations I'm hearing about using them for "defensive" purposes is that since they're not factory mags, new to the market, and don't really have a history yet; they're not deemed as totally reliable.

Has anyone put them through their paces somewhere besides off the range firing line?  Ex:  Has anyone used them in practical/tactical pistol matches yet?

Thanks.

-Frank

I have two of the G19 KCI mags and while I haven't had serious problems with them I won't use them except at the range. There is something strange about the spring and follower in that the spring gets mushy and the follower seems to tilt or at least lets the top round point upward when pushing down with the Glock loader.

I'm guessing a lot of you guys weren't in the game back when Glock mags were $100 a piece.

I just picked up 3 ambidextrous mag release G19 mags for $27 a piece.  That's still $70 cheaper than I have paid.

Actually, I was around in those days and can foresee those days coming again.

Didn't buy any mags at those ban-gouging $100 prices then and don't plan on paying Obama-gouging prices now.  Thus my interest in the quality of the KCI mags, which are looking to be a good economical alternative to stock up on in bulk before Obama makes it so that only the rich can have guns..

-Frank

I picked up 6 G17 and 4 G19 KCI mags from www.44mag.com  They have all worked as well as Glock factory mags  in my limited testing so far.  I'm ging to be buying more.  I hope they come out with G21 mags.

Well, as long as you are an informed consumer

Hope they work well for you.

Update:

I got 10 in the mail today and compared them to a brand new never loaded factory mag.

Initial quick impression is they looked to be almost identical to Glock mags in quality. Then I took the first one apart to compare them to factory mags. They are VERY similar in construction the only "problem" I noticed is that they have little pieces of plastic(very small) that are left hanging on here and there from the manufacturing process, as some other people have noted. Other than that they appear to be almost identical to Glock mags with a few very minor differences. I don't have the tools to check tolerances but others have already posted their findings.

I reassembled the mag and started loading it. The spring was very stiff(stiffer than the brand new, never loaded factory mag I was comparing it to) and difficult to load all 17 rounds. The more I loaded and unloaded it the easier it got. So I figured I'd load all 10 mags and leave them overnight to see if the spring got smoother, and also disassemble them to "clean them up".

On 2 of the 10 mags they had an issue with "binding up" around the 6th round or so I loaded. Upon disassembly and closer inspection I found that as I looked into the mag there are round holes along the sides of the mags metal lining (Glock mags have these "holes" as well) and there was small "tags" of the plastic material hanging on here and this was what I believe was the cause of the "binding" issue with the follower. I took a nail file and filed off the little plastic tags that were present and this seemed to cure the "binding" issue. They seem to all be cycling fine now but a little on the stiff to load side. As I said this does seem to get better the more they sit fully loaded and/or cycled.

Overall I think they are a deal if you don't mind spending a little time to "clean them up". I paid $11.38 each shipped which is less than half of what factory mags are currecntly going for, when you can find them.

I don't know when I'll get to shoot with them but I would definitely not use them for CCW purposes until I got a number of problem free feeding cycles out of them and they proved to be reliable.

I would have paid $25 a magazine for my .40 back in 92 or so if I could find one.  I remember when Glock first came out, I tried to buy a extra magazine through every method possible.  Glock told me we can't make enough of them, they are all going to the police depts.  I got out of that in last 90's and then jumped back in a couple of years ago and saw you could buy them through various places and knew that things did change.

I'm still reading the reviews.  Thank you!

I think the only thing I might do is replace the springs with factory springs. After being loaded overnight they seemed to loosen up and be much smoother. They'd at least make good range/abuse mags and save wear and tear on your factory mags. As I said I'd, have to run them multiple times without incident before using them for CCW though.

Ordered a slew each of G19 and G17 from Cope's

Should be here tomorrow.

BTW, saw these on the cover of the March CTD catalog: $30 I can't believe the price of dirt these days.

Does anyone know if any aftermarket basepads like Arredondo or Taylor Freelance, will fit and function with these mags?  

Thanks...Buffhunter

Got a couple on order also.  Will post up a review once they come in.

I had bought a 10 pack of G19 mags, anyone with some G17 ones interested in swapping 2?

That's insane.

I posted too quickly. $30 will get you 2 KCI's and some sort of pouch. So it's really closer to $15/mag. Still too high IMO.
However, given CTD's trend of gouging, it wouldn't surprise me to see $30/mag.

I got mine from Cope's. Just tried loading a few. 17's seem fine once loaded, unloaded, reloaded. 19's have some persistent issues with binding while loading and 1 (of 2) doesn't drop free fully loaded. Hope to test at range soon.

Did you look inside the mag body for the platic "tags"?  Also see the post in the 17 mag thread, one of the guys there was having problems with them dropping and IIRC he stated the mag bodies were a little large so he sanded them.

These still seem to be a good deal even though it sounds like some "tweeking" is required for some, IMO. At least for cheap range/beater mags.

I had a floor plate and insert break after the mag hit the deck ( empty) during a reload.

Do these have the ambi cut in them?

While I didn't see the "tags", it did seem as though the indentation for the mag retention/release intruded too far into the mag beyond the steel lining. That's also about where the follower would be when I had trouble with binding while loading. I read the post about the witness hole "tags" inside and that's what I first looked for, but it doesn't make sense. The holes in the steel lining are much smaller than the holes in the plastic so it's not as though the plastic was punched through from the outside thereby leaving "tags" inside. My guess is that the steel lining is inserted after the witness holes are made. Or the plastic is molded onto the lining. Or maybe I just don't know what a witness hole is - I'm assuming the holes that allow you to see how many rounds are in the mag.

Anyway, I successfully unloaded 5 fully loaded 17 rounders today. No failures, other than 3 of the 5 failed to drop free when empty. They had sat fully loaded for a week.

Two of the G19 mags are still sitting fully loaded waiting for me to shoot my G19 - it'll be awhile.

The plastic "tags" that I was talking about were on the side walls of the mag where there are small circular holes in the FML that the plastic seemed to have protruded into the inside of the mag, not the "witness holes" that show how many rounds are left. The binding issues I was having seemed to stop after I removed the "tags" inside the mag with a sharp chisel. As far as the follower tilting issue that some have reported, I noticed this  as well but it wasn't that severe IMO and I was able to load my mags using the Glock loader. I replaced the factory spring with a factory Glock spring and the loading/unloading seemed to be much better as well. The spring appears to be the cheapest part of the mag and I have new springs on the way to change them all out. I haven't had a chance to shoot them yet but they seem to be adequate for range use at least, saving wear and tear on your factory mags. After going through them mine appear to be working 100% and the binding issue seems to be fixed.

Mine are all G17 mags by the way.

I've ran about 450 rounds thru my G19 mags now, [KCI] worked fine, yeah a few bits of plastic I removed from the top of them but I doubt if they would actually cause any malf. I don't see a problem with the springs myself.

I just ordered 6 for less than I would of been able to get 4 factory mags, they seem to sound good.

I got 10 (glock 17) of these a while back to take with me to test at a class i'm taking this weekend.
I figured better to use cheap mags for training  if they are functional and save all my factory mags for carry.
I'm taking plenty of factory mags jic these give issues.

I opened 3 to start loading them wow what a pita an hr into it now and still on the 3rd mag.

What the heck are you doing, loading the components individually?

No doubt.  Not sure why it should take so long to load 3 mags.....................

Binding up tilting follower you name it they do it follower sticking(not coming up) when cycling rounds through them.
I think i've got these 3 to where they might function now.
I'm definitely going to test them friday before the class to see if they are even worth taking....

If they're doin' that I wouldn't take 'em.

Just finished 3 more if the ones i got are representative they definitely aren't for someone who wants a plug'n play / carry mag.

I sent off an email to 44mag and they(super fast response) say they work with a little break in if not they will warranty them
so i'll give them some live fire time friday (before the class) and see if they will make it.

well I get mine on friday, I hope they work better than yours.

They deffinitely need to be "fluffed and buffed". I got 10 of the G17 mags and a few had the binding issues. The more you work them the better they get but I found you need to take them apart and clean them out, then load/unload them a few times and they are GTG. I do have replacement springs on the way as I think the spring is the weak link with them. It was the only thing on the mags that I got that seemed inconsistant from mag to mag and compaired to the Factory springs. Once I swapped out the spring with a factory one they were MUCH better.

Keep us upadated.

On a side note has anybody heard when the G18 mags are coming out?

Well  i used 6 of them and my friend Halffast used the other 4 all weekend at a Tactical Response "Fighting Pistol" class.
For anyone who's never taken this class your mags hit the ground every time you change mags and you change mags a lot...........
They were kicked, stepped on, ripped from the mag well while doing type3 malfunction drills , dropped fully loaded, partially loaded, empty and thrown a few times.
All 10 worked perfectly we had zero malfunctions other than set up ones for the class malfunction drills.......

While they were a pita to initially load they flat ass worked fine for us all weekend long.

Sounds good. The one's I bought were stiff to load after about 10 but I didn't experience any malf's shooting with them.

Cope's is out right now, they expect more later this week. [G19]

I used 6 of the 15 round mags at a defensive handgunning class last weekend.  All was fine with one exception.  i was doing reloads, dropping the mags onto the concrete floor of the range.  One of hte baseplates came off.  Other than that, they were fine.  Like most others, I will use them for training but not for carry.

I got my mags from copes, they look great.

I have not had a chance to try any of them yet but I expect no issues.

I also got a 33rd mag... I figured why the hell not (factory Glock)

Another successful unloading of the same 5 17-rounders at the range. They were much easier to load this time. No change in the drop-free (2 of 5) characteristics.

Copes has them back in stock, got my order today.

$11.99

www.44mag.com/prodinfo.asp?number=KCIG17

I have a question.I got my order from copes today. I ordered 2 of the KCI mags just to try them out. Did the KCI mags say Khan Korea on the bottom? These are the g-17 mags Are these a different mag? Or the same thing.

I don't think they are in the same league quality wise. ALL the KCIs I have gotten have said KCI on the base. [G19 mags]

All my 17 and 15 round KCI mags have "KCI" and the base plate and the following on the packaging:



or



The G17 packages have a SKU (8 809257 220047), G19 packages do not.

Crap! I dont like the way this is going. I sent Copes an E-mail questioning this. I havent shot the mags ,and they do seem close to the Glock. But i do think its wrong to advertise KCI and deliver something different. Especially if its inferior. I'm glad I orderd 2 and not the 20 i was thinking of. I'll let you know how they resolve this.

....

shoot i wish it wasnt so late I'd runto the range and empty a mag

I just checked mine (10 pack of G17) that I got from Military Gun Supply and there are NO markings at all on the baseplates. But they were packaged IDENTICAl to the G19 mags pictured at the beginning of this thread. The no markings on the baseplate didn't occur to me because the bottom of the baseplates was not shown.

So it appears that there are either 3 different manufacturers or they(KCI) transitioned from KCI to Khan. Also I wonder who is having what issues with what type. Mine had the "binding" isue with a couple of them and I cleaned out the plastic "tags" from inside of the mags on most of them.

I'm going to email MGS later and ask WTF is going on here. When I bought mine they were advertised as KCI.

I can say this Roger Copes rocks!  within an hour he responded to my email. he said they come from the same importer(KCI and Khan). He said they sold over 4600 khans and only 13 came back. He offered to replace them,said he had a new shipment of 1K at the warehouse. Told me they have a 30 day warrenty. I have never seen this level of customer service. they shipped super quick.,and back their shit up!! The mags look very close to OEM, and feed well thru hand cycling. They load well and dont bulge.. I hope to take them to the range tommorow with my New G-34 and my 19. I'll keep you all posted.