PMAG 17 GL9: Magpul’s Mea Culpa

by
posted on August 17, 2015
** When you buy products through the links on our site, we may earn a commission that supports NRA's mission to protect, preserve and defend the Second Amendment. **
glockpmag.jpg
Like men, now and then companies, even the best, mess up. How they handle a mistake says a lot about them. Magpul recently had such an issue. A production mold error with its Glock PMAG 17 GL9s was causing failures. Magpul immediately mailed replacements to every customer who purchased one of these magazines. It also fixed the problem—the magazines are now all working. Here’s how the company handled the issue on its Facebook page:

OK we screwed up.

After initial release of the Glock PMAG 17 GL9 a few days ago we started seeing random issues of failure to feed with the new magazine in other Glock models, primarily the Glock 19 and 26. Of all the challenges of building a Glock magazine with a single new composite, issues like drop free, impact strength and feed lip retention were foremost on our mind. The failure to feed came as a bit of a surprise to us and we immediately headed out to the range to investigate.

In short order we found the problem. Without getting into technical details, some small, but critical geometry changes did not make it into the initial production molds. We should have caught this but no failures showed up on our factory guns during live fire testing and flaws in our internal processes of checks/balances did not flag the oversight as it should.

So as I said before, we screwed up and here is what we are going to do about it.

Molds are being updated with the correct geometry as we speak and a replacement magazine body with the correct geometry should be available by May 4th, 2015….

—Richard Fitzpatrick, President/CEO Magpul Industries Corp

Latest

Roy Weatherby Velocity Web
Roy Weatherby Velocity Web

The Case For Velocity

Although the effects of a bullet's terminal performance had been thoroughly studied by 1955, ammunition pioneer Roy Weatherby sought to prove velocity trumps mass and, as a result, built a reputable business that continues to advance today.

Preview: Kriss Vector CRB Gen 3

The third generation of Kriss’ distinctively shaped Vector line was introduced earlier this year, with the company offering the platform in carbine (CRB), large-format pistol (SDP) and short-barreled rifle (SBR) formats ...

Staccato 2011 HD C3.6: Shrinking The 2011

Following the release of its HD model, which was designed to accept Glock-pattern magazines, Texas-based firearm maker Staccato announced it had developed a smaller, carry-ready variant: the 2011 HD C3.6.

Preview: Heathen Systems Assaulter Bipod Combo

The Heathen Systems Assaulter Bipod features a detachable-leg design that is ultra-low-profile when stowed and requires minimal space on an existing Picatinny rail.

Gun Of The Week: Walther Arms PDP Pro-X PMM Compact

Within Walther Arms' line of Performance Duty Pistols, the Pro-X PMM stands out, thanks to a number of features. We head to the range to see exactly how these upgrades and enhancements impact the design.

The Armed Citizen® Oct. 31, 2025

Read today's "The Armed Citizen" entry for real stories of law-abiding citizens, past and present, who used their firearms to save lives.

Interests



Get the best of American Rifleman delivered to your inbox.