I'm shooting a lot more pistol. Easily going to send 3k to 4k rounds down range this year with my scheduled shoots. I wanted more magazines for practice. I can see the toll the range has on my Glock factory magazines, and I know I will need replacements. I'll be buying more Glock factory magazines, but for practice and abuse, and roughly half the price delivered, I got some KCI magazines from Wideners.

I did my research, and I found a ton of bad reviews, people having problems, etc. Even with that, I ventured on. I'm a tinkerer. I have a well equipped garage and I keep my antique military vehicles and tractors running and do my own gunsmithing. I'm up for a challenge.

Out of the box impression.



From 3' away, they look like factory mags to me. I bought four 17-round magazines and two 15 round magazines.

The 15 round magazines have a glossier, slicker finish. They have KCI marked on the base plate, and the 17 round magazines do not. Those are blank.



I pulled a few very small pieces of flashing off the tops of the magazines around the feed lips with tweezers, but as far as I'm concerned, the 15 round magazines need no work (pending range trip).

The 15 round magazines drop free from the gun, are easily loaded to capacity, and I cycled a loaded magazine through my Glock 19 by hand without issue.

The 17 round magazines are not as nicely made. First problem; two of the four won't drop free. That just won't do. Second problem; three of the four won't load more than about 7 rounds before the rounds tilt back, spring pressure is relieved by a jammed follower, and they kind of fall out. That REALLY won't do.

To fix the drop free issue, I spent some time feeling and observing how the tight and loose KCI 17 round magazines engaged the mag well. It took awhile, but eventually I found it was the top of the magazine, from front to back that was causing the problem. Some 150 grit applied to the back of the magazine to remove enough material until the magazine would drop free was all it took.

You can see the top two have different amounts of material removed when compared to the bottom magazine that was dropping free as-is.



To solve the loading issue, I disassembled the magazines, and used a flat metal file to remove excess plastic flashing on the inside of the magazine found around some small holes where the metal internal pieces was tied to the plastic over mold. This took a few seconds and is an obvious fix when you look inside the magazine. I couldn't find my dry lube, so I hit the inside with some Hornady One Shot case lube for reloading. After this, all the 17 round magazines loaded to capacity by hand and cycled the full magazine through my Glock 17 by hand. I hope this is a long term fix.

Would I trust my life to these magazines? No.

Do I think they're an economic option for range mags for someone who isn't afraid to tinker with them? Yes.

That's my initial conclusion. I'll take them to the range this weekend and see what happens!