Cleaning Glock Magazines

[Micah]

Wait a minute, you are supposed to clean Glock mags?

Lets face it...most of the ninjas on GT will not shoot as many rounds through their Glock in a lifetime as some of us will run through in one season of USPSA. They get dropped in mud, sand, and all kinds of muck and guck.

Sure it's been a full year that I've had them, but I've had two mags go bad on me (One of which at the Ohio Sectional) and have noticed that some of them are "cranky" when I load them. Simple Green, Gun Scrubber, and a brush worked PERFECTLY on the mags. Thanks for all of the suggestions!

Side tip: We Glock shooters are blessed with $16 mags that don't need tuning, as opposed to $120 mags...thus they are rather disposable. Number those mags, and when one becomes problematic, remove it from your competition bag and lable it for range use only.

[Nik Habicht]

Sure it's been a full year that I've had them, but I've had two mags go bad on me (One of which at the Ohio Sectional) and have noticed that some of them are "cranky" when I load them. Simple Green, Gun Scrubber, and a brush worked PERFECTLY on the mags. Thanks for all of the suggestions!

Specifics? basepads? I once had a G-17 mag act up --- but it had an Arredondo +6 pad on it, and I'd crammed 24 rounds in it, and then stuffed it under a closed slide. Worked well the first few times --- right until the spring kinked up, and collapsed under the bullet stack.....

[Keith]

Who'd think that a thread about cleaning Glock mags could go on for TWO pages!

If I can give them a shake and I don't hear anything rattle around in there, I call it good to go. If they somehow find their way into a mud puddle, then I may take them apart and run a cleaning rod with a shop rag on the end of it through it. One of these days I just may have to get an actual mag brush.

[Micah]

Sure it's been a full year that I've had them, but I've had two mags go bad on me (One of which at the Ohio Sectional) and have noticed that some of them are "cranky" when I load them. Simple Green, Gun Scrubber, and a brush worked PERFECTLY on the mags. Thanks for all of the suggestions!

Specifics? basepads? I once had a G-17 mag act up --- but it had an Arredondo +6 pad on it, and I'd crammed 24 rounds in it, and then stuffed it under a closed slide. Worked well the first few times --- right until the spring kinked up, and collapsed under the bullet stack.....

Newer gen mags with #5 follower. It was a failure to feed, and appreared that something was stopping the follower from advancing up the tube. That happened twice, and now it is in my "range work only" bag. I could not locate the problem upon inspection, and I really don't believe that it is worth my effort to try and fix the mag...especially since they are so inexpensive.

[Chris Keen]

What are you guys doing that requires you to use BRAKE CLEANER to clean out your Glock mags ???

I shot 20,000 rounds of 9mm Production ammo from my Glock 17 this year, and only used 6 mags all year long. Dropped them in all sorts of dirt, sand, mud, etc. but have never needed to do more than clean them out with a dry rag or a mag brush.

BRAKE CLEANER ? SIMPLE GREEN ???

Dosen't sound so simple to me

[Nik Habicht]

For Production I've been running the same 8 ten rounders for a couple of years now. I only replaced my previous set, because the mags had the new taper at the top......

I was thinking of replacing them, but then I'd have to cut new grip tape for the base plates, so maybe I'll just leave them alone.....

[acolt45]

Matches & Mags

Ever shoot a match in the sand or the mud! or when it is raining.

On some stages we must reload and that poor mag drops out in the dirtiest places.

And sometimes they even can get stepped on, or lost in that mess we call the ground.

That is why a lot of shooters have an endless supply of extra mags as we never know under what conditions we will be shooting.

most mags do not work well with sand or dirt in them. And if you shoot lead bullets that is another issue, as you then have sludge building up along with other bits of dirt from the ground and firearm residue.

Remember cleaning a mag is a necessary to run a stage without a malfunction or failure to feed problem.

It’s your choice – run fast and shoot or rack it a few times and hope you finish.

[ihatepickles]

What are you guys doing that requires you to use BRAKE CLEANER to clean out your Glock mags ???

BRAKE CLEANER ? SIMPLE GREEN ???

If you clean your mags with any kind of solvent, you should degrease the mags before you reassemble them. Oils, solvents, etc... left in the mag will hold on to dirt and gum the works. Brake parts cleaner is a good degreaser, it's not used to clean the mags. Like I said, if you've used Gun Scrubber you've used brake parts cleaner - same stuff.

[JFD]

I must be an oddball. I treat them just like any other mag.

I load up 13 for my wife to use at local matches (plenty for 5 stages) shooting Limited, then take them apart and brush them out with an Arredondo brush along with my Para mags when we get home.

I try to take care of them since new mags will disappear before too long (demoncraps).

[bruce282]

At home I use a 12 gauge bore wipe 'dust bunny' type thing that's been sprayed with silicon spray screwed into a piece of cleaning rod . I also run this setup into the magwell of my G17. I have another setup in my range bag that hasn't been silicon impregnated for use at matches.

Bruce