I got my hands on a SIG SAUER M17 slide with a pre-mounted ROMEO M17 red dot and I’ve been dying to try it out. SIG will be selling these to consumers at some point in the future when they can catch up to demand. In the mean time, I wanted to run the slide…along with that pretty awesome closed-emitter red dot sight.
I already had a SIG P320 fire control unit, so all I needed was a full-size grip module. I ordered one, pulled the FCU from my P320, mounted the slide…and that’s when I realized that all of the P320 magazines I own are 15-rounders. Because I like to carry a compact-sized P320.
That was a bummer.
Fortunately, that was right around the time Magpul announced they were going beyond polymer with their new AMAG 17 SG9 17-round metal magazines. The first ‘A’ in AMAG stands for alloy. As the Magpul marketing materials said . . .
The AMAG 17 SG9 is a 17-round 9mm handgun magazine for the SIG P320 family of pistols featuring a heat-treated, stainless-steel alloy body with polymer sub-components. Magpul AMAGs come with many of our proven features, including a high-visibility, controlled-tilt follower, stainless-steel spring, flared floorplate that’s easily removable for cleaning and routine maintenance, paint-pen dot matrix for magazine marking, and capacity-indicator windows which begin at five (5) rounds, and continue along the spine of the magazine in one-round increments.
Yep. That’s a paint pen dot matrix on the AMAG’s floor plate. I only own one of these (for now) but will number it when I have more. For now, though, one was enough to load up my full-size pistol and get to shooting.
And shoot it I did. More on the slide and (more importantly) the red dot later. The news here is that the AMAG performed almost flawlessly.
The big attraction for a lot of people with be the fact that it won’t drain your wallet as much as a SIG SAUER brand magazine will. Magpul has priced the AMAG at $34.95. A 17-round SIG magazine will run you $49.95.
That $15 difference is not insignificant…as long as the AMAG perform. Spoiler alert: it does.
I’ve had it at the range a number of times now. I’ve done mag dumps and reloads. I’ve dropped in the Texas dirt at Copperhead Creek, reloaded it, and kept on banging away. The AMAG was up to all of it.
The only negative — and it isn’t a big one — is that I can’t seem to cram 17 rounds into mine. Sixteen fit quite comfortably, but I can’t compress that beefy spring quite enough to squeeze number 17 in there. Not a biggie to me. Your mileage may vary.
I’m going to get more of these. I’m also going to get at least one SIG 17-rounder (just because) and probably one of their 21-rounders, too…which is the same price as the 17-round magazine.
Sadly, that black base plate doesn’t match my otherwise tactical peanut butter M17. That’s a fashion faux pas I can live with. I also won’t be surprised if and when Magpul offers AMAGs with an FDE base plate some time in the future. Here’s hoping. But if they don’t, that’s okay, too.
2 Responses
Magpul gets a lot of hype for quality and price but in my experience the only AR mags that have broken on me were a couple of gen 2 pmags. The feed lips just gave up for no apparent reason. I wasn’t impressed with their G19 mags either. Get one and some of that garbage Winchester Forged ammo and you can practice malfunction clearing on range day. But hey, sunglasses and Daka pouches, oh boy!
I own a lot of PMAGs (mostly Gen3) and have literally never had a problem. I got an iffy G19 mag, but others I own run really well. The AMAG so far is first rate.