Along with the external hard drive mentioned in my last post, the Big Brown Truck of Rage-Inducing Disappointment (so named due to UPS’s tendency to inflict great violence on my packages) also brought me some new Hi-Power magazines from CDNN. I decided to try out some Mec-Gar 15-rounders instead of the old standard 13-round mags.

Mec-Gar uses a few tricks to squeeze another pair of cartridges inside a standard-length magazine tube. Here’s a 13-round standard magazine on the left, 15-rounder on the right:

The top 3 coils of the 15-round magazine spring are narrowed to fit inside the hollow base of the follower when the magazine is fully loaded, making room for 2 extra rounds:

I’ll need to wring out the new mags on the range before I trust them alongside my 13-rounders, but I don’t anticipate problems. Mec-Gar is the OEM for Browning and FN, and they enjoy an excellent reputation. The only little tweak I plan to make is a bit of judicious smoothing and polishing of four little spots on each magazine:

The front corners here below the feed lips are sharp and pointy on every Hi-Power mag I’ve ever used, which makes them prone to snagging on (and scratching up) the front edge of the magazine well. A few licks with a file and a couple passes with a ceramic crock stick is enough to break the sharp edges. You don’t want to remove a lot of metal because the corner there is a stress riser where a crack could potentially form.

The back corners of the floorplate need a little gentle smoothing so they won’t poke holes in your clothes and/or hide when riding in a mag pouch. Again, this is common to all Hi-Power mags I’ve seen, and you don’t need to remove a lot of metal.

I’ll post a follow-up after I do some range testing.