Posted on by Sherman A. House DDS

REDUCED CAPACITY MAGAZINE ISSUES (NEUTERED MAGAZINES) and WAYS to Navigate Them

You’ll notice that not all, not all, not all but MOST non-standard capacity (AKA neutered) magazines have a plastic boot, for lack of a better term, that comprises 1/3 to 1/2 of the magazine. The remainder is the stamped metal tube that would make up a standard capacity magazine. These SEEM TO BE made not for efficiency or reliability but seemingly the afterthought of, “how do we sell our product in a BAN state?”

Over the last few years, I’ve found myself living in the state of my birth, Washington (NOT DC). But the current iteration of Washington isn’t what it was when I was a child or even a teenager. Around the time I became an adult, the 1994 Crime Bill came to be (see here) and unfortunately, I almost immediately had to figure out how to intelligently and legally purchase firearms for personal defense that fit within the bounds of the newly minted, federal restrictions. Now, circa 2026, the 1994 Crime Bill is gone, having expired in 2004. In addition to being functionally ineffectual on, “crime,” it was the first LARGE scale infringement on civil rights that many Generation X’ers like me experienced, at the grass roots level. But Washington State, and many other states, have decided that they best way to combat crime is to either disarm or greatly complicate the ability of law abiding citizens to defend themselves and their families by limiting magazine capacity, and also the purchase of semi-automatic rifles. If you’re reading this, you already recognize the folly in this way of thinking, and I won’t expound on it much further. I will tell you more about how I have personally navigated this quagmire of bureaucracy in a state where I encounter dangers relative to the nature of my work within the bounds of the law. It also bears mentioning that in this state and others imposing such restrictions, that the electorate is guarded by security specialists who are NOT subject to these restrictions, and some states also have provisions where the law makers are NOT subject to the restrictions either. Gun control is ALWAYS about control, not guns. Remember that…END SERMON.

This information is also useful to those of us who travel frequently and need a, “50 State Legal,” sidearm. As more of these restrictive areas pop up, the need to still be readily armed and capable in these places is crucial.

LOADING ISSUES

The act of simply loading rounds into the magazine with some neutered magazines can be challenging. I work with my hands for a living, often using a device you’d think of as a pair of pliers to literally wrench teeth from bone in my work as a professional exodontist. That requires grip/forearm strength and stamina. And yet, there are times I struggle to load neutered magazines to their ten round capacity. The springs are shortened, and the plastic boot I mentioned earlier functions to limit the volume that remains in the metal tube of the magazine. Thus, it gets progressively harder to load the magazine, and unlike most standard capacity magazines, the loading practice does not get easier with time! In many of these magazines, the floor plate CANNOT be removed for cleaning! UNACCEPTABLE!

There are a few makers/magazines I have discovered through trial and error, and also renting guns at my favorite local indoor range (Skagit Shooting Range in Burlington WA). One choice is the Springfield Echelon. The magazines for this polymer popper are easy to load in either the full size Echelon 4.5 (Glock 17ish size/4.5″ barrel) or the Echelon 4.0 (Glock 19ish size/4.0″ barrel). I’ve also had good luck with the 10 round magazines from Springfield Armory (which I believe are made by Checkmate and MecGar) for the Springfield PRODIGY, which is a double stack 1911. And lastly, the current iterations of Glock double stack (Glock 17 and Glock 19 size) neutered magazines work well and are not difficult to load. Same goes for the MAGPUL iterations of the Glock magazines. I have extensive experience (about 10K rounds this year) with them through a STEALTH ARMS PLATYPUS with no issues.

YET ANOTHER, “loading,” complication I have encountered with neutered capacity magazines is their inability to seat on a pistol with the slide forward. Meaning, if your gun doesn’t have the slide locked to the rear, you will not get a magazine to lock into the gun. Like the old GI M-16 magazines which wouldn’t reliably seat, or allow bolt manipulation unless the mags were downloaded, these suckers do the same. Heart breakingly for me (you know how much I love the S&W M&P series of pistols) the ten round neutered magazines for the M&P series DO NOT allow the user to load on a pistol with the slide forward. I discovered this the hard way (although thankfully) in competition on a, “cold start,” where you begin with the gun unloaded on the bench, and at the BEEP start signal, you grip your pistol, load the magazine into it, rack the slide, and then begin shooting the stage. I did as I have automated myself to do, over thousands of reps of practice, and found that not only could I not retract the slide to charge the chamber, the spring tension on the magazine was so great I could now NOT get it out of the gun by depressing the magazine release button. The spring and the tension created between the slide and the rounds was too great! I ended up pushing down on the magazine button with the edge of the loading table, with the muzzle pointed downrange, popping the magazine free by prying simultaneously with my thumbnail, and ditching the magazine. I then locked the slide to the rear, loaded the neutered magazine, and began the string. I made still managed to turn in a respectable score and time, but DAMN. That didn’t go as planned. Had BIG BLUE known about these problems? Would they care? How many neutered magazine pistols make up their market share every year? Is is reasonable to think that they should care about this?

I know that my level of curiosity and intellectual pursuit allows me to design an algorithm to get around this deficiency, but what about others that don’t have the level of drive, desire, education, training and/or experience that I possess? I think that they might find themselves at a huge disadvantage! Thumbing rounds into a magazine at the worst possible time (during a critical incident) is a bad practice but it has happened in real life (Stephen Willeford). And I’ve read enough CLAUDE WERNER/THE TACTICAL PROFESSOR analyses over the years to know that many people don’t have a defensive pistol on them 24/7 and have to retrieve and/or retrieve and load their pistol from whichever place they have secreted it. If these issues aren’t anticipated and a counter isn’t devised, a bad outcome can result!

Lots of people think that the fantastic UP-LULA magazine loader is for weak people, but it is a great tool for anyone and a REQUIREMENT for those of us who teach others. For neutered magazines though? These should come with every purchase!

FUNCTION

I have been fortunate in that I haven’t experienced any reliability issues (in the conventional sense) with the neutered double column magazines I have used from S&W, Glock, and Springfield Armory. I have also had good luck with Glock 43X/48 10 round magazines in their OEM form from Glock. I shoot in a weekly indoor, lowlight pistol competition league, and also monthly ASI matches at my local gun club. I shoot about 250 rounds a week in structured practice and drills in addition to competition. So I have lots of rounds running through magazines!

My colleague Erick Gelhaus of COUGAR MOUNTAIN SOLUTIONS and the WORLD FAMOUS Gunsite Academy is ALSO an M&P guy and he HAS had issues with the 10 round M&P magazines. So I MAY have just been lucky, but Erick is a hard user of his gear and if he has had issues, it’s a definite possibility.

I also have to mention here that I have had good luck with the neutered Smith & Wesson M&P 10mm magazines. 10mm is very popular here in Washington because it works for defense from predators of all kinds with aplomb.

I like to either buy or spray paint the floor plates of some of my neutered magazines in the color tan. In TN, in the area I worked in, when people would say the word, “TEN,” it actually sounds like, “TAN.” So in my mind, when I see a TAN magazine, I think TEN. These OEM magazines are made in the tan polymer of the Glock 19X. I have these in the neutered Glock 17 size so I can distinguish them from the neutered MAGPUL Glock 19 magazines I have at a glance.

HOW I HAVE TACKLED THIS PROBLEM

When I first moved here, I consulted with one of my mentors, the great and powerful TOM GIVENS of Rangemaster. His advice, delivered in his inimitable style was, “Don’t move to Washington.” He also told me to look into single column magazines, as they’re generally engineered to run differently than double column magazines and by sheer size and volume alone, are limited to ten rounds or less. Being recently, “Middle Aged,” and also having an inordinate amount of free time, I decided that I wanted to delve into what makes 1911 style pistols attractive and what all the hype was about. That’s an article for another day, but I can tell you that there is a subset of the personal defense culture that literally sells magazines of their own design and manufacture, to sustain the rest of their business! Wilson Combat, and Tripp Research for example, have done for 9mm 1911’s what grape jelly did for dry toast…IT MADE IT AMAZING!!! So I personally have settled on carrying a 10+1 capacity, 9mm 1911 pattern pistol with an optic. I invested in the, “Pair and a spare,” philosophy battery of arms. I have a vetted pistol I use for everyday carry, an identical piece I use for training and competition and an understudy that can fill in for either. With quality ammunition (my current favorite is the CCI/Speer LAWMAN 147 grain TMJ flat point) and Federal 147 grain HST for carry, I have had fantastic results. A 1911 for a dedicated hobbyist like me isn’t an issue, because the additional work and maintenance that goes into keeping and carrying one is time I have to spend, and I enjoy it.

“Precision in language reflects precision in thought.” -JACK CARR

I’ve noticed a trend in the gun tuber/online, “influencer,” crowd that really annoys me lately. It has become common for many of them to say, “BATTERY OF ARMS,” when what they mean to say is, “MANUAL OF ARMS.” A, “battery of arms,” would be a collection of weapons, of any kind. A rack full of pole arms could be described as a, “battery of arms.” The, “manual of arms,” refers to the operations, functions and manipulations required to effectively run a firearm. So if you hear someone say the former, when they mean the latter, mentally cue that they might not be a great influence. That was a complete non sequitur…but needed to be mentioned. Choose your influencers wisely!

As is my custom, here is a series of photos with captions that further illustrate my message!

You’ve seen this M&P 2.0 (aluminum) COMPETITOR in other pieces I’ve written. It wears a Holosun 407 X3, the newest iteration of the Trijicon RMR Competitor from HS. It is about half the cost of an RMR Type 2. The neutered OEM magazines for this pistol have these holy floorplates that are compatible with the giant magwell that comes on the gun. I don’t like that magwell because it seems to gawdy and huge, and I compete with guns that are, “street carry,” type pieces, generally.
THIS IS the newly released SPRINGFIELD ARMORY 10-8 PERFORMANCE MASTER CLASS that I have equipped with a CHPWS AOS plate and a Trijicon RMR-HD. The gun is otherwise stock. I have been a 10-8 and Hilton Yam fan for a couple decades now, and this gun is a worthwhile investment if you want to get into the 9mm 1911 game. THE ONLY issue I have had with this gun is that the front sight is a bit undersized and it drifted with use. I used red threadlocker from XS SIGHTS to glue it into place, and then I cleaned up the excess. Even Dave Dawson at DAWSON PRECISION recommends using loctite on sights, so I use it pretty much routinely. You use it on your optics, right? So why not the irons? Take care to NOT apply it too liberally as you can actually glue the internals of your gun together, inhibiting function. It pays to know how your gun works, and where the guts of it are. For example, you CAN apply loctite to the front and rear sights of a Smith M&P 2.0 because the striker assembly is under the optic plate. However, on a Smith M&P 1.0, the REAR SIGHT covers the striker block assembly, so if you let threadlocker run into the mechanism, you will glue your striker assembly into place! But back to this pistol…like most of the upper end SPRINGFIELD ARMORY (not the XD and the Hellcat is great if you are a masochist!) products I’ve used, it is exceptionally accurate, and reliable. I use the WILSON COMBAT ETM 9mm magazines, and they work well! And, in a move that should surprise no one, this gun passes the 10-8 FUNCTION TEST with ease! The gun that lands closest to this in performance and feel for me is the Dan Wesson Specialist in 9mm. But more on that later!
The SPRINGFIELD ARMORY Prodigy is a controversial pistol. It is referred to as a, “DOUBLE STACK 1911,” or, “DS 1911,” as the term, “2011,” is a trademark of the STACCATO corporation. So don’t write it or say it unless you want them coming after you, legally. These have been on the market for around 4 years now. I have heard of all of the issues, and I have noticed the cottage industry at improving these with enhancements replacing the MIM parts. This one is stock except for a singled sided ED BROWN safety I had fitted by a gunsmith I had to travel to the far-off planet of Dagobah to visit. Luckily he fitted it while I waited, so I didn’t have to make a return trip. Gunsmiths are RARE in WA, as the government has driven most of them away too. Gee thanks! I rented one of these at the local range, put 250 rounds through it (with one ten round magazine…ouch) and it ran fantastically and I was shocked at how well it shot and it was amazingly accurate. Like, offhand, iron sight groups on a 3″ paster at 25 yards in a dark indoor range. So I bought one. My advice? Look around the internet and you can find the neutered 10 round magazines for around $30 with various specials. They are also very easy to load, and the gun runs fantastically with Federal 147 grain HST’s. I will probably carry this gun or a variation of it when I move back to a free state. It isn’t the best for smaller handed folks, but if you’re half Sasquatch like me, you’ll be just fine! Also, the magazines are all steel, with no plastic boot, and they are simply crimped on the sides to prevent holding more than 10 rounds. They also have enough slack in the spring to allow the full loaded magazine to seat when the slide is forward.
The SPRINGFIELD ARMORY Echelon has garnered interest from law enforcement agencies nationwide lately as the latest version of the, “Glock Killer.” It has a comfortable, yet adherent grip that isn’t abrasive on the skin or the clothes, and it is surprisingly accurate. I am not quite sure how exactly yet, as the slide rails are comically small, and the slide seems to glide atop the pistol with great ease. The optics mounting system is solid, and the back up iron sights (or just sights if you choose to run sans optic) are great, even for old eyes like mine. They are a U-notch rear which some people don’t like but I think they work well, and I have had zero issues with them. I had some optic mounting woes at first that were remedied by the great folks at FREEDOM GORILLA where I buy my pistol mounted optics, plates, screws, etc. Basically the OEM screws that came with the optic were too long for the side of the optic where the striker assembly is, and they impinged on the spring. Now, with the proper length screws I purchased based on the guidance from FREEDOM GORILLA, this thing is AREA 51 accurate, and does everything one needs in a compact package with aplomb. I would carry this pistol without reservation. I have also found it useful for novices, as it is largely devoid of the details, has subdued buttons, switches and distractions that scare away many novice shooters. The ONLY thing on this I would change is I wish it had a single sided magazine release, instead of the ambi one. The slide also has enough cuts/grooves in it that everyone can find something they like grabbing onto to manipulate the slide. I haven’t accidentally dropped the magazine, as the spring that powers it is robust, but I could see it happening. I have a watch on the APEX TACTICAL part (single sided release) and I will buy and install it when I get one!

THANK YOU FOR READING! As always, everything in this piece is owned, and was purchased, by yours truly. And all of this was written by me, on my iPad, without the use of Artificial Intelligence of any kind! If you like my work, please like, share on your social media platforms and subscribe to the feed here so that you never miss an article. I proudly have ZERO social media presence now, so if you are reading this, thank you for your landing here and thank you for reading. -Dr. House