quote:

Originally posted by sigarms229:
Several of my P320 mags that are "Made in Italy" by Mecgar would disagree.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Of course lots of SIG Magazines are Checkmate.

I'll see how they perform in a year.

I think I just figured something out. We have had problems with the 17 round magazines that came with the new Legion, but never issues with the 21 round mags that came with the X5. The 21 round mags are marked “made in Italy,” and obviously made by MecGar.

Sure enough, just checked the problematic 17 round magazines, and they are marked ”made in the USA,” no doubt by Checkmate.

Thank you Sig for trying to save a few bucks and give us crap!

Yeah, Mec-Gar magazines are second to none. Whether or not Checkmate will produce these Shield Arms magazines which are the equal to what Mec-Gar would produce is a matter to question. I seem to recall rather dimly that Mec-Gar had some issues producing reliable.40 caliber mags for the Beretta 92. I could be mistaken about that. But, other than this one instance, I cannot recall seeing any reports of unreliable Mec-Gar products. Just look at how many manufacturers use Mec-Gar for their OEM mag supplier.

You never know- Checkmate may very well produce perfectly reliable magazines for Shield Arms. I've no doubt that there are some very willing testers out there just waiting for the opportunity to try these mags, so, we shall see.

I was not aware of the Mec-Gar's Beretta 96 mag problem, obviously because I don't do .40.

But, the only other known Mec-Gar problem is the P227 14-rounder. Not sure why they never cared to fix it, because the fix was easy (from what I read of folks swapping in stronger spring), but I suspect SIG never pushed to fix it because they already had the plan to D/C the model anyway.

well that throws a wet blanket on it dammit!!
I love the feel of the pistol too.

The other shoe drops.

I don’t have a vested interest, but I was curious. Sounded too good to be true. I guess we’ll see what the preorder folks think of them.

quote:

Originally posted by Ryanp225:
You guys know that Checkmate makes all of the P320 mags right?

Nope, they make the mags marked made in the USA.

All Italian marked 320 mags are Mecgar.

Most of the USA 320 mags have had issues. I had 5 of them that were problematic.

One of my 320's came with one Italian and two USA ones. The USA ones gave me fits, the Italian one ran just fine.

I sent the 5 mags back to Sig and received 5 Italian ones back without asking. Sig knows there was an issue with them as well.

When I found out Checkmate was manufacturing the Shield mags, my interest declined tremendously.


TXPO

Yeah, the preorder is having issues but people haven't gotten these yet and people are already badmouthing it. I'm in to try one to see if it works. $35 won't kill me. I got in with some friends on the three pack and we're all trying them out.


From their website:

November 18, 2019

Second batch of mags - back from coating, in manufacturer QC/assembly.
November 14, 2019

Second batch of mags - tumbling complete, off to coating.
November 13, 2019

Second batch of mags - back from heat treat, in tumbling.
November 11, 2019

Second batch of mags - arrives at heat treat.
November 4, 2019

First batch of mags arrived at Shield Arms. Did not pass QC.

I sent them a email asking them why they went with checkmate knowing all the issues people have with them, no response. before they were very prompt at returning my messages. Wait and see I guess, if it is a failure maybe they will switch manufactures.

quote:

Originally posted by XLT:
I sent them a email asking them why they went with checkmate knowing all the issues people have with them, no response. before they were very prompt at returning my messages. Wait and see I guess, if it is a failure maybe they will switch manufactures.

Likely to avoid shipping, tarrifs, and other import fees & issues.

Besides, it's a chance for everyone here to 'buy American'.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:

quote:

Originally posted by XLT:
I sent them a email asking them why they went with checkmate knowing all the issues people have with them, no response. before they were very prompt at returning my messages. Wait and see I guess, if it is a failure maybe they will switch manufactures.

Likely to avoid shipping, tarrifs, and other import fees & issues.

Besides, it's a chance for everyone here to 'buy American'.

Yup, no doubt that was THE reason.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Besides, it's a chance for everyone here to 'buy American'.

Do you ever stop with the smirking bullshit?

Do you honestly think that the idea behind 'buy American' is to buy American products at all costs, including accepting inferior quality? The idea behind buying American is to support American businesses by purchasing American-produced goods and services which are of equal or greater quality or value than foreign produced goods and services, even if it means that these things are more costly- but you already know this. You simply can't pass up an opportunity to be a smirking, superior-acting smartass. That shit is getting old, man. Very old.

Sorry Para.

Factually on the topic, I believe there are significant hurdles with dealngi with MecGar (language barrier, import tariffs, shipping costs and turnaround times; not to mention ITAR issues) that they wouldn't have with Checkmate.

And who knows, they may have approached MecGar and been told no thank you, we aren't interested or maybe they are already working on the concept. And that wouldn't be something they would likely want to tell everyone.

They posted a video on their instacrap. They passed QC and are starting to ship.

Here’s a more recent update: seriously? A hair dryer? Still waiting for people to actually take these to the range.

Saturday, November 23, 2019
Now that S15 mags are starting to ship (more mags on the way for those of you who haven't received a shipping notification yet, updates here), let's talk about drop free.

Glock mags are notorious for sticking and not dropping free - do a Google search if you think I'm crazy. There are several reasons for this, and maybe we'll make a video explaining, but here's what we've tried to do with the S15 magazine to mitigate the issue.

First, it's worth mentioning that there are AT LEAST two generations of Glock 43X/48 frames. When the black slide guns were released, Glock also changed the frame. We should do a video on this as well, since this frame change set us back several weeks on the S15, and unless you REALLY look for the changes, you won't see them. Back to drop free - we spec'd the width of the S15 mags so that they should drop free in gen 1 and gen 2 G43X/48 frames based on the data we've collected. Our manufacturer, Check-Mate, runs mags through a drop free gauge with our spec during assembly as part of the QC process. Between the at least two generations of the frames and multiple molds for each gen, there's a fairly wide tolerance range at play here.

The second part of the equation is surface finish. Friction is the enemy in this equation, so a slick surface finish is key (remember batch #1 that didn't pass QC?).

We have six or so test guns, gen 1 and gen 2, and our S15 mags drop free in all of them. However, if despite our efforts your mags don't drop free, there is a simple fix - a hair dryer. Shooters for years have been using painters tape on OEM mags and a hair dryer to slightly stretch out their Glock frames. Do a YouTube search for details.

Hope this helps!

-Brandon

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Phelen_Kell,

very promising.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...a4&mc_eid=e759b056fe

That was a manufacturer supplied pre-prod demo. Production mags are now in the wild, and review videos are out. Some have issues. If someone doesn't post before I get on my computer, I'll post some later.

quote:

Originally posted by XLT:
very promising.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...a4&mc_eid=e759b056fe

I contacted Mec Gar imploring them to make a higher cap mag. Maybe if we all do, they will.

https://www.mec-gar.com/CONTACTS-US

So here's my prediction...

Glock has an announcement coming December 10th. I'm betting it's all metal higher capacity mags produced by MecGar.

Further, maybe Shield Arms was originally going to contract Mecgar, But then Glock came in and signed a contract. That forced Shield to seek a secondary producer.

Or maybe not

...

Maybe so. I don't think Glock likes giving the appearance of copying anyone. Also, the question would be- if they can fit 15 rounds into these pistols, why didn't they do so in the first place? I would imagine that such an announcement would result in thousands of owners of these pistols contacting Glock and demanding a couple of free 15 round magazines.