Quick question, an uncle of mine called me and said a friend of his just bought a brand new Glock 48 and was having unmitigated Hell getting the magazines to load more than one or two rounds. The fellow is 80+ years old, but still it should not be that hard. He's thinking of trading it back in, but my uncle called me and asked if I'd ever heard of this issue. My advice to him was to break them down, clean them up and very lightly lube the inside of the mag body, but other than that I had zero advice.

I don't own a Glock and never will, I have little interest in any product they make, so I'm hardly the person to answer his question. Thought I'd throw it out here; are brand new Glock mags that difficult to load? I know they include a cheap loader, but it surprised me how tough he said it was for them both. My uncle is a stocky former Marine, so there was plenty of muscle there to get it done.

I tried over at the Glock forum but pretty much only got a few adult answers....the rest were smart ass know-it-alls who were more interested in either trying to be funny or strutting out their massive, tactitard gunfighter feathers. I seriously doubt I'll have a need to visit that sewer again. On the flip side, the folks here have always been positive, helpful and knowledgeable, so I was hoping you guys might have an answer.

Anyway, hope there's a solution for this.
Thanks, all.

Obviously age and or experience may be playing a part but looking at it from a mechanical standpoint it’s not out of the question the mags got assembled incorrectly or were bound up in some way from the factory.

I would first disassemble the magazine(s) to make sure all was put back together properly. Give them a cleaning as well.

From there see how they load.

My guess is the best advice is gonna be an UpLula or similar loader. Has the gentleman tried the Glock mag loader that comes in the box?

I don’t have any specific 43/43x/48 Glock experience so I don’t know how tight the mags typically are. Most new Glock mags can be a PITA to load the last round or two early on but certainly not the first couple.

He had the loader, I can only assume he tried to use it and it didn't work. I was wondering if the mags had something applied at the factory to make them bind, since both did it, not just one. Does Glock apply some kind of cosmoline type lube for shipping and storage? Since I didn't see them, I can only guess. But I've never had that problem with any other make. Just seemed very strange to me and made me think maybe this is just a Glock thing.....

You’re overthinking this. Either he’s too weak to load them or there is something wrong with the mags. Your advice to disassemble and inspect them is spot on.

No Glock doesn’t ship their magazines special so that they don’t work out of the box. I’ve likely got a hundred Glock factory magazines and never had an issue with any of them, straight out of the box or after hundreds of rounds. Everyone puts out a bad part every now and then, it’s no more complicated than that.

My off brand shield arms mags are a bitch to load the last round….I used the Glock supplied loader and they work, but require a lot of forced to squish down the last round.

I imagine he’s either,
A. Loading them wrong, or
2. There’s an issue with the mags.

Glock magazines, like any magazine, can be stiff when new, and with weak thumbs, can be harder to load when new.

Uplula. Let the sit a week, or dump rounds through them several times and refill.

Uplula works well. World of difference.

quote:

Originally posted by TexasRaider:
I tried over at the Glock forum but pretty much only got a few adult answers....

Let's keep that part out of the discussion. You never have to explain why you would ask Glock questions in this forum. There are lots of Glock owners in this forum- lots and lots. I do understand your frustration and disappointment, though. If it makes you feel any better, anytime you run across a smartass on the internet, just imagine them showing up in this forum.

If your uncle's friend is having that much difficulty loading a ten round round magazine, he'll likely get limp-wrist stoppages when he shoots his pistol. If he finds G48 magazines so difficult to load, a brand new gen5 24 rounder would kill him. The spring weight in the 24 rounder is off the chart.

If he's having the same difficulty with more than one magazine, it's not the magazines, unless he's already disassembled them and reassembled with the spring kinked or one coil caught over another. Again, with multiple magazines, highly unlikely.

Unless the mags are defective in some manner, it shouldn't be a problem after one or two rounds. Some hi-caps with the last one or two rounds, possibly.

I'd check them yourself, if possible. Everybody ages differently. However, I'm 79 and can still load all my mags with no problem. Never heard of a problem with the FIRST one or two rounds though.

My coordination and strength has diminished, but I'm aware of my age-related limitations on everything. Not casting aspersions, but is there any chance of the fellow having early stages of dementia/Alzheimers or some neurological-muscular issues? Might be a warning sign.

Good luck and God Bless.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
If it makes you feel any better, anytime you run across a smartass on the internet, just imagine them showing up in this forum.

LOL! I do appreciate the short leash jerkish mouths get on this forum. It'd be nice if every forum applied the same standards this one does.

I also appreciate everyone's input. I suggested the Uplula, I have one myself so I called to give advice and instruction, but it appears the fellow just lost all interest in the pistol and is taking it back, he has no desire to use it so the point it now moot.

I'm going to chalk it up to weaker hand strength due to age, not sure what else to say, may not have gotten the whole story. But with any brand of any kind, having trouble with both mags makes production error seem unlikely. I did suggest that for the next pistol he looks at buying, he needs to get a package of hard plastic training rounds in the same caliber as the gun and see if he can load them in the mags *before* he buys the pistol. Hopefully that'll help.

Thanks again, guys.

I’m going with very unlikely anything is wrong with the mags. I wouldn’t tell him to take them apart.

He really needs that Uplulu(sp?) loader, study how to use it.

If he has a 10 round mag, 8-9 rounds loaded is enough for starters.

If he can't load two rounds in a mag, he doesn't have the hand strength for messing around with taking them apart. Not trying to be mean, just logical.

I highly doubt there's anything wrong with the magazines. If he's nearly 80 years old, almost all the likelihood is on his hand strength failing. If he was having difficulty using the Glock mag loading tool, I really don't see what an Uplula is going to do for him since it works on the same principal.

Really, I think diagnosing the problem in person is the way to go. Maybe it's a technique thing, and he could benefit from setting the magazines on a table and using weight and leverage to work the loader. It's hard to say third hand on the internet what the problem is, other than the obvious answer that his hand strength is the culprit.

I wish him luck in getting it sussed out, though. I think the 48 is a neat pistol and should be great for carry. I paid for one a few days ago and waiting for my ten days to be up. In the meantime, I have two of the mags for it here and just loaded one by hand without the tool. The last two presented some difficulty, and I don't know how broken in these are, but the first two presented none at all. If he can't get the first two rounds loaded no matter what he does, I think he may be better off carrying a revolver that requires no such manipulation.


* Edit- And I just read the final post from the OP and see this is all moot. Well, maybe it'll help someone else. I really think hand strength was the problem, and given that he returned it, maybe he accepted that as the problem. I still suggest a revolver for him, and still question the helpfulness of an Uplula in his situation. They help, but not so much more than the factory tool that I think it would've solved his problem.

Texas-

https://www.maglula.com/product/uplula-9mm-to-45acp

Money well spent!
A few of my older friends that shoot use them with no problems at all.