KCI Glock Magazines

Some time ago, I purchased 6 KCI Glock 17 magazines to try out. I’d read that they were made for the Korean military, and were good to go. I purchased 6 of these magazines because of their low price point at the time hoping that the old “you get what you pay for” adage would not ring true for these magazines.

The magazines arrived packaged individually in brown paper bags. The outside of the KCI Glock magazines looked nearly identical to the Glock brand magazines I am used to, except for some extra flashing left over from the molding process along the length of the magazine, and around the feed lips.

On the inside of the magazines I found that these are indeed fully steel lined, just like regular Glock magazines, however there were holes in the steel lining where the plastic was molded into, resulting in some flashing on the inside of the magazine as well. The follower, spring and base plate appeared to be identical to Glock magazines at first glance as well.

I attempted to load the magazines up to their 17 round capacity, and I found that the flashing on the inside of the magazine was keeping me from loading them to capacity. Some would take all 17 rounds, others would only take 10 or so. On the magazines that I was able to fill to capacity, I found that the springs in them were very weak. They were so bad that the follower was able to catch on the little bit of flashing on the inside of the magazine body, and completely lock up the magazine.

I really wanted to try and make these work, so I removed the springs from 3 of the magazines, and replaced them with Wolff extra power magazine springs, hoping this would remedy the situation. It didn’t. What I found was the follower was not only hanging up on the plastic flashing, it was also allowing rounds to nosedive inside the magazine body, locking everything up.

I then attempted to remove the flashing from the inside of the magazine body, but found this to be a rather difficult task. I was able to get most of it out using a pocket knife, and some techniques that would surely have gotten my Boy Scout Totin’ Chip taken away…

Anyways, I added a Wolff spring, and a genuine Glock follower, and I still ran into issues with rounds nose diving inside the magazine. I was not willing to experiment with these magazines any more, so I left them at that. I removed the springs and followers from the rest of them, spray painted the bottom of them blue, and I use them for dry-fire practice, and for molding kydex around so I do not mess up my good magazines.

If you are looking to save some money on Glock magazines, and are considering purchasing these KCI Glock mags that are being sold for bargain basement prices, just remember, you get what you pay for, and when you pay $6.99 for a magazine, you get junk. By the time I replaced the springs, and followers, I had nearly as much into these as a standard Glock magazine, yet they still did not work reliably. As stated above, the outside dimensions of these are good enough for using as kydex molds, or dry fire practice. These magazines earned an F because they just do not work. Of the 6 I purchased, only one functions reliably, and that is after adding the extra powered spring from Wolff.