Triangle Tactical Podcast and Blog on Guns, Gear, and Competition Shooting
I’ve been running several of the Dawson +5 Glock magazine extensions on some mags for my Glock 24 Limited gun for about a year or so. These magazine extensions are everything one could want in an extension. They are robust, well made, and they function well.
These magazine extensions are made out of aluminum unlike many of the other extensions on the market that are made of plastic. I have found them to be extremely robust after being dropped on the ground many, many times during shooting matches.These extensions are installed by sliding a little door back on the side of the extension, inserting the spring, and magazine body, then sliding the door closed over the lip on the side of the magazine. When I first purchased these items I was concerned that this door would slide open and allow the extension to slide off of the magazine body, but I have found that this is not the case. Mine have been dropped in the mud, dirt, on concrete, etc. a couple hundred times, and they have never come loose, or popped off.
In order to get good function from these extensions, Dawson recommends that the magazine followers be modified a little. This is an extremely simple process, and you should not be intimidated by this. Basically the rear of the follower needs to be rounded off a little bit so that the follower does not hang up in the transition area from the magazine body to the extension. If the follower hangs up, you will not be able to load the magazine to the extra capacity, or worse, the follower could stick at this transition area not allowing rounds to feed into your pistol.
A real advantage that these extensions have over some of the plastic extensions is their weight helps them to drop free from the pistol quickly. Most of my Glock magazines rub the inside of the pistols magwell a little, and while they will drop free stock, sometimes they need a little shake to get out of the pistol. After adding the Dawson extensions, these same magazines fly out of the pistol making it ready to be reloaded very quickly.
I have found over time that adding a strip of grip tape along the front, and bottom of these extensions helps to aid me in getting a good purchase on them during the reload, as well as keeping the finish on the extension from getting too banged up when dropping them.
All in all these are a great product, and I would recommend them to anyone looking to start shooting USPSA Limited. I’ll give them a solid A.
