It’s easy to be dismissive of your magazines. They ship from the factory with the gun, they’re decidedly un-sexy, and you take for granted that they’ll do their jobs. The reality is you can easily find yourself in a situation where you want or need extra mags, whether you’re taking a class or want to carry a spare with your EDC. And what about failures? Mags can fail. Mags can hit the pavement and spring open like a mechanical Pandora’s box of destruction. You should ask more from your magazines, and that’s where a company like Elite Tactical Systems (ETS) comes in.
What is ETS?
ETS is dedicated to designing and manufacturing magazines that withstand serious use and feed reliably. Sure, they throw in other features, too, but it’s the reliable performance and durability that really matter. The fact that their magazines tend to look cool is just a bonus. The company’s latest mag, the Omega, is actually pretty interesting. Here’s why.
The ETS Omega
While the mag does have quite a few useful features that cover things like durability and feeding, there’s a particular detail that makes this one more interesting. The mag utilizes the company’s patent-pending Omega Joint and frame. This joint can be seen at the upper rearmost portion of the magazine. This system is designed to fully encompass the body of the magazine for the highest level of strength. It also helps the mag drop free of your gun’s mag well. It’s a great design.
This mag is currently being offered for the super-popular Glocks—think G17, G19, G19X, G26—and hopefully, it’ll be released for others soon. But in the meantime, let’s check out how the mags work in those guns.
Details of the ETS Omega
The first thing I noticed when I looked at the Omega features ETS’ transparent smoke color. That matters because it’s still see-through without being totally clear. You can see how many rounds are left in your mag without guessing. Does that help when it’s loaded into the gun? Of course not, but that doesn’t make it any less useful.
This mag has hardened steel feed lips meant to facilitate consistent feeding, but the mouth is also made to resist warping. We’ve all either gotten carried away and forced enough ammo into a mag to damage the feed lips or used a mag so extensively that it starts gaping open, right? I know I have. The Omega mag is tougher than that.
We’ve also all had mags that get stuck halfway rather than dropping from the mag well. That leads to tugging and pulling and gets in the way of rapid mag changes. The Omega magazine has a military-grade Teflon-infused coating, so it functions like a magazine should. It will drop free of the gun without a battle. And while I can’t tell you if every single mag the company ever makes will do this without fail, I can say the mags I have don’t get stuck.
Torture Test
One way to find out how tough a magazine is is to abuse it. That means letting it drop onto the pavement and maybe even driving over it a few times. In an ideal world, it’d mean getting thousands of rounds through it before reporting back. That requires both a lot of time and a big pile of ammo. That said, YouTuber Who_Tee_Who did a 10,000-round torture test of the Omega involving five Glocks and five mags. The testers reported zero magazine failures.
Reloads and Maintenance
The mags feed reliably and drop free of the mag well consistently. I’m not one who regularly releases a mag to check round count, but it’s easy enough to do with the opaque smoke color of the body of these mags. If you take defensive handgun classes, you’ll eventually be taught to do a tactical reload. To do one of those, you remove your mag before it’s empty and reload with a full one. When you stow the partial mag, you can easily see how many rounds it has before inserting it again. Here’s what else that see-through body does for you: it allows you to get a visual on the internals of the mag to do a quick check for signs of wear or a need for cleaning. It isn’t just for round counting. Plus, the follower and locking plate are red, so they’re easy to check.
Speaking of mag maintenance, the Omega mags are easy to take apart. While I like the base plates they come with, ETS points out that you could disassemble the mag and replace the base plate with one of the other base plates they offer. The mags are also compatible with aftermarket Glock extensions if you want more capacity than the standard.
In the End
Here’s what I like about these mags: They’re lighter weight than a lot of designs, and they’re friction-resistant enough not to get stuck. Factory Glock mags do sometimes get stuck, and it’s nice to have a remedy for that. It’s also nice that they’re tough enough not to be crushed if, say, someone in a Dodge Ram 2500 decided to roll over them a few times (it was me). I’m pretty hard on my gear—not normally on purpose—and it’s been gratifying to see the Omega mags take a beating and keep on feeding.
Hopefully, ETS will expand its offerings soon and release Omega mags that are compatible with other guns. I imagine they eventually will, and I’ll be looking into getting some to keep my favorite guns going.
The post ETS Omega: Mags That Last appeared first on The Mag Life.
Read the full article here
