Review, first impressions, of Promag M&P 40 magazine.

[geronimojoe85]

Well, when I saw the ad I snapped up three as fast as my sausage fingers could pound the keys. As any M&P owner can attest magazines for the full size 9 and 40 are practically non-existent and standard capacity (17 round 9mm and 15 round 40) mags are even more scarce. So with that I placed my order for three 15 round mags for a princely sum of $17 and change. Then I read it "manufactured by Promag Industries" and my heart sank. My personal history with Promag is... checkered. I've used a few with varying degrees of success. They just felt cheap, few ever really felt right.

Here are the factory mags M&P 9 and 40.

Again the above are the FACTORY S&W magazines 9 and 40 respectively.

Below we have the Promag copy.

All in all not a bad copy.
The only thing I can find dimensionally "wrong" is the mag release "hole" is a little bigger on the Promag (top)

Here's a look at the innards.
Factory bottom, Promag top.

Factory right Promag left, funny thing one of the followers on the Promag was stamped 9 but "dremeled" out to fit the 40.

Here's how it fits in the gun.

Now you're probably thinking, "We'll those are some fine pictures but lets get down to brass tacks here, man. How do they work?"

Well I cycled a few dummy rounds through them so far. Topped of to 15 and cycled by hand and they seem to be decent for the money so far. They run and cycle just like my factory mags. That being said I haven't shot them just yet.

"That's all well and good, Joe. But are they bet your bacon reliable?"

Certainly not my bacon, but if they work out well I will be using them as "knockaround" mags at the range. They hand cycle reliably, they lock open on the last round (even the one with the 9mm follower), they hold all 15 rounds. For the $17 they cost they seem well worth it. If all I get is range use out of them they're still worth it to me. Especially when you consider the alternative, range only mags beats no mags any day.

Here's a link to where I bought them, I ordered them yesterday and here they are today. Not bad if you ask me. Magazine for Smith & Wesson M&P 40 .40 Smith & Wesson 15 Round B $17.53

 

[kwood]

Thanks for the review
I may have to pick one up and try it out

 

[geronimojoe85]

Well, I shot them at the youth day shoot in between customers for the "big guns."
They all shot flawlessly. I have no complaints.

 

[blkeagle]

Pretty neat reviews geronimojoe85 !!! i wish i could found your review sooner while it was on sale like $16.00 a piece before I ended up to purchase 2 mags for my m&p 9mm 17rds for almost a hundred bucks last week. I know it is over pricey but i just need for my IDPA this coming week and I am glad i did ..pretty reliable just like my other 2 factory mags.

(2) Smith&Wesson M&P 9mm 17 rd high magazines clip : Pistol Magazines & Pistol Clips at GunBroker.com

 

[chezuki]

Pretty neat reviews geronimojoe85 !!! i wish i could found your review sooner while it was on sale like $16.00 a piece before I ended up to purchase 2 mags for my m&p 9mm 17rds for almost a hundred bucks last week. I know it is over pricey but i just need for my IDPA this coming week and I am glad i did ..pretty reliable just like my other 2 factory mags.

$50 a piece for pro-mags?!?!?

 

[blkeagle]

Yup ! almost $50 a piece just for Promag and at the same time i was lucky enough to won an auction of the original factory one for only $50 including shipping&handling but the dude after received my money he reversed it after 3 days later with an excuse "lost" ... what an idiot ? i may give him a negative feedback at the last day of time frame leaving feedback period i wish i could read this review just a month ago when the Promag cost only $16 per piece. In the next couple months if S&W not gonna fill up all supply orders then Promag will take over their spot and no ones wanna buy the S&W factory anymore because it is way too expensive by that time. If anyone has a spare mag pls let me know i will buy it off from you. Just check it out the auction below here someone even sells Promag for $76.00 a piece

S&W M&P 9mm full size 17 round magazine : Pistol Magazines & Pistol Clips at GunBroker.com

 

[chezuki]

At $16 you could only find the .40 mags anyway.

Bought another M&P to get more mags.

 

[blkeagle]

You buy another M&P to get more mags, didnt you? i was thinking about this too but kinda short $$ because need to save for my school next semester. But soon i will buy another M&P just in case and willing to buy just M&P without mags if someone like to keep their mags i can use cheap Promag instead once it go back on sale again $16.00

 

[bogus]

My local Rural King is selling these (Pro Mag)in 9 & 40 for I believe $24. I saw them there just this past week. Two full wall pegs of each.

 

[blkeagle]

@bogus Thanks for your info ... it may help someone else who still looking for a spare promag. Now at the moment i am looking to buy the factory mags M&P 9 or 40. Thought someone may enlightening me about the different between factory mags 9 and .40 . Are they totally identical and can be swap ? Just a thought i may buy the original OEM .40 mag and use it in my m&p 9mm instead if i can not find any cheap OEM 9mm around. What would you think ?

 

[chezuki]

. Thought someone may enlightening me about the different between factory mags 9 and .40 . Are they totally identical and can be swap ? Just a thought i may buy the original OEM .40 mag and use it in my m&p 9mm instead if i can not find any cheap OEM 9mm around. What would you think ?

The followers are different, the witness holes are different, and the feed lips are different. 9mm will cycle from
The .40 mags, but not with 100% reliability.

 

[geronimojoe85]

I found that with 9 in a 40 mag sometimes you get 10-12 in and then it has enough tension to push the rounds through the feed lips and spits out everything you loaded.
Another thing is the body itself is different. The 9mm mag body had ribs running the length of the body, if you try and put .40s in a 9 mag the rounds sit all goofy and you can cram maybe 10 in. So it unfortunately my experience that no amount of modification can make a 9 into a 40 or a 40 into a 9.

Cream brûlée can never be jell-o.
Cameron Diaz can never be Julia Roberts.

 

[blkeagle]

@chezuki Thanks a lot for pointing out the different between 9mm vs .40 mags . You just enlightened me ... now i should forget the whole idea about purchasing .40 mag for my m&p 9 and may be i should wait for s&w mags appear again on the marketplace in the next few more months.

 

[blkeagle]

@geronimojoe85 you are really a master in such details i like your reviews a lot and if you could do some reviews about other brand mags which can be used as the original s&w m&p 9 mag ? Gg search indicates you are the only one do reviews on Promag and that how i found your thread.

 

[geronimojoe85]

@geronimojoe85 you are really a master in such details i like your reviews a lot and if you could do some reviews about other brand mags which can be used as the original s&w m&p 9 mag ? Gg search indicates you are the only one do reviews on Promag and that how i found your thread.

Damn, that's cool that you found us this way.

To be honest I don't think you're going to have any luck finding anything that you can "make" work; the feed lips are just too different.

You can however keep tabs on what's in stock by looking at "gunbot.net"
S&W is working on cranking out the mags, and things are starting to loosen up in the market, I'd wait until the factory mags come in. I found two factory 40 mags the other day at my LGS bringing me up to 6 factory mags and 8 promags.
Like I say in the absence of factory mags the promags will do, but I'm not going to bet my life on them.

Good luck finding them.

In the mean time I'm going to try and get my sweaty hands on some Taylor Freelance extensions and see how they run on the factory and Promag bodies.
Stay tuned.

 

[vwfred69]

Do you think the extended baseplates will work with promag springs.

 

[geronimojoe85]

Do you think the extended baseplates will work with promag springs.

No idea, that's why I want to try it out.
I have a feeling I'm going to need something like Arredondo extra power springs, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway.

 

[blkeagle]

This sort of thing are hard to find just like ammo while back couple months ago. I like to use gunbot sometime but it still lag a notification feature for magazines. Other than that it is great website to visit.

About the Promag would you bet your life on its even if you swap out s&w followers and springs ? i found Midwayusa got plenty of factory s&w springs still in stock and all followers were sold out just last month. I bet lot of folks buy these to use in their Promag.

You got plenty of mags ...that 's cool...i got only 2 promag and 2 factory s&w but still need more factory mags on hands just in case.

Sure! i am stay tune to read your reviews on Taylor Freelance extensions.

 

[vwfred69]

I don't have mine side by side at moment but the one I got tonight in 9mm look closer to original than the ones pictured. it has the full length v like the factory mag,but it does look a little wide at the mouth.

 

[blkeagle]

I don't have mine side by side at moment but the one I got tonight in 9mm look closer to original than the ones pictured. it has the full length v like the factory mag,but it does look a little wide at the mouth.

you may have the original s&w mag . Where did you buy it ? or it just come with your mp originally.