Black Magazines

No factory mags. Closest would be the ProMags.

R Dub said:

No factory mags. Closest would be the ProMags.

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That doesn't sound like a good alternative.

Has anybody had theirs plated? They look like stainless steel. Depending on the alloy stainless can be blued. Has anybody tried that?

bluing might work, actually I may try today depending on time... plating would probably make them to thick to eject the mag easily.

there are a couple of people who had their slides refinished and had their mags done as well mabey they can post some pics for you

Promags are the only ones I have seen in blue. I own a couple. They work, but they are definitely not Springfield Armory factory mag quality.

miller said:

there are a couple of people who had their slides refinished and had their mags done as well mabey they can post some pics for you

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+1

Some of these magazines look pretty good too. I think Mac's does magazines but I can never find their site when I want to, I need to bookmark it. OEFM posted a link to http://www.apwcogan.com/ in another thread and I see that they recoat magazines. Canyon Creek and James at http://www.xd-hs2000.com would be two other places I would check with about recoating your magazines.

Good luck.

jonas

Here is Mac's site...

http://www.shootiniron.com/index.html

Thanks Frenchy, bookmarked.

jonas

Try

http://www.centerfiresystems.com/

They have an aftermarket black 15 round magazine for 9 mm XD's for $19.95. I have 2 and they both work without a problem in either of my pistols.
Mike

atkamano said:

Here are the pics of the coating that MAC did on several of my XD mags.

Enjoy :twisted:


[img=http://img328.imageshack.us/img328/4806/cimg13443nc.th.jpg]

[img=http://img328.imageshack.us/img328/8832/cimg13468wd.th.jpg]

[img=http://img328.imageshack.us/img328/2020/cimg13471za.th.jpg]

[img=http://img328.imageshack.us/img328/9942/cimg13488ed.th.jpg]

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It looks like Mac's typically fine work. How is the wearability factor, atkamano?

VERY cool, but what is the point? Is it to be more tactical and stealthy?...of just the cool factor of having custom finished mags.

My first instinct was....WOW...COOL...I'm going to do that to ALL of my mags. I then thought about it for 2 seconds and couldnt come up with 1 good reason to do it. As usual I'm probably missing something though....clue me in.

VERY cool, but what is the point? Is it to be more tactical and stealthy?...of just the cool factor of having custom finished mags. I imagine that it MIGHT be easier to see your round count without the reflection.

My first instinct was....WOW...COOL...I'm going to do that to ALL of my mags. I then thought about it for 2 seconds and couldnt come up with 1 good reason to do it. As usual I'm probably missing something though....clue me in.

+1 on the wear question as well.

DJDan said:

VERY cool, but what is the point? Is it to be more tactical and stealthy?...of just the cool factor of having custom finished mags. I imagine that it MIGHT be easier to see your round count without the reflection..

Click to expand...

It makes more sense to have a matte finished magazine in a service pistol. Even though I don't expect to have to use it in a life or death situation.

The wear of the mags are holding up very nicely.

Only the very edges of the mag and where they are in most contact with the actual frame of the gun show signs of wear.

I do have to warn you that when you refinish your mags, the space inside of the magazine becomes smaller, due to the finish's thickness. When I got my magazines back from MAC, it was extremely hard to load even 8 rounds into the 12 round magazine. It took many unloading/reloading sessions for the magazine to accept all 12 rounds. Now all 12 work fine.

Thanks for the info atkamano...I do know that the Tuff-Gun process is self-lubricating which should work nicely for the mags.
As an aside...Mac is offering a new Mil-Park color that mimics the old Parkerizing that had that subtle green tint that you found on the WWII military rifles and pistols. Not nearly as bright as the OD green. I believe that it would look great on my worn HS slide.

You might want to have them Melonited. I have a 1911 that was processed by these people http://burlingtoneng.com/melonite.html and am very happy. I didn't have any magazines processed only because I didn't think about it. :?

I would give them a call and see if they can do mags.

You guys have too much money to burn.

I know the post is a bit old but I felt compelled. Another alternative not mentioned that is practically free. Is to sandblast the outside of the tubes, it would give you a grayish, dull (nonreflective) and crappy? looking appearance. Maybe why it wasn't mentioned......It would give you the desired effect without adding thickness and possibly not dropping free easily anymore. Virgil Tripp's mags are similar.

There is no wear facter in magazines. They crack, they get bent, you lose them but they don't wear.