When I bought my first Glock in 2009, it took some adjustment and trigger time to get used to it. Nowadays, it’s hard to find me without a Glock nearby or strapped to my hip. As I’ve become intimately familiar with its design, I’ve also become acquainted with its quirks. Unfortunately, one of those quirks manifests in the magazine floor plate. For all of Glock’s “perfection,” Glock magazine disassembly resides more in the realm of “frustration.” Luckily, Slip2000, long known for its outstanding firearm lubricants and cleaning products, has an inexpensive solution for Glock magazine disassembly with its new MagCamWizard. Before delving into the mechanics of the MagCamWizard, let’s discuss the rationale behind magazine disassembly and maintenance.
Why remove magazine floor plates?
I recently purchased four new Glock Gen5 magazines to retire my old duty ones for range use. However, I needed to swap the factory base plates for some tried-and-true TangoDown Vickers base plates. The MagCamWizard made this venture a leisurely two-minute task rather than 20 minutes of frustration, gouged magazine plates, and scratched hands. While convenient, Slip2000’s MagCamWizard serves a greater purpose than just swapping magazine base plates.
If you haven’t maintained or inspected your Glock magazines, start now. Magazine maintenance starts with inspecting the external components—feed lips, body, and magazine release catch. From there, cleaning and inspecting the internal components—like the follower and spring—requires removing the base plate. The MagCamWizard makes this process significantly more convenient and faster.
I’ve grown accustomed to disassembling the magazines on any handgun I shoot regularly. With my Glock 17, it’s not uncommon to shoot over 10,000 rounds in a year. However, I still regularly disassemble my dedicated duty magazines every month or so to inspect them. Lint, dirt, dust, sticks, rocks, and the occasional potato chip fragment seem to somehow magically find their way into magazines. Furthermore, I inspect the follower and spring for excessive wear or damage. Firearm maintenance extends beyond the gun and includes your ammunition and magazines. Slip2000 definitely knows this since their gun care products now extend to helping Glock owners easily maintain their magazines.
What does the MagCamWizard fix?
If you’ve ever tried to disassemble your Glock magazine, you already have an idea of the problem I’ve been referring to. Glock pistols and magazines are tough and built to withstand abuse. Whether you like them or not, they’re here to stay and deserve some reverence for their quality and durability. Unfortunately, Glock magazines weren’t built around easy disassembly.
Most semi-auto magazines feature a floor plate with a magazine insert. The internal magazine spring provides opposing pressure on the magazine follower (where the bullets go) and the insert. The insert normally has a small tab or pin on its face that rests in a hole in the floor plate. The insert’s pin retains the floor plate and keeps it from inadvertently rocketing off into space. However, Glock added two tabs on either side of the magazine that also retain the floor plate. This extra security comes with a headache for many frustrated gun owners conducting routine maintenance on their magazines, swapping floor plates, or adding magazine extensions.
How does the Slip2000 MagCamWizard work?
The MagCamWizard is a remarkably simple solution to the issue of Glock magazine disassembly. When I discovered the product at Slip2000’s NRA booth this year, I had the proverbial palm-to-forehead moment of “Where has this been for the last 30+ years?”
The first time I tried the MagCamWizard, I went straight for my wallet. This tool immediately stopped years of frustration, colorful word choices, and scratched skin and magazine plates. While discussing it at their booth, visitors were intrigued and impressed by the MagCamWizard. After watching several sold in a short period, it was obvious other folks saw this tool’s value. Most of all, it’s not cheaply made. The MagCamWizard is manufactured from polymer components and built sturdily. There’s no way of breaking this thing through normal use—and maybe even a little abuse.
The MagCamWizard is a sleeve with two hinged cam levers on either side. The sleeve slides onto any 9mm Luger, .40 S&W, or .357 Sig double-stack Glock magazine. With the provided tool, depress the magazine insert through the magazine floor plate’s hole and press down on the MagCamWizard’s levers. This traps the magazine insert in place while squeezing the magazine body inward. In one motion, the insert remains trapped while the cam levers depress the pesky tabs securing the magazine floor plate in place. The floor plate then slides off with ease.
Since buying the MagCamWizard, I’ve shown this handy accessory off to several friends and coworkers. After some brief explanation, they’ve all mastered this handy tool quite quickly. While using it, I noticed one thing worth mentioning to prevent an “oopsie” during disassembly. Make sure a finger slides over the bottom of the magazine as you slide off the floor plate. Magazine springs are under a lot of tension, and like to eject the magazine insert occasionally…not that I’m speaking from experience or anything.
The Slip2000 MagCamWizard
This little tool solves a decades-old and aggravating part of owning a Glock. Slip2000 has long focused on providing some of the best gun care products on the market at a reasonable price point. The MagCamWizard is no different, with an economical price point set at $29.95. Constructed of components meant to last, it’s compatible with magazines for Glock models 17, 18, 17L, 19, 19X, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 45, and 47. If you own a Glock, I guarantee this tool will make your life easier and encourage confidence in—and reliability of—your Glock firearms.