Ok, I see the obvious that the little tit needs to be depressed and then the tabs squeezed a little to clear the baseplate. Problem is, I am applying some pretty stout force to the sides of the mag, and the ears are not budging. I even tried using an Irwin Quick-Grip to apply more force than I figured I was applying with my fingers.
Squeezing the sides never works for me either. I use a punch to depress the button in the floorplate and while I have it in the hole use the punch to slide the plate off. This may be way wrong, but it works.
You need a table/desk with a sharp edge. You can hold the mag, depress the button and push the mag down towards the floor, and the sharp edge catches on the floorplate. Works perfect for me.
Short of the vise grips squeezing the sides, the sides on my mags were not deflecting anywhere near enough to slide off. I’m certain I could have yanked them off, but no way they were going to slide off without extra pressure from a tool.
I’ve got pretty good finger and grip strength, but geeze oh man…
I hold the mag body in my left hand on push down on one corner of the base plate, typically on my bench. At the same time I put that little Glock tool through the detent and pull up on the base plate.
A Glock armorer showed me this at a Glock match and it works great. The new generation generation of Glocks mags (the models with the mag release in the front as well as the side) have additional detents that hold the base plate in place. It is harder to remove this base plates but this trick still works.
Next time you come by the store I’ll show you how I do it.
I use hand strengh and a Glock tool…nothing else. The shorter the mag the harder it is to do.
I’ve also bused the glock tool to depress the little tab, and then try to scrape the back of the baseplate and the bottom of the mag tube against a solid object with a 90 degree edge, like a table, countertop, or door frame. Watch for flying springs.
When I put the finger extensions on my Glock 27 10 rnd mags I used a vice grip w/ a cloth towel between the mag and the vice grip to keep from scratching and a punch for the button and the base plate came right off.
Just insert the Glock armorer’s tool through the hole in the base plate, moving the internal retaining pin/plate out of the way. Your punch will be at somewhat of an angle at that point. Then push the tool forward. Base plate will slip right off.
I avoid the squeezing of the mags as I have seen a couple junked from doing so. Whenever I hear the words “vice grips” when talking about guns I cringe as much as when I here “Dremel tool”.
I do what either P2000 describes or what is shown on the video, never had an issue.
For the record, I previously had WAY more experience than the average guy with Glock mags, since I’ve taken every mag my PD owns apart on more than one occasion, so we are talking thousands of disassembles per year when I was our range guy.
Once you get it apart, you may want to take a razor blade and cut those tiny little raised “bumps” off. The bumps are the ones that are on the mag body and fit into the baseplate notches.
you really have to apply some serious pressure to slide the baseplate off…
if you’ve got a screwdriver that fits in the hole in the baseplate you can use that for leverage.
the “glock tool” (that brass pen looking thing) does not like to be used on mags. the punch is too soft.