Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

,Rawles mentioned that the folks at Beta now have a 100-round BetaMag for the Glock 9mm. He says that it seems rather absurd and I can kinda see that when you use it with a pistol. (Even if you had a G18, how is the pistol and drum any more or less concealable than, say, an MP5?)

However, there are several carbines out there that use Glock magazines (including the KelTec and ATI’s new import) including at least one 9mm AR (Olympic). So, yeah, probably silly for handgun use but for carbine use….perhaps not as silly.

Hey, speaking of the G18 and magazines, it came as a surprise to me that Glock is actually producing a ‘happy stick’ (22 rd.) for the .40 caliber Glocks these days. Previously, only the 9mm was available and if you wanted a happy stick in a caliber other than 9mm you had to go to one of the aftermarket outfits like Scherer which, in my experience, have less-than-sterling qualities.

Even SureFire, the flashlight folks, have jumped on the bandwagon with 60- and 100-rd non-drum magazines.

Since the expiration of the Assault Weapons ban it seems that capacity is back with a vengeance. (7-, 8- and 10-shot revolvers! 50- and 100-rd drum mags for rifles!) Are these mega-magazines useful? I suppose it depends on what you anticipate needing them for. Certainly there is no legitimate reason NOT to manufacture them except from a sales/profit standpoint. In my humble opinion, I think I can see some occasions where the ability to keep shooting without having to reload can be pretty important. The one that springs to mind most readily is any situation where you only have one hand available to shoot with. If you’re running outside to drag someone (or something) back to safety and you need one hand free to do the dragging, if youre in a tight space and don’t really have the room/flexibility to reload, if one hand/arm is out of commission and subsequent reloads will be virtually impossible, etc, etc. And, of course, those John Woo moments when dual wielding a pair of 33-rd Glocks seems like a good idea. (As an aside, every so often I take a pair of Glocks to the range and try firing 33-rd mags out of both at the same time. 1) You can’t hit a bloody thing 2) your trigger fingers get tired in a hurry )

While I love the trend towards these higher-than-usual capacity magazines, realistically the’yre probably one of those things where 99 times out of 100 they’re just not needed. On the other hand, on that 1 time out of 100 where you might need them, theyre just the ticket. I suspect that where they really shine is as trading stock for the future. If theres another magazine ban on the horizon these things will go through the roof and keep going. And if there isnt a ban but the world does indeed comec rashing down there’ll be no shortage of folks who figure 60 rounds is better than 30 rounds.