I got a Glock 43X a few years ago, and I have become a bigger and bigger fan of the gun every month that passes. It brings you a slim, easy-to-carry pistol with Glock reliability and capability. I often joke that the mix of a long grip and a short barrel makes it the Central A/C of handguns. It’s comfortable to carry and comfortable to shoot. I like the little gun so much that I even used it as a base for a PDW Project. The downside is the 10-round capacity, but that might be cured by the PSA Micro Dagger mags.
The Micro Dagger Mags Mean More Ammo
I wasn’t the only one who had this problem, and the market took note. Shield Arms produced some metal magazines that were capable of holding 15 rounds. I’ve used them and think they work great, but they do require you to swap your magazine release, or the magazines will eat it up. It’s a pain, and the Shield mags can be tough to find in stock. I had heard of the Micro Dagger but honestly didn’t know that it utilized Glock 43X and G48 pattern magazines, and I didn’t know they held 15 rounds either.
The next fact that took me by surprise was that they were a polymer and metal hybrid design. This polymer, metal design allows for 15 rounds of capacity but doesn’t require you to swap your magazine release. It won’t eat at your magazine release and won’t cause your gun to fall apart.
Once that all became evident, I had five of them showing up at my house before I could say nay. At 30 bucks a pop, they aren’t the cheapest option, but they also aren’t that expensive. If they worked, I’ve solved my biggest issue with the Glock 43X. If not, I still have the OEM option.
First Impressions
Lo and behold I arrived home from work to find a bundle of joy in the form of some ammo and my mags! In all my excitement I couldn’t wait to hit the range and find out if these things work. As I unwrapped them I didn’t find myself all that impressed. The magazines looked rough. There was some clear flashing left over on the mags. Full on strings of the stuff on the front of the magazine, and around the magazine latch.
I broke them open, and there were rough burrs of plastic inside the magazines. I used a file and precision knife to clean them up. I blew them out with some canned air and reassembled the magazines. Admittedly, I didn’t have a lot of hope, but I loaded each magazine and hit the range. These magazines just so happened to coincide with my PDW testing, which involved the Glock 43X. This gave me a two-for-one in testing and made my ammo go a little further.
To The Range With the Micro Dagger Mags
The Micro Dagger mags are tough to load. Getting rounds one through thirteen into the gun wasn’t bad, but rounds 14 and 15 were a thumb wrestling match. You really gotta shove and fight, but my arthritis wasn’t too bad, so I managed. With the magazines fully loaded, they could be inserted fairly easily into a Glock 43X with the slide forward. They don’t slide in as smoothly as the OEM models, but a slight thump sends them home and locks them in.
The next thing I could do was start throwing lead and throw it I did. I exercised my reloads and let those mags hit the dirt when empty. I wasn’t gentle, and I didn’t clean them. Five Micro Dagger mags of 15 rounds went flawlessly, and so did the next 60 rounds. It was in the third 60 rounds I ran into one magazine that failed to lock the slide open when the last round was fired. I know for an absolute fact that my thumb wasn’t riding the slide lock.
I marked that magazine to keep an eye on it. In the next 60 rounds, I ran into that issue again, but it was a different magazine. This time, my thumb could have been riding the slide lock, but I don’t think so. I marked that mag as well. Afterward, I loaded all five magazines, one round each, and fired them. I repeated the test over and over. It wasn’t a consistent problem, but it did occur with my two marked magazines every so often. The other three were problem-free.
Worth the Squeeze?
The Micro Dagger mags seem to be an interesting conundrum. They are rough, and I think cleaning them up helped a fair bit. They had no problems feeding, but the occasional failure to lock the slide back is interesting. I’m going to file a bit around the front of the feed lips to see if there is a burr I can remove that might be preventing the follower from reaching the top spot.
For me, they work and I won’t feel shy about carrying them. I do suggest you do your own testing with the Micro Dagger mags and make sure yours work well. I’m not confident enough to blindly trust them, but they can be a seemingly awesome option as long as you do your homework.
