[MGMike]

I bought two 15-rd P99 Walther-marked (Mec-Gar) mags from Midway. They have black followers with long legs, inspection holes in the back and two vertical grooves on each sidewall. The spring has several narrower coils at the top but no "short" coil. The mag body has a holdopen clearance depression on the left side and a couple of small stab-creases at the taper.

Here's the rub, literally: The mag bodies are about .022" wider than a 15-shot (and a couple of 10-shot) smooth-sided Walther-marked Meg-Gars that I've had for some years; these have black followers with no legs, inspection holes in the right sidewall, and springs with one "short" coil.

The new mags are a VERY, VERY tight fit in my early P99 9mm, though they fit easily in my early P99 .40 cal. The latter has a mag well with inner ribs that correspond to the grooves in the mag body; the former does not.

I recall, and unsuccessfully searched for, an earlier thread enumerating variations in mags, especially with regard to follower color -- which seem to have become almost as inscrutable as the Department of Homeland Security's terrorist alert codes.

Can somebody please tell me if these new mags are the latest incarnation, or are they being dumped to distributors in favor of a still newer version?

Many thanks,

M

 

[thorn]

Hey Mike,

Not sure if this will answer your question, but here's what I've found with mags. In this pic, both are 9mm. The top is the new 15rd one that came with my AG datecode P99, the lower is an older 16rd Mecgar/Walther mag that i bought used.

It sounds like what you've bought is identical to the ones that came with my new Walther.

thorn

 

[MGMike]

Thanks for the pic. Are the followers black? Does the new follower have legs?

 

[uncut]

Mike
the .40 S&W mags are the only ones with different colors
black, orange, dark blue, light blue were the colors used on thes followers

I think the 16 round mags don't have legs to make room for the longer spring and the extra round... but I could be mistaken on that
the mags you just got are the ones that have been supplied with the P99 for as long as the 15 round mags were issued and not the 16 rounders.....

hope that helps

 

[MGMike]

the mags you just got are the ones that have been supplied with the P99 for as long as the 15 round mags were issued and not the 16 rounders.....

hope that helps

Thank you for the info. But the slab-sided mag I already had is not a 16 rounder: it's only 15, and so marked. (It may have been a European mag manufactured during the U.S. hi-capacity mag ban.)

I surmise that there have been AT LEAST four 9mm magazines thus far: a 10-rounder, a 16-rounder, and two 15-rounders.

In any case, the new mags are too wide to properly fit my early P99, which --as Daffy Duck used to say-- is a perfectly revolting state of affairs.

M

 

[thorn]

Hey Mike -

I dont know about the followers' legs, but they're both black. I'll take the mags apart tomorrow and post a pic.

thorn

 

[Soybomb]

On the left is a 16rd s&w mag, on the right is 2004-2005ish 15rd walther mag.

 

[MGMike]

Soybomb: Thank you for the pic. The one on the right is exactly what I have, that won't fit.

That narrows down the question: is there a later version than that?

M

 

[thorn]

Mine look just like Soybombs, except the 16rd is black (16 no legs, 15 has legs).

Incidentally, the 16 follower is labelled "Mecgar" while the 15 is labelled "Walther". The tops of the followers are also slightly different in how they are scalloped. The 16 is more deeply curved, and the 15 is flatter.

thorn

 

[MGMike]

Thorn: Thank you for the pic.

My hunch is that followers with legs are the latest pattern.

M

 

[uncut]

The white follower is out of a SW99 mag not a P99 mag....
S&W used white and red followers on their SW99 9mm mags