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By Duane ThomasI’ve been carrying a Glock 17 for the past year

or so. This is not the first time my carry gun hasbeen a Glock 17, it’s a design I’ve come back toagain and again over the years, its only downfallto my mind being its skimpy magazine capacity.JOKING! The 17-roundmagazine capacity of the9mm Glock 17 wasextraordinary at the timeof its introduction whenmost “wondernine” magsheld 15 rounds. Eventoday when several otherguns have equalled thatamount, still it providesall the rounds in-gun thatanyone could want in aconcealed-carry piece.Actually it’s arguable youwouldn’t want morerounds in a carry gunbecause that wouldentail making the maga-zine so long it wouldseverely and negativelyimpact concealability. No, the mag in thecarry/concealment Glock 17 should always be fit-ted with the stock flat baseplate. But what of thespare mag(s) in the mag pouch? Ah, that’s wherethings get interesting. Enter Arredondo Acces-sories’ extended baseplates for Glocks.

The reason the company is called ArredondoAccessories is because it’s owned, and the prod-ucts it sells designed, by Ralph Arredondo. In myexperience the Arredondobaseplate sold through Dil-lon’s Blue Press adds fiverounds to the capacity of a9mm Glock 17/34/17Lmag. That’s 22 rounds of9mm – and that’s NOTpushing the spring so hardyou can barely load thelast cartridge, and have tostand on the mag to snap itinto the gun. That 22ndcartridge loads easily, andthere’s still about half acartridge diameter of com-pression “slack” left over,so the mag snaps easilyinto place even with theslide forward. RalphArredondo does report thatsome people have beenable to fit in an extra six rounds of 9mm withthis extension.

Since Glock 9mm and .40 S&W/.357 SIG/.45GAP mags are all dimensionally identical, the

exact same baseplate adds either four or fiverounds to a .40 caliber Model 22/24/35 mag or.357 SIG Model 31 mag, and I would expect threeor four rounds to a .45 GAP Model 37 mag. Thatcan all vary a bit from mag to mag. Also availablethrough the Blue Press are Arredondo extensions

for the Springfield XDand Smith & WessonM&P 9mms and .40s.These extensions,according to RalphArredondo, add fourrounds in 9mm, three in.40. Also the Blue Presscarries a “+3” extensionfor the XD .45.

The baseplate is atwo-piece unit. Themethod by which itinstalls, and then the twopieces are held together,is ingenious. Remove thestock baseplate, sub-floorplate and magazinespring/follower. Pull thefollower off the stock

spring. Fit the stock follower to the elongatedspring supplied by Arredondo with their baseplate.(Other than the tube, the follower is the only stockpart you’re going to be retaining – everything elsegets replaced.) Insert the follower and spring intothe mag tube. The major portion of the extensionslides over the top of the magazine and along thetube until it snugs down around the bottom. Thenthe bottom of the extension come up from under-

neath, capturing, containingand compressing the springin the process, and twolarge rectangular lugs, oneon each side, snap out intocorresponding cutouts inthe body of the extension.This is an extraordinarilysecure system; I literallycan’t imagine a properlyassembled Arredondoextension ever coming offaccidentally. Disassemblyrequires using a special tool(also supplied with everyextension) that depressesboth lugs simultaneously.

The reason the Arredon-do extension is the length itis (I knew you wanted toknow) is that in IPSC and

USPSA (the United States Practical Shooting Asso-ciation is the active body of the International Prac-tical Shooting Confederation in the U.S.) there is amagazine length limit of 140mm (that’s complete

Arredondo Accessories: The High(er) Capacity Magazine

Left Photo: The Arredondo Glock magazine extensionadds approximately half an inch to to the length of a

stock Glock mag, and five rounds of capacity in 9mm.Right Photo: A Glock 17/34 magazine fitted with an

Arredondo extension holds 22 rounds of 9mm.

The Arredondo extension consists of an uppersleeve that fits over the top the magazine tube,the baseplate per se which comes in from the

bottom and snaps into the upper, a spring of theappropriate length, and every baseplate also

comes with a disassembly tool.

July 10 Blue Press Section 4 5/18/10 8:48 AM Page 64