Glock magazine care: cleaning, springs, followers and storage

Most pistol malfunctions are magazine malfunctions. A Glock magazine is simple and tough, but the spring wears, the follower can crack, and dirt inside the body causes more failures to feed than anything in the pistol. This guide covers taking the magazine apart, cleaning it, replacing the parts that wear, storing it loaded, and reading the failures that tell you a magazine is the problem.

How a Glock magazine is built

The body is polymer molded over a steel liner, with witness holes down the back to count rounds. Inside is a steel spring, a polymer follower and a floorplate held by an insert. Early Gen 1 magazines had a partial liner and did not drop free; every magazine since the early 1990s is fully lined and drops free when released. The polymer body absorbs impact, which is why Glock magazines survive being dropped on concrete during reloads far better than steel ones.

Disassembly

Unload the magazine. Push the floorplate insert through the hole in the floorplate with a punch or the tip of a cartridge, and with a thumb over the plate slide it forward off the body. Ease the spring and follower out; the spring is under tension and will jump if you let go. Note which way the follower faces before you remove it. Reassemble in reverse: follower on the spring, spring into the body, insert on top of the spring, compress with the floorplate and slide it back until it clicks. Confirm the insert is locked in its hole before loading.

Cleaning

Wipe the inside of the body with a dry cloth or a paper towel wrapped around a dowel. Use a little solvent on stubborn carbon and dry it completely. Do not oil the inside of a magazine: oil collects grit and unburned powder, gums the follower and, in cold weather, thickens enough to slow the spring. A dry magazine feeds better than an oiled one. Clean the follower and the spring the same way and let them dry before reassembly. In dusty or sandy country, clean magazines after every range trip; in a clean climate, every few months of use is enough.

Springs

Springs wear from cycling, from being compressed and released, not from being left loaded. A magazine that sits loaded for years loses little; a range magazine loaded and emptied a thousand times loses its last-round strength. The signs are a last round that nose-dives into the feed ramp, a slide that fails to lock back on empty, and a follower that tilts. Replace the spring, not the magazine. Factory and extra-power springs cost little; replace carry magazine springs every few years or few thousand rounds, and range magazine springs when they show the signs.

Followers

Inspect the follower when the spring is out. Look for cracks at the front legs, wear on the feed lips contact point and any warp. A worn follower tilts under the last rounds and causes feed failures that get blamed on the spring. Followers are numbered by caliber and revision; Gen 5 9mm followers are orange. Replace like for like.

Feed lips and body

The steel liner's feed lips are the part that decides when a round releases. Check them for spread or dents by comparing a suspect magazine with a good one; spread lips let the round pop up too early and cause double feeds. A body cracked at the top or a liner that has separated from the polymer is a retired magazine. The witness holes let dirt in, which is one more reason to keep the inside dry.

Storage

Store carry and home-defense magazines loaded; the spring does not mind. Rotate the ammunition yearly and shoot the old rounds. Keep magazines out of humidity when you can, since the liner and spring will rust; a desiccant pack in the safe helps. Number each magazine with a paint pen on the floorplate so that when one fails on the range you know which one it was. Retire or mark a magazine that fails twice; do not put it back in the carry rotation.

Reading a failure

• Last round fails to feed, slide does not lock back: tired spring or worn follower.
• Round nose-dives at the feed ramp on a full magazine: overfilled by one, or a follower that is binding on dirt.
• Double feed: spread feed lips or a damaged liner; retire the magazine.
• Magazine will not seat on a closed slide: overfilled, wrong baseplate spring or a tight magwell fit.
• Magazine will not drop free: dirt in the well, a swollen body from oil, or an early non-drop-free magazine.

A simple schedule

Carry magazines: strip, wipe and inspect every three months, replace the spring every three to five years or five thousand rounds, and shoot the carried ammunition once a year. Range magazines: strip and wipe after every dusty trip or every few hundred rounds, replace springs when the signs appear, retire bodies with damaged lips. Nightstand magazines: inspect twice a year with the recoil spring. Write the spring replacement date on a strip of tape inside the floorplate and the schedule keeps itself.

Aftermarket and range magazines

Magpul and ETS magazines take the same care; the ETS bodies are transparent polymer with no liner and are more sensitive to being dropped on hard ground. Keep range magazines and carry magazines separate; the range set takes the wear, and the carry set stays proven and clean.

Browse magazine springs and followers and Glock magazines, learn which fits your pistol in the compatibility chart, and see the accessories that go with them in the accessories checklist.

General information, not legal advice. Current as of September 2026. Laws change; check the official source before you act.