Wilson Combat 9mm ETM Mags

[Rick McC.]

The 9mm Wilson ACP that I reviewed for the M1911.ORG E-zine a few months ago came with two of the new design ETM magazines. They were noticeably easier to both load, and seat into the pistol with the slide forward, than any other 10 round 9mm mags I’ve ever used, including Wilson’s previous generation of ETM magazines.

I have a Wilson Professional Model (four inch frame and slide) that I’ve had for over 10 years now, which was made back in ‘05. I bought it to shoot IDPA ESP class with, and was never interested in carrying it because of the ambi safety it came with. I would have changed it out immediately, but the frame and all small parts except the hammer are finished in OD green Armor Tuff.

I recently (better late than never, I suppose) decided to update the pistol a bit. I replaced the ambi thumb safety with a single sided one, and added a one piece mag well, both from Wilson, and in OD green. I also got a new pair of stocks to mate up with the mag well.

Now, this is where the new magazines come in. After installing the new parts, I decided that, since the ambi was now a thing of the past, I’d put the pistol into my carry rotation. Remember, I had 10 years of history shooting it, with no functional issues to speak of. Well, just imagine my chagrin when I couldn’t get a full magazine of hollow point ammunition through the gun without failures to feed! Since it was a range gun, I had never tried to shoot it with any hollow point ammo. That was when I remembered how nice and smoothly the new design mags that came with the ACP 1911 functioned. So, i ordered four of them from Wilson, and loaded a couple with hollow point ammunition. I was able to hand cycle all 20 rounds from both mags through the pistol without issue. Things were definitely looking up! So, I took all four mags, along with the Professional Model, some 115 gr FMJ, and two different kinds of hollow point ammo, to the range. Everything ran through that pistol like grease through a goose! Of course, the ball ammo fed without any problems. I then shot the Federal 115 gr JHP, which has a rounded bullet profile, and Hornady 115 gr JHP, which has more of a truncated cone (TC) bullet profile. TC bullets seem to be more problematic in feeding in some pistols. Both fed flawlessly for me now, using the new magazines.

So, if anyone with a 9mm 1911 has been experiencing feeding issues; I recommend that you give these new Wilson ETM magazines a try. They certainly provided a drastic improvement in feeding for me!

The 9mm 1911 magazines that I’d previously used were the original Wilson 10 round ETM mags (10 years old now), plus several nine round mags from various manufacturers.