G19 Magazine follower ?

[Demolition Man]

OK, I hear all this talk about -3 followers and how they help G19's feed better. I have 3 magazines (10 rounders) 2 that came with the pistol and 1 I bought at a pawnshop. The pawnshop magazine was new but the magazine body has a different profile near the top on the outside. All three magazines have the numbers 2183-1 stamped on the followers. Does this mean they are -1's? My G19 is a 3rd generation. I have put close to 2,000 rounds and mostly Golden Saber hollow points through my gun without malfunction. I've fed magazines with mixed HP and FMJ to try and see if it would hangup and it just feeds everything. By checking the serial# I determined my G19 was imported August 2002. Is there anything that is supposed to be wrong with these magazine followers? Just concerned owner................Mike

[Dandapani]

No trouble found. Don't worry, be happy. You are the owner of one of the 85% of all new G19s that work out of the box with JHP. Congratulations.

[Demolition Man]

Oh, I'm not worried. I just wanted to know what all the fuss is about followers and -1-2-3whatevers. Now I here -4's for the 15 rounders (LOL)................Mike

[Red Sector A]

When I purchased my G19 it had the 2183 followers.. I heard those followers caused problems feeding JHP ammo so I changed them to the 9mm3 followers even though I hadnt had any problems thus far... I havent had any problem with the new followers either.. so I am good... and I agree if you havent have any problems with yours Mike then I wouldnt bother changing them. :)

[Backfire]

Hi. Those 2183 followers caused me problems with my model 19 (D series) because they have a hump on the rear of their top surface that guides (actually misguides) the last round down into the bottom edge of the feed ramp. Hollow points and even round nose would jam in this fashion until I replaced the magazine followers with 9mm-3 followers that Glock sent to me when I complained to them.

No problem since. This follower issue is well documented elsewhere on GT. Just do a search under "follower" or "2183." I understand that the original 15 shot magazines did not have this problem, only the Klinton ban ones that have the "humped" follower.

The real mystery is why Glock never prevented this issue from arising in the first place....the cause and the cure are so easy to understand and to fix.

[Demolition Man]

Went to the range today with my 2183-1 magazine followers and did everything I could to try and get a failure. Limp wristed, gangbanger side fired, fired upside down(will not do that again)real wierd feeling. Mixed 3 types of hollow point and Remington FMJ. Mixed +P and standard loadings 124Gr and 115GR. Loaded only one and only 2 rounds to try and force a failure to feed. Couldn't get the gun to even suggest it would fail to feed or fire. This is the only handgun that I would bet my life on. I was shooting bowling pins at 60 feet and produceing 75% hits, that all but one time dropped the pins, with a single hit. A center of mass hit on a badguy would have been 100% at even that distance and rapid fire. What a pistol.........Mike P.S. gun is box stock w/fixed sights and will stay that way.

[Thiokol]

I have a G-19 FCA serial number range and I have never had a FTF or FTE. I have five mags, all with the 2183 followers and they feed flawlessly with all types of hollowpoint rounds. Mine is also stock with the fixed sights and is the most accurate 9mm pitsol that I've ever owned, and I've owned a bunch.

[Backfire]

It's great that you have had no problems. I think the problem with the feeding angle may be related to the particlar generation of the Model 19 ("E" series, "D" series, etc.). Or maybe it was just a problem with certain individual guns.

With the problemmatic guns, the barrel tilt needed to be only 1 millimeter lower at the feed ramp end to allow the 2183 followers to feed properly -or- the magazine needed to be seated a little higher to allow those last rounds to hit the feed ramp instead of the bottom edge of the feed ramp.

If any of you observe the feeding of the last round when you manually (and slowly) chamber that round (just put one round in the magazine and then chamber it), how high up on the feed ramp does the nose of the round impact before sliding into the chamber? Is it well within the feed ramp or does the nose of the round just barely make it?

I noticed that my model 21 (.45acp) feeds it's rounds high up into the ramp and almost feeds them directly into the chamber with little or any help from the ramp. I can't induce a feed-jam if I try...it even feeds empty cases consistently when I tried it manually just to see if it could.