Dropping Mags with MARS

M.A.R.S. stands for Magazine Advanced Release System. It's a drop-in aftermarket release designed by Battleline Industries and built by Rainier Arms. The M.A.R.S. design gives a right-handed shooter the same sort of advantage a left-handed shooter (well, a left-handed shooter running a pre-Gen 4 Glock) enjoys when reloading. Because it's ambidextrous (not reversible), it gives right- or left-handed shooters the ability to drop a magazine using the index finger from either side (thus avoiding the need to break their master grip).

Currently available M.A.R.S. are compatible with Gen 1 through Gen 3 Glock pistols in 9mm, .40 and .357 Sig. They're made of 6061-T6 aircraft grade aluminum and are hard coat anodized, with stainless steel hardware. The shape of its ‘control surface' appears to lend itself well to weapon manipulation and reloading.

Specs:

Material: 6061-T6 Aircraft grade aluminum

Screw: 17-4 heat treated stainless steel

Spring: Flat Wire 302 Stainless Steel

Finish: Type III Class 2 MIL-A-8625 Hard coat anodizing

Watch the following video for a little more information — if you just don't feel like you can sit through the whole thing, at least check out the half minute or so starting at about 01:35. Good info there on magazines. It retails for $66.45.

Dropping Mags with MARS

Note that this isn't a review, nor is it an endorsement — we haven't yet equipped one of our guns with it. I became aware of it first thanks to a post by Chris Tran (whose pictures you're looking at). Assuming we get the chance to put one into the hands of both a right- and a wrong- handed shooter we'll let you know how it goes and what they think about things, respectively. The M.A.R.S. certainly looks interesting, and unlike some may just be a new drop-in aftermarket part that's worth looking into.

Speaking of Tran, here's his video overview of the M.A.R.S. The music gets a little distracting, but if you can ignore that there's some good information here.

From the item description:

The ambidextrous magazine release system enables us to finally perform tactical reloads and mag-drop speed reloads.

Constructed from 6061 T-6 aluminum and is Type III Class 2 MIL-A-8625 Hard coat anodized. The spring and screw that hold the unit together are both stainless steel.

The lower edge of the activation surface is also angled upwards, which is a smart modification in that the activation surface does not bite into the top side of the user’s middle finger while gripping the pistol.

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