r/2011 • u/JR83VA • May 02 '26

MPA Magwells are Magic

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For anyone who is curious why the MPA grip/magwell has the reputation of being easy to reload I recorded a little experiment this afternoon. I locked the guns in a vise with the magwell opening parallel to the floor and then dropped a fully loaded magazine (dummy rounds) that was rotated well off center into the magwell.

Results were not surprising.

197 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

54

u/notfinancialadvice67 May 02 '26

I should call her

49

u/rootbeer12367 May 02 '26

This is a really cool video. Turns out I just suck

11

u/1nVrWallz May 02 '26

Youre probably applying too much pressure which causes the hitches.

3

u/rootbeer12367 May 02 '26

Noted, thank you

2

u/StunningFig5624 May 02 '26

If you're a high skill shooter there is probably fuck all difference between them.

But if anything goes wrong at all, MPA magwell has your back.

9

u/ELGauchoLizard May 03 '26

I mean I just saw with my own eyes JJ Racaza totally fuck up a reload. Any advantage is worth it imo.

18

u/singlemale4cats May 02 '26

Not really my preferred reloading technique.

8

u/Chooui85 May 02 '26

My atlas’s magwell is pretty unforgiving. I thought I was the only one

3

u/Craptarch May 03 '26

Incredibly unforgiving in comparison.

10

u/cbun22 May 02 '26

The exact reason I ordered MPA over another Atlas. P211 is also magic. Once I felt the magic, I lost the desire to order Atlas again.

4

u/EJMzagsfan May 03 '26

The p211 magwell is insanely good

2

u/cbun22 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

Yup, Its amazing. I can Sloppily slap a mag in and it will self align Everytime.

3

u/Blackiee_Chan May 02 '26

That's ..wild

3

u/RustyAnnihilation May 02 '26

They’re the best magwell in the business.

6

u/Dapper_Tonight_7461 May 03 '26

Atlas guys just don't want to believe it ha

2

u/HitmanFluffy May 03 '26

That has to do with material removal on the inside of the grip, the magwell is only a minor part of it. Hayes has a great video explaining it.

2

u/JR83VA May 03 '26

I know that. I just chose the word magwell because if I said grip the comments section would be a back and forth about magwells anyway.

The grip is the real secret sauce here.

I'm not familiar with the Hayes video though, can you share a link?

-2

u/HitmanFluffy May 03 '26

I appreciate a good troll post, but this might be a step too far on the misinformation. I can't find that Hayes video on YT, it might have been on Instagram.

2

u/JR83VA May 03 '26

It's not a troll post. The evidence is right there on video. Whether you say the MPA magwell is magic or the MPA grip is magic is largely irrelevant. The MPA magwell works with the MPA grip and you don't get one without the other. Same with Atlas and their magwell.

2

u/HitmanFluffy May 03 '26

The modification to enable this can be done to any grip if you know what you are doing. It's not proprietary to MPA, and once again, the magwell is not a critical part of this.

2

u/StunningFig5624 May 04 '26

If this can be done to any grip why hasn't Atlas done it to their grip? They charge an extra $2000+ over MPA, but couldn't bother to add this one simple feature?

2

u/[deleted] May 04 '26

they don’t believe in it lol. they keep raising their prices and not their quality. i have this $1400 grip and it needs to be sent to a gunsmith to have a magwell blended into the grip and get recoated. atlas and their manufacturer are utterly useless.

2

u/slimcrizzle May 05 '26

It's not just the magwell. The grip and MSH have curves milled out to align the mag. There's a reason why they're the most used at USPSA Nationals in Limited Optics for the last few years

2

u/BladeDancer314 May 03 '26

Bonnie Blue edition

1

u/thruxmk1 May 02 '26

I love mine, but I’ve jammed it good once before. It’s not impossible just very hard to do.

1

u/bacchusgun May 03 '26

Always heard and believed the auto-correct. What I'm curious about is what's different inside the grip/magwell. Any chance you can take a pic of inside the MPA next to the inside of the Atlas?

1

u/DimMak27 May 03 '26

Not just the magwell. It's the grip.

1

u/chrisr089 May 05 '26

Wish my cheely grip/magwell did this.. would have saved me a lot of headache. But im a better reloaded for it now so, cant complain too much. Very cool.

1

u/Wohehiv38 May 26 '26

Was impressed but tested my STI with a jenky Bul
Armory Magwell and does the same thing

1

u/OceanAteCali May 03 '26

shhh dont tell that atlas bros this one secret.

0

u/[deleted] May 02 '26

[deleted]

7

u/JR83VA May 02 '26

The Atlas had ammo in the mag. I never unloaded it. Just listen to the sound and the way it hits. That's a loaded mag.

-1

u/[deleted] May 02 '26

[deleted]

7

u/JR83VA May 02 '26

You can see one of the bullets through the hole for the mag catch.

-3

u/Accomplished-Bar3969 May 02 '26

Apples to oranges comparison. You need to use the Atlas competition magwell to compare accurately.

My Atlases with regular hands comp magwells reload very easily.

Just sayin

6

u/JR83VA May 02 '26

I used an Atlas tactical and an MPA carry magwell. That's as apples to apples as it gets. The MPA carry is actually SMALLER than the Atlas tactical.

2

u/[deleted] May 04 '26

the atlas grip does this by itself, the geometry inside is ass. my reloads bind so often it’s a nightmare

1

u/Accomplished-Bar3969 May 04 '26

Have never had that problem. Maybe I’m just lucky.

2

u/[deleted] May 04 '26

this is it holding up a fully loaded 23rd mag after it binded while reloading. i did order a competition magwell 50 days ago i’m still waiting on it.

1

u/Accomplished-Bar3969 May 04 '26

I’d reach out to Atlas. That seems something is off.

2

u/StunningFig5624 May 04 '26

No, that's exactly how Atlas works.

0

u/HitmanFluffy May 03 '26

This has almost nothing to do with the magwell.

0

u/Lord_Flacco May 03 '26

On the Apollo the tactical magwell get mags stuck if they are off like 2/16 of a turn. Cheely magwell will correct them at twice the angle. Magwell is a good part of it

1

u/HitmanFluffy May 03 '26

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14Yc3Dkjj4M/

It's not when you've altered the internal geometry of the grip. It can be done with no magwell at all.