GCode single magazine pouch review

The Lionheart LH9 I’ve been testing came with some additional pieces of gear: a GCode OWB holster and a double magazine pouch. The double magazine pouch was…not good. However, in the spirit of the test, I went ahead and ordered a pair of the GCode single magazine pouches to continue the test with. Generally speaking, I prefer single pouches to doubles anyway. Double magazine pouches tend to be harder to adjust the retention correctly. Usually what happens is you’ll have one of the pouches adjusted just so, but the other pouch will either be Kardashian-loose or tighter than…a very tight thing.

gcode magazine carrier

The GCode single magazine pouch is a single piece of injection molded plastic that uses a single screw for retention at the top of the carrier body. The belt attachment is an easy-on/easy-off clip which appears to be sized for a 1.75 inch wide belt. The retention level was set so tightly when I took the pouch out of the bag that after I had successfully removed the test magazine, I half expected to be crowned king of England. However, the single phillips head screw is easy to adjust, and setting the pouch to a more reasonable retention was a piece of cake.

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Once retention was set, pulling a magazine from the carrier was very fast, thanks in part to the front opening of the pouch. It feels like there’s less drag on the front of the magazine when you’re pulling it from the carrier than there is with similar high-bodied carriers. That brings us back to the design of the carrier – it holds the magazine very deep, much deeper than I’d like, actually. However, I understand that this magazine carrier wasn’t designed with competition in mind. Unlike my low cut Comp-Tac or Blade-Tech pouches, which were engineered with the gun games in mind, this is obviously designed more for concealed carry.

As a CCW pouch, it works just fine. While it won’t conceal under an untucked extra-smedium polo from Baby Gap, it works just fine under an open shirt (preferably red and Hawaiian) or under a vest. The paddle attachment makes it a little to large in profile to be a great magazine carrier for CCW, though. I’d prefer belt loops like the Blade-Tech Eclipse pouch.

To sum up the CGode pouch, I’ll have to borrow a phrase from Jeremy Clarkson. He said, when describing a Toyota Corolla hatchback “that is some car” – meaning “yes, that is a car, and it will do various car things, but none of them spectacularly.” The GCode single magazine pouch then is “some magazine pouch.” It’s $22, so it’s not cheap, but it’s not crazy expensive. It’s not great for competition, and it’s not great for concealed carry, but it will do either reasonable well if asked to.

2 Comments

  1. Interesting observation that I have shared converning the tension issue of double mag pouches. I just tossed a very nice double single-stack pouch for that reason exactly. One pouch was so tight you could barely rip the mag out, the other was so loose it would drop the mag if I jumped.

    The other nice thing about single pouches is you can space them with more customization on your belt line.

  2. I’ve hardly every carried my backup mag on the belt, I prefer the pocket. For competition, I carry five in a magnetic assisted pouch, because I play gamer games… 🙂

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