Raven Concealment Copia Magazine Pouches

In mid 2016 Raven Concealment announced the Copia Pistol Magazine pouches. The Copia is a one size fits most injection molded (edited) pistol mag pouch. You can adjust the tension of the mag pouch to work with various sizes mags – i.e. Glock to M&P and back to the chosen gun, Glock. The mag pouches are ambidextrous as well, allowing one mag pouch to have bullets forward or rearward.

Available in a single mag or double mag option, you are not limited by this. You can add them together using the standard coupling hardware we all got used to using with the Phantom series. This means that a single mag pouch can be added to another to make a double, or a double and a single together become a triple.

I was not a fan of kydex or “hard” mag pouches for a concealed carry role, as I rarely wear a tucked in undershirt. Due to this, almost every concealment friendly belt mag pouches would rub against my skin and be very annoying. The Copia hasn’t done that in the 6 months I’ve used the single mag as a daily wear pouch. Part of this is the Copia having a 60/40 or 80/20 construction where more material is on the outside instead of the traditional 50/50. This also allows the Copia to work with thicker belts like the Mean Gene Leather Victory Ageis, that were spotty with the old regular Raven mag pouches.

The Copia mag pouch has a wide footprint, This is due to the integral tension adjustment. You gain multiple mag compatibility and user preference retention at a price, size. For reference, It’s the same size as the Safariland Slimline double mag pouch. This means you can put one mag in a Copia in the space a double Slimline was. Its also similar in size to a Blue Force Gear double 10 speed belt mount mag pouch. So with the space downside, is the mag compatibility and tension worth the squeeze? As they say, “There’s always free cheese in a mousetrap.” The answer to this question, is dictated by what use the mag pouches have for you.

The Copia single has been my off duty mag pouch for 95% of the times since I received it. The other 5% being when I used the double due to my environment dictating me to carry 2 reloads instead of one. When compared to the old non-adjustable tension mag pouches, I noticed that these are smoother to draw from. I also noticed they were more smooth to return the mag into (loading up for the day or tactical reloads).

For about 2 months, I used the Double Copia on my duty belt. These were attached using the QMS straps. I was able to fully attach the rear most QMS strap, but only half the strap on the buckle side. Despite not being fully attached, I had zero performance failures of this setup. Several foot pursuits, climbing of fences, and in service DT training – rolling around, mags stayed in place. The only downside was the overall size caused belt setup issues, but that is not a reflection on the quality of the product. These were eventually removed from my duty belt solely for the space saving consideration (I had to carry a X2 Taser and 308 PMAG on the belt and needed space).

I personally don’t have to swap between Glock 9/40 mags and M&P like I did over a year ago. In checking fit, the mag pouches do not work with Glock 45 ACP mags. In searching online, others used mags such as the CZ line, Browning Hi Power, S&W M&P and FN family as well Glock all without issue.

The pistol Copia continues to be on my pants, and Raven announced the M4 magazine variant at SHOT 2017. The features of the M4 Copia remain to be identified.