If you do low-light handgun training, you may want to take a look at the Strike Industries EMP With LED illuminated Glock baseplates.
Done any low-light training? Competed in a night match? I’ve done both—a bunch of times. Strike Industries now offers an LED-equipped baseplate for your Glock magazines: the EMP with LED. When I saw that, my reaction was, “I’ve gotta try one of those.” Strike Industries was happy to send some and the rep mentioned offhand, “We’ve gotten some flak on these.” I looked into it, and the flak can be summed up as: “Why would I give away my position with a light on my mag?”
I was stunned speechless—and those who know me know how rare that is. Really? Position? Were they not paying attention to the need for safety in training or competition? That’s the intended use of the LED baseplate. Anyone who thinks it’s a tactical tool needs someone to help dress them before they leave the house.
I’ve done night training. Besides not tripping over stuff and keeping the muzzle in a safe direction, I want the instructor and others to know where I am as I try to soak up the lesson. If that means wearing a set of glow-in-the-dark Mickey Mouse ears, fine. I’m there to learn. The same goes with a competition. I want to win, but I want to go home in one piece, with no extra holes. So, again, knowing everyone knows where I am at all times matters to me.
And then there’s the matter of magazines. Yes, Glock magazines (what Strike makes right now) are inexpensive, but they aren’t quite disposable. Everyone at the match has spent time getting their eyes night-adjusted (or using NODs). At the end of each stage isn’t the time to fire up a thousand-lumen tactical light to find dropped magazines.
The Strike web page also mentions using the EMP with LED as a low-level light, navigation aid, finding things in the dark, etc. Me? Not so much. I have other lights—ones that don’t have bullets attached to them—to use for searching or finding the keyhole in the lock. Just training and competition for the EMP with LED, thank you.
Each EMP with LED adds length to the magazine, but doesn’t add capacity. It holds a 2032 battery (included—thank you Strike), and it’s kinda sorta water-resistant. I take that to mean it’ll stand up to the rain, at least as much as you’ll put up with in training or competition. Don’t expect to go swimming with it. Seawater is a specified no-no. The extra length makes it easier to pry a mag out of the pistol if it hesitates to drop, but the extra ounce and a half should induce most magazines to fall freely.
I’m knee-deep in snow right now, so I have no idea how well it holds up to being dropped on gravel. But the LED is recessed into the mag extension, so it looks pretty well protected. I suspect it’d take a peculiar set of circumstances to result in your LED getting whacked just right and thus quitting.
To repeat: This isn’t the baseplate you’d select heading out the door to fight the good fight or whatever. It’s what you select to train for the fight or the match you intend to win, in a safe and orderly fashion.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the May 2025 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
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