The AR-15 Thread - AR-15's and Magazines

[Ninurta]

Great thread.
My husband and I are Old and Old Fashion,,, we have the aluminum 30 rd. magazines made by Brownells, 25 magazine for each of our, Her and His AR-15's.
Here is a good site that will help people choose a magazine: link

Now for our Her and His Barrett M82A1 again we use the Brownells 10 rd. magazines, we have 10 magazines for each.
Yes, we like to REACH out and Touch The Bad Guys,,,,,,,
 

The 6 USGI mags I have, the ones I've had forever, since Methuselah's possum hound was just a pup, are the old aluminum ones. I have one gen-yoo-ine Colt, 3 Adventure Lines, and two Sanchez, all issued way back when. Back in the day, folks would fight over the Colts and Adventure Line mags, but the Sanchez were not so popular. As a matter of fact, the one that sticks in the mag well now is one of the Sanchez mags. I also had one of the old Colt 20 rounders with the aluminum follower, probably of Vietnam vintage, which I picked up in a box of surplus mags at DRMO at Fort Bragg back in the 90's. DRMO was a great deal for mags, as I got those for 0.10 cents a pound, and aluminum doesn't weigh that much. I don't have that one any more (wish I did, though!) and the other 6 I just "found" in my trunk one day, all wrapped up in the mag pouches they came in. The only one I've had any trouble with is the one Sanchez that binds in the mag well, the rest still run flawlessly after 40 years in my possession, and the abuse that entailed.

I like the MWG 40 rounder, but it does have one issue - on a full loadout of 40 rounds, it doesn't like to seat fully and you have to smack the bottom a little harder than usual on a closed bolt. They probably should have made it a quarter inch longer. The problem is that on a full 40 round loadout the anti-tilt follower bottoms out, so the spring doesn't have enough give left to seat on a closed bolt without offering it violence. an extra quarter inch play space for the follower would have solved that. I'm debating just shaving off a smidge from the bottom of the follower to solve that problem. The other alternative is to just load 38 rounds instead of the full 40 it's supposed to be rated at.

Some years ago in a land faraway, I carried a Colt model 653 - one of the ones they sometimes refer to as a "CAR-15", not to be confused with the XM177E1 of Vietnam fame, also sometimes referred to as a "CAR-15"... but neither of those are actual "CAR-15"s. Anyhow, I had a steel (not aluminum) 40 round mag for it (which is where I learned about "ambush magazines") which never failed me. I can't recall who made it way back then, however. I suspect that the rifle itself started out life as an Israeli gun (it was a Colt, but Colt sold a bunch of them to Israel in the early 70's), but I don't know if that mag was Israeli or not. The rest of my mags were all 30 rounders, aluminum bodies, probably USGI. I don't think the US issued any 40 rounders then, but maybe some of the Sneaky Petes could lay hands on them.

Flash forward 40 years, and the world is going polymer. The rifle I have now ain't the Colt 653. It's a S+W M+P15. It's got a flat-top upper instead of the handle the Colt had, and those oval M4 handguards instead of the round ones found on that old Colt... and a heavier barrel, which makes it weigh a bit more. Since the rifle is "modernized", I decided to modernize the mags as well and go with the polymer... MOSTLY polymer, that is. I still need those metal feed lips, just for my own peace of mind. Hell, even the butt is polymer (6 stops, I believe) like an M4, instead of the old aluminum 2-stop butt on that Colt.

Yeah, I miss my 653, but whacha gonna do?

Your Barretts are impressive, but I bet you spend more in ammo for 'em than I spent on this whole rig! You probably already know it, but that Barrett is credited with the longest sniper kill ever - 2500 meters as I recall. 1604 meters is a mile, and that kill was around 900 meters farther than THAT! At 3 to 5 dollars per round, it's a bit rich for my blood - even if I fancied that I could actually hit a man-sized target a mile and a half away.

My sniper... erm, I mean DEER... rifle is an el cheapo Remington in .308. I've yet to get it out on a range and shoot it, but again I think the magazine may be a weak point. It holds 4 rounds, but even fully loaded it's loose as a goose, and the rounds rattle in it. Not exactly confidence inspiring. I've cycled a few mags through it, never a failure to feed or function, but still that rattling is worrisome. The bolt tends to bind if you use the handle for the full cycle, so I've trained myself to open it with the handle, chamber a round by pushing the bolt in with my thumb, and then locking it with my forefinger on the handle after the round is chambered.

I also have a Ruger 10/22 that I've tricked out with a Choate stock and a flash suppressor. yes, a flash suppressor. On a .22. Call me crazy. It's mostly just to protect the barrel crown, but that bit of info is just between you and me - I encourage folks to think I'm nuts. Anyhow, the mags are the weak point on it as well. It's terribly hard to find high capacity mags for that rifle that actually function. Most mags just turn it into a jam-a-matic. The factory 10 rounder works just fine, and has for years and years, but most of the after market, high capacity mags are hit and miss.

The moral of my story is that magazines are the life's blood of your weapon, so don't scrimp on them. Unless you can scrimp on money without scrimping on quality. Happens sometimes, but not often.