With the current political climate and focus on the AR-15 rifle, I thought it prudent to make a thread on the relative merits of the various magazines available currently - which may become UNavailable at the drop of a hat - for the AR-15 platform.
I know, I know, the focus in the news is on the rifle itself... but I'm a firm believer in the notion that the media tend to concentrate focus on one thing while the worker bees in the background are targeting another thing altogether, and in this case I'm fairly confident that, instead of banning the rifle itself (again!), they'll probably go after the stuff that makes it work instead, thereby nullifying the usefulness of the rifle itself, and relegating it to nothing more than wall-hanger status... then, when it's useless anyhow, they can outlaw even hanging it on a wall, without a whimper from their opposition.
This is the strategy currently being employed in California, and I expect it to catch on across the nation. It may have started in CA, but has caught on already in several other states - you can't get normal capacity AR-15 magazines already in CA, NY, MA, NJ, MD, HI, CO, and the cities of Washington, DC and Chicago. Most manufacturers and retailers won't even ship them to those areas. The majority of those limit capacity to 10 rounds, although one or two generous ones set the limit at 20 - still a full 50% less than the normal 30 rounds.
In the case of CA, you can have a mag that looks like a 30 round mag, but it must be permanently crippled at 10 rounds by the addition of a permanent block that limits follower travel at 10 rounds, leaving empty air below that. More on that, and the dangers thereof, later.
Being the furtive and shifty-eyed owner of one of those more-dangerous-than-nukulur-bombs black rifles, I've done my homework on the care and feeding of said ugly black gun. The magazine that came with it was a Magpul Pmag Gen2 30 rounder, all polymer but the spring. Now plastic magazines are nothing new - I used to have an AK74, and practically all of the mags available were plastic of one variety or another, and I never had a failure to function with any of them... but an AK is built a little looser than an AR.
One thing I noticed about the AR is that it gets HOT pretty quick if you launch enough bullets down range fast enough. I changed the stock handguards on account of that, installing a pair of GI M4 guards with aluminum heat shields instead of the stock cosmetic handguards that had no heat shield. But that led me to wonder - what happens to plastic feed lips on plastic magazines when the bolt and carrier get that hot and come in actual contact with the magazine feed? it didn't put a pretty picture in my mind. Murphy's Law dictates that your equipment will fail at the exact point that you need it the most, which is not reassuring. That led me on a search for magazines with STEEL feed lips instead. I found that not many are available now.
The main 3 types I encountered were 1) GI all metal mags, 2) MWG Bulgarian-made mags, and 3) Lancer L5 AWM ("Advanced Warfighter Magazine") mags.
GI all metal mags have been standard fare since the inception of the AR15/M16 platform. but are getting increasingly rare since the advent of plastic mags. Originally, they came in 20 round capacity only, and were designed to be disposable - loaded packaged mags sent out into the field to be used and tossed when you reloaded a fresh disposable mag... but the guys in green started hanging on to the empties and reloading them, and over time the disposable nature was forgotten. Magazines designed to be disposable are not exactly confidence inspiring, either. I do, however, have 6 of them that I, erm, "picked up" around 1979, all in 30 round capacity, which still mostly work 40 years later - one of them has developed a problem of sticking in the rifle rather than just dropping free when I hit the button.
The MWG Bulgarian magazines are interesting. They were developed by the same guy who developed the Bulgarian "Circle 10" magazines that were so sought after by AK afficionados a few years back. ALL of my plastic AK magazines , whether East German, Bulgarian, or what have you, had one thing in common - steel feel lips molded into the plastic body, and a sheet steel floor plate. The MWG magazines have retained the steel feed lips (have to use a magnet to detect them, as they are coated with polymer to blend in with the body of the mag), but have done away with the steel floor plate. These come in both 30 and 40 round flavors, so I picked up a 40 rounder to use as an "ambush mag" - one that gives the operator 10 extra rounds to get under cover before he has to reload in the event that he blunders into an ambush.
Lancer L5 AWM's are, for my money, the state of the art in AR magazines. They have hardened steel feed lips, but a polymer body, the best of both worlds. Some of you may recall an all-metal magazine here or there that malfunctioned frequently enough that it needed to be replaced, but the bean counters were reluctant to replace it for you, so the usual field expedient was to toss it under a truck tire and "accidentally" run it over, visibly denting the body enough that you could then take it to supply, say "oops!" and get a shiny new one. Polymer bodies don't dent when run over by a truck, so the damage isn't permanent - the sides spring back, the mag keeps on ticking. The steel feed lips quell my trepidation at melting off the plastic feed lips at an inopportune time - but there's more! The steel insert runs all the way down to the magazine catch, giving a steel surface for the catch to hold on to, rather than a plastic surface for it to sheer off at just the wrong moment, dumping your mag out of your rifle (usually right when the Philistines are upon thee, Samson!)... and of course all the ammo in it. Another plus.
Here's a video torture test of the differences between the Magpul Pmag that came with the rifle vs. the Lancers that feed it now (Caution! this video is painful to watch! No gun should suffer such abuse, but some people sacrifice all in the name of science!):
I've found NO bad reviews on the Lancers beyond one out of Kommiefornia that exclaims these mags will get you KILLED! :
This is where the Kommiefornian magazine block laws that I mentioned above come into effect (beyond the fact that I'd be reluctant to take tactical advice from a Kommiefornian, anyhow) - every one of the failures mentioned in the video can be directly traced to the unique crippling required by California law. The follower is getting stuck and breaking against the rivet required to limit it's travel. Only happens in California, and the guy ain't bright enough to realize that, or that he should move to a Free State.
One more video, for effect and with feeling:
Now to the bottom line - Lancer mags are retailing for, usually, between $14.99 and $16.99 each at the time of this writing. Some outliers will go as low as $12.99 each, others as high as $17.99 each. If you buy in bulk, you can get deals if you hunt for them - I found a bulk pack at $10.30 each, which is like getting the top two mags free at the going prices.
If you run an AR platform, get 'em while you can. I feel a more general "large capacity ammunition feeding device" ban coming in lieu of an outright "Assault Weapons" ban, and what you already have doesn't have to come from the black market after the evil day comes - you already have them in hand.
God help the poor bastard that tries to take 'em. He'd better be able to duck rapidly, and 30X however many mags you already have.
.
I know, I know, the focus in the news is on the rifle itself... but I'm a firm believer in the notion that the media tend to concentrate focus on one thing while the worker bees in the background are targeting another thing altogether, and in this case I'm fairly confident that, instead of banning the rifle itself (again!), they'll probably go after the stuff that makes it work instead, thereby nullifying the usefulness of the rifle itself, and relegating it to nothing more than wall-hanger status... then, when it's useless anyhow, they can outlaw even hanging it on a wall, without a whimper from their opposition.
This is the strategy currently being employed in California, and I expect it to catch on across the nation. It may have started in CA, but has caught on already in several other states - you can't get normal capacity AR-15 magazines already in CA, NY, MA, NJ, MD, HI, CO, and the cities of Washington, DC and Chicago. Most manufacturers and retailers won't even ship them to those areas. The majority of those limit capacity to 10 rounds, although one or two generous ones set the limit at 20 - still a full 50% less than the normal 30 rounds.
In the case of CA, you can have a mag that looks like a 30 round mag, but it must be permanently crippled at 10 rounds by the addition of a permanent block that limits follower travel at 10 rounds, leaving empty air below that. More on that, and the dangers thereof, later.
Being the furtive and shifty-eyed owner of one of those more-dangerous-than-nukulur-bombs black rifles, I've done my homework on the care and feeding of said ugly black gun. The magazine that came with it was a Magpul Pmag Gen2 30 rounder, all polymer but the spring. Now plastic magazines are nothing new - I used to have an AK74, and practically all of the mags available were plastic of one variety or another, and I never had a failure to function with any of them... but an AK is built a little looser than an AR.
One thing I noticed about the AR is that it gets HOT pretty quick if you launch enough bullets down range fast enough. I changed the stock handguards on account of that, installing a pair of GI M4 guards with aluminum heat shields instead of the stock cosmetic handguards that had no heat shield. But that led me to wonder - what happens to plastic feed lips on plastic magazines when the bolt and carrier get that hot and come in actual contact with the magazine feed? it didn't put a pretty picture in my mind. Murphy's Law dictates that your equipment will fail at the exact point that you need it the most, which is not reassuring. That led me on a search for magazines with STEEL feed lips instead. I found that not many are available now.
The main 3 types I encountered were 1) GI all metal mags, 2) MWG Bulgarian-made mags, and 3) Lancer L5 AWM ("Advanced Warfighter Magazine") mags.
GI all metal mags have been standard fare since the inception of the AR15/M16 platform. but are getting increasingly rare since the advent of plastic mags. Originally, they came in 20 round capacity only, and were designed to be disposable - loaded packaged mags sent out into the field to be used and tossed when you reloaded a fresh disposable mag... but the guys in green started hanging on to the empties and reloading them, and over time the disposable nature was forgotten. Magazines designed to be disposable are not exactly confidence inspiring, either. I do, however, have 6 of them that I, erm, "picked up" around 1979, all in 30 round capacity, which still mostly work 40 years later - one of them has developed a problem of sticking in the rifle rather than just dropping free when I hit the button.
The MWG Bulgarian magazines are interesting. They were developed by the same guy who developed the Bulgarian "Circle 10" magazines that were so sought after by AK afficionados a few years back. ALL of my plastic AK magazines , whether East German, Bulgarian, or what have you, had one thing in common - steel feel lips molded into the plastic body, and a sheet steel floor plate. The MWG magazines have retained the steel feed lips (have to use a magnet to detect them, as they are coated with polymer to blend in with the body of the mag), but have done away with the steel floor plate. These come in both 30 and 40 round flavors, so I picked up a 40 rounder to use as an "ambush mag" - one that gives the operator 10 extra rounds to get under cover before he has to reload in the event that he blunders into an ambush.
Lancer L5 AWM's are, for my money, the state of the art in AR magazines. They have hardened steel feed lips, but a polymer body, the best of both worlds. Some of you may recall an all-metal magazine here or there that malfunctioned frequently enough that it needed to be replaced, but the bean counters were reluctant to replace it for you, so the usual field expedient was to toss it under a truck tire and "accidentally" run it over, visibly denting the body enough that you could then take it to supply, say "oops!" and get a shiny new one. Polymer bodies don't dent when run over by a truck, so the damage isn't permanent - the sides spring back, the mag keeps on ticking. The steel feed lips quell my trepidation at melting off the plastic feed lips at an inopportune time - but there's more! The steel insert runs all the way down to the magazine catch, giving a steel surface for the catch to hold on to, rather than a plastic surface for it to sheer off at just the wrong moment, dumping your mag out of your rifle (usually right when the Philistines are upon thee, Samson!)... and of course all the ammo in it. Another plus.
Here's a video torture test of the differences between the Magpul Pmag that came with the rifle vs. the Lancers that feed it now (Caution! this video is painful to watch! No gun should suffer such abuse, but some people sacrifice all in the name of science!):
I've found NO bad reviews on the Lancers beyond one out of Kommiefornia that exclaims these mags will get you KILLED! :
This is where the Kommiefornian magazine block laws that I mentioned above come into effect (beyond the fact that I'd be reluctant to take tactical advice from a Kommiefornian, anyhow) - every one of the failures mentioned in the video can be directly traced to the unique crippling required by California law. The follower is getting stuck and breaking against the rivet required to limit it's travel. Only happens in California, and the guy ain't bright enough to realize that, or that he should move to a Free State.
One more video, for effect and with feeling:
Now to the bottom line - Lancer mags are retailing for, usually, between $14.99 and $16.99 each at the time of this writing. Some outliers will go as low as $12.99 each, others as high as $17.99 each. If you buy in bulk, you can get deals if you hunt for them - I found a bulk pack at $10.30 each, which is like getting the top two mags free at the going prices.
If you run an AR platform, get 'em while you can. I feel a more general "large capacity ammunition feeding device" ban coming in lieu of an outright "Assault Weapons" ban, and what you already have doesn't have to come from the black market after the evil day comes - you already have them in hand.
God help the poor bastard that tries to take 'em. He'd better be able to duck rapidly, and 30X however many mags you already have.
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’