Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Monkeyleg on December 23, 2013, 02:44:43 PM
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There's a company called Port City Armory that contacted me weeks back about selling their new magazines. I asked if I could get a couple to evaluate.
It looks like they're trying to compete with Magpul. Plastic mags with plastic follower and steel spring (not stainless like Magpul). They seem to be decently made, although I wonder if the follower works as well as those on Pmag's. The baseplate comes off more easily than Pmag's, which is nice (I had to disassemble a lot of Pmags months back, and it's a pain).
Anyway, if someone here does a lot of AR shooting, and would want to give a mag a torture test, I'd be glad to send it. I'd like to get some feedback on how well the mags work.
Just let me know.
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20rd or 30rd?
I'm overdue for some High Power service rifle shooting. Been about 10 months since I've shot in a match, and Washington's Birthday match is coming up. I need to spend several weekends at the range here in January.
But, I can really only use 20rd mags for service rifle.
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I will be happy to test it. Will PM you in a little while.
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Just built a new AR so I will need to do some sighting and practice with it (and the old one that is donating the Eotech to live on the new one). I would be happy to use and abuse one side by side with a pmag if it would help. Probably wont put thousands of rounds through it in a week, though.
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I've got a 13 year old that loves to shoot the AR. How's that for a torture tester ??
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http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=42388.0 (http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=42388.0)
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http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=42388.0 (http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=42388.0)
Duh. For some reason I was thinking he'd contacted me directly via email, and forgot it was through the forum.
I still wouldn't mind having someone torture test them, though. See if it's possible to get a feed jam.
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Do I need to send pictures of everything my 13 year has broken? I swear that whatever isn't falling apart around here is being actively destroyed.
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I'd do it, but I've only got the 1k of 5.56 I'm sitting on. I think a proper "torture test" would take more than I've got or could afford to replace right now.
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Well, everyone could send what they think they can spare to me and I'd take one for the team to do a torture test! =D
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Should have asked last year. Between classes and fun, I went through several thousand rounds of 5.56. This year I don't think I'll hit 1,000. =|
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Here's an idea...we get a mag or two and pass them around the APS world. Everybody shoots with the mags, writes up their impressions, and passes it on to the next guy so we get a good high roundcount without any one of us having to drop a huge amount of money on ammo.
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That's a fine idea. I'm sitting on a few thousand rounds of .223 but the only I want to expend is about 350 rounds of Tula, barely enough to get a gun warmed up. Best torture test I know is mag drills on a concrete indoor range, I've sent a few Glock mags off to polymer nirvana.
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Some good threads on PMAG testing.
I'm usually not a fan of "torture testing" (I think the term is overused and often the testing can be lame" but this is a very good example of extensive magazine review, testing, and testing to destruction.
http://www.weaponevolution.com/forum/showthread.php?22-MAGPUL-PMAG
http://www.weaponevolution.com/forum/showthread.php?312-PMAGs-Tested-Past-Destruction....
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I'd be game for a turn doing that, have a few hundred rounds I'd run through it. I'd even give it the 5.45x39 test.
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I bought 4 since they were cheap. I have been planning to use them while I shoot groups with 2 or 3 different uppers. I expect they will do okay with that. I also currently have a bump fire stock on my 5.45 rifle. I have been meaning to move it to an AR so I can dump my new Surefire 60 round mag once or twice. I need to see how much of the cheap steel case 223 I have left.
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Not me personally at the moment, but I have a coworker who is a competitve shooter and shoots thousands of rounds through his AR a month. Between him and his buddies, probably a thousand a week. I'd pass them on to him, but I won't see him till next week.
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You could say that, also very fast AR shooting. =D
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1329.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw560%2Fmikeb01%2Fm162_zps5ee29d3f.jpg&hash=852e35e333a64fc01466481b417dded2b52d8ebd)
Yes, it has da switch. It isn't pretty, but it runs like a swiss watch. I'd be happy to test FA function with those mags if you'd like.
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OK. Mike B looks like a good candidate for one. I'll send two to Boomhauer, who can then send them to whoever wants to be next for burning through some ammo.
Let's see if we can't break these things. ;)
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Add me to the list, especially if they want cold-weather testing.
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If this turns into a pass-around I wouldn't mind getting a chance to try it out too.
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Add me to the list.
"Here Robert, don't break this...."
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
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I'm in too for a pass around deal.
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Me too!
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Just saw this... Awesome! I'm very confident you'll like them, and they've been extensively tested in FA (one video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snFHBvqE-e0). They've also been run through Tavors and SCARs with happy results. A couple rounds of 6.8 spc have been reported to work fine, though I haven't personally tried it. I'd be very curious to see what happens with 300 blk. Also, if you'd like to take video of your reviews, I'd love to add them to our website and youtube channel.
One thing I would like to correct is that they do have a 17-7 stainless spring.
We're rather proud of how that baseplate works. I'm glad you like it.
The one (somewhat reasonable) way I've been able to break one is to force a few more than capacity in to it. At that point, either the feed lips or the follower/baseplate assembly has to give to fit the next round, but you'll be able to feel that something is wrong when you do it.
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I'm in for the pass around, and I'll even do some torture testing (dropping full mag, etc) with it for grins.
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Dick,
Besides the testing units do you have any for sale?
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For the pass around, would you each mind keeping a rough tally of how many rounds through each one? Perhaps number them to keep them separate?
As to the loaded dropping on the feed lips... If you do it enough times and just right, they'll eventually develop a crack along the spine (I'd be happy to explain why if there's interest), but they'll feed fine as long as you can insert it in the mag well before rounds pop out (with a really really big crack).
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Will do, Mangle. This should be interesting. I'll get them out this week.
Cordex, I don't have any yet to sell. Just the samples that Mangle sent.
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Are there 10 rounders for those of us stuck in California?
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... I'd be very curious to see what happens with 300 blk. ...
I have an upper for 300blk, for some reason ($$$ to smiles didn't quite seem worth it for the cost of 300blk) haven't put in on the lower with the fun switch yet. This sounds like a good reason to try that. =D
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For the pass around, would you each mind keeping a rough tally of how many rounds through each one? Perhaps number them to keep them separate?
As to the loaded dropping on the feed lips... If you do it enough times and just right, they'll eventually develop a crack along the spine (I'd be happy to explain why if there's interest), but they'll feed fine as long as you can insert it in the mag well before rounds pop out (with a really really big crack).
Yes, I'm going to keep a round count and we're going to mark the mags to keep them separate.
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I'm curious to see how they'll handle the sub-zero temps in my neck of the woods.
We're forecast for -11 degrees this coming Thursday. Stuff likes to break at those temperatures, whether plastic or metal.
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No 10 rounders yet, unfortunately. We'll start looking at that as well as 20s when the industry picks up again, but we have something completely different occupying our attention at the moment.
For 300BLK, I'm a little concerned about space in the front on the sides... There's a lot of margin there for a .223/5.56, but we didn't look at 300BLK when doing the initial design. If they fit, I have little doubt they'll work.
My little brother had them out in sub-zero temps a few days ago in Wisconsin and didn't have problems with a few hundred rounds, but I'd like to hear other reports. We've left them loaded in trunks at temps between 105 and -15 without problems.
I'm quite excited to hear how they do when passed around.
*edit* People have had success shooting 5 rounds of 6.8 SPC at a time out of them, but I really can't recommend doing that, as the case is different.
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We should try some 6.8 SPC too!
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Or 6.5 Grendel.
(Supposed to work fine with standard 5.56mm NATO mags)
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Or 6.5 Grendel.
(Supposed to work fine with standard 5.56mm NATO mags)
You might want to double check that. You can only load a couple before it starts to jam. CPD makes Grendel specific mags if you need them.
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Or 6.5 Grendel.
(Supposed to work fine with standard 5.56mm NATO mags)
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1.kym-cdn.com%2Fentries%2Ficons%2Foriginal%2F000%2F006%2F759%2Fboth.png&hash=7104731b8af224d9666bde7117cfa7351c2d705e)
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Poopstains.
I thought only the 6.8 SPC had to have special magazines, hence my tooling up for a 6.5 Grendel.
Bummer.
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Poopstains.
I thought only the 6.8 SPC had to have special magazines, hence my tooling up for a 6.5 Grendel.
Bummer.
Nope, if you want a larger bullet in standard mags, check out the 6x45, 6.5TCU,or 300BO.
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Recommended testing procedures:
1) Lead Cloud Tests- Fire lots of bullets, record results
2) Drop Tests - Loaded, unloaded dropping of magazines from recorded heights, and then fire.
3) Destructive Tests - Hit with a hammer, hit with a mallet, run over with a car, bullet through magazine, static weight on magazine, intentional cracking in various locations, etc
4) Heat Tests - Heat and fire until destruction
5) Cold Tests - Chill and fire until destruction
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I just aquired an AR earlier today. I'll be happy to add my name to the list and give them the FNG test :lol:
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I used one of those mags doing 5 shot groups Sunday. No issues feeding. It wasn't exactly a torture test though. A couple weird things: it as a squared off follow on top and the first time I loaded it the first couple rounds didn't want to slide over to the correct side for staggered loading. Just had to help it along a little. Not an issue after first two rounds, just never noticed that before with other mags. The other item is that back wall of the mag is a bit thick and I had to make sure to load the round forward and drag it back to the back of the mag as I loaded. Neither issue is significant I felt, just different. No feeding issues with light duty. I coun't that as good for mags that were a good bit cheaper than magpul.
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No 10 rounders yet, unfortunately. We'll start looking at that as well as 20s when the industry picks up again, but we have something completely different occupying our attention at the moment.
If possible it would be nice to have the 30 round bodies offered but have them converted on the inside to 10 rounds, and offer replacement springs to convert them back to standard size. That way people like me, I'm in the Navy and stationed in California, can use them legally here but when we travel back home to a free state or get stationed somewhere else we can turn them back into being able to hold 30 rounds. I believe the mag parts kits are no longer able to be sold here with everything together but you can simply order them seperately just fine.
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I just like 20's because they are shorter and easier to shoot off a rest. Reliable 40 rounders would be great also.
Thankfully, I don't have any legal issues to deal with here.
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I used one of those mags doing 5 shot groups Sunday. No issues feeding. It wasn't exactly a torture test though. A couple weird things: it as a squared off follow on top and the first time I loaded it the first couple rounds didn't want to slide over to the correct side for staggered loading. Just had to help it along a little. Not an issue after first two rounds, just never noticed that before with other mags.
Something we'll look at. I've never had the problem, but to be honest, most of the time I load them with a lula speed loader.
The other item is that back wall of the mag is a bit thick and I had to make sure to load the round forward and drag it back to the back of the mag as I loaded.
Interesting. I'm in the habit of tapping the mag on the spine after loading it with the speed loader, but we've tested extensively with the rounds pushed as far forward as they go with no effect on feeding.
Neither issue is significant I felt, just different. No feeding issues with light duty. I coun't that as good for mags that were a good bit cheaper than magpul.
Awesome! Thanks! Please let me know if you ever do have a malfunction.
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Take it for what it is worth. I figured you would want to hear picky feedback. Your mags functioned well.
I would buy your mag any day over the likes of Pro-Mag. They set the bar pretty low IMO. I still can't believe stores like Academy stock mags from that company.
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Take it for what it is worth. I figured you would want to hear picky feedback. Your mags functioned well.
I would buy your mag any day over the likes of Pro-Mag. They set the bar pretty low IMO. I still can't believe stores like Academy stock mags from that company.
We're very happy to receive picky feedback. Thanks for posting it. The part about being able to capture the first round on either side is the kind of thing we'll make sure to address.
And really... If you ever have a malfunction of any sort related to the magazine, a report on that would be quite valuable to me.
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I'm in for the pass around, and I can do a .300blk test on it.
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Update on my testing.
A couple of weeks ago I put 2 magazines of plain Jane knock off M193 through the loaner magazine Monkeyleg sent me and it worked fine. The cold drove me away from the range.
Heading out tomorrow and will do a little more shooting. Figured I'd try some 5.45x39. I'm loading the magazine now, but was only able to get 21 rounds into it and the last 5 were very hard to load. Feels like the magazine is trying to bulge a little, but it still fits in the magazine well. Of course, it is not made for commie ammo so that is not a gig.
I'll shoot off the 21 rounds loaded, but probably won't try 5.45 again. I have a bunch more .223 and 5.56 to take tomorrow.
Ultimately it will be tested through 3 different AR's - Stock Stag Arms, mix master lower with a BCM middy LW upper, and a mix master lower and a spikes 5.45 upper.
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Never had a malfunction, even with the 5.45x39 stuffed in it trying to make it bulge.
Ran 21 rds of 5.45x39
90 rds of wolf 223
120 rds of a couple of different varieties of 5.56 and 223 brass cased
Who wants this next? Claim it here and PM me your address!
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A whole pile n(at least 300rds) of 5.56 through mine. Numerous drops onto the concrete range floor. Left outside during -F weather. Dropped on concrete in that weather.
Disassembled and re-assembled by a 13 year old many, many, many times.
Sitting here with Cordex's address on it. No box, just tape to hold the address label on it. We'll see who well it goes through handling by the USPS.
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Sitting here with Cordex's address on it. No box, just tape to hold the address label on it. We'll see who well it goes through handling by the USPS.
Ha! That'll be a conversation starter when it gets to the office.
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Not till I get some thaw going in my neck of the woods, then I'm game to run a bunch of rounds through one or two of those mags.
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Shoulda paid attention to this thread a couple weeks ago. Just went through a Known Distance Appleseed shoot with my AR. 400 rounds in cold, wet (lakes on the range wet), muddy conditions.
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Very cool!
Again, please let me know if you have any sort of ftf. The feed lip geometry is quite different from others out there. We have thousands of rounds through these without failure, but we still have our eyes open.
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Scout's magazine arrived. True to his word he put my address and a couple of wraps of tape on it before shipping it my way. USPS didn't seem to add much damage. I see a scuff on the spine (presumably from the drop on concrete), what looks like a light and very straight scrape along the starboard side and that's about it. No real visible wear on feed lips and very little on the follower. If I had pulled it out of factory packaging instead of peeling off packing tape I wouldn't have thought it had been used.
Seems solid and I like the way it takes down.
Will reserve other comments until I have played with it a bit.
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Sitting here with Cordex's address on it. No box, just tape to hold the address label on it. We'll see who well it goes through handling by the USPS.
Didn't know we were doing the Samsonite luggage test.
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Scout's magazine arrived. True to his word he put my address and a couple of wraps of tape on it before shipping it my way. USPS didn't seem to add much damage. I see a scuff on the spine (presumably from the drop on concrete), what looks like a light and very straight scrape along the starboard side and that's about it. No real visible wear on feed lips and very little on the follower. If I had pulled it out of factory packaging instead of peeling off packing tape I wouldn't have thought it had been used.
Seems solid and I like the way it takes down.
Will reserve other comments until I have played with it a bit.
I would have LOVED pictures of this. Please continue the tradition if you mail it to someone else.
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I would have LOVED pictures of this. Please continue the tradition if you mail it to someone else.
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FK9XdZZr.png%3F1&hash=7c5e8edacde07bc5fbfadf6ac06b9164f1c0b6b2)
The tracking sticker was on the back.
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The tracking sticker was on the back.
Too much tape. I would have just taped on the address and postage. =D
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Haha. That's awesome. Please keep it up.
Any comments about annoyances, ergos, etc?
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Too much tape. I would have just taped on the address and postage. =D
I wanted to make sure the address label stayed on as even the tape didn't want to stick all that well (hence a 360owrap along the two axis). The postage and tracking label were on the outside of the tape.
As to performance, it worked as advertised despite being dropped numerous time and left out on the back porch during several days of below 0F temps.
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I wonder if it would pass the dog test? Maddie likes to chew...
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I wonder if it would pass the dog test? Maddie likes to chew...
Just make sure you rinse it off before the next guy gets it.
Sent via tapatalk
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Just make sure you rinse it off before the next guy gets it.
Sent via tapatalk
Or don't. >:D
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Please put me in the rotation.
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Please put me in the rotation.
I'll send you the one I have. Pretty sure I have your address in my PM's somewhere.
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Cool. I figure since I just made some changes to my carbine, I'll shoot a couple hundred rounds through it and *expletive deleted*ck with it while I have it. Maybe spray the *expletive deleted*it out of it with clp, load it with wolf, and then torture it for a while.
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I wonder if it would pass the dog test? Maddie likes to chew...
That would be the ultimate toture test.
Go for it and then send it to Jamis. Dog drool and all. :laugh:
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That would be the ultimate toture test.
Go for it and then send it to Jamis. Dog drool and all. :laugh:
That actually is the plan >:D
I plan to 1up your shipping picture.
Maybe this can be a thing? canine stippling!
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Bring it.
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This may get interesting... Nick Leghorn has a couple for review at TTAG and Jim Clark has shown up at a few 3-gun comps with them recently.
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Are the mags still being passed around?
Also, we got a mini-review in American Rifleman this month (July issue). Take a look at page 30!
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi360.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Foo41%2Fmangle_07%2Fpage30July2014issueAmerRiflemanColor.jpg&hash=c3d1e020b0e1a80be251aaad6e0797387e895933)
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I'll look for that.
I have continued to use mine at the range 3 or 4 more times. Never had an issue.
The bottom is dropping out of some of some of the pricing though. I saw an email with $6.99 D&H aluminum mags.
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Yep, Just like with AR's. Supply meet demand. Now we just need that to happen to .22LR ammo.
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If I ever get it, I'll give it to some of our mechanics who can break an anvil just by being in the same zipcode.
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I still have one. No problems yet. I am holding on to it for an upcoming shoot where I will let a few friends try it in their rifles but will pass it along after that.
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Who ended up with these?
And Monkeyleg, Do you have them for sale yet?
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Who ended up with these?
I still have one. Anyone looking to play with it?