NEAT AR-15 magazine!

[HankB]

What struck me as most interesting is the ability to rapidly unload a magazine.  I'm not too terribly concerned with load speed, or I'd have a buttload of stripper clips.  Emptying a mag is a PITA though.

Get yourself a LULA. It greatly facilitates loading, and one can unload a standard 30 round mag in well under 10 seconds. For around $20, it's one of the most cost-effective AR accessories around.

[Manedwolf]

Wouldn't you load your magazines before battle? I can't imagine anybody going into battle with a box of ammo.

I would expect so, but people never empty their mags in unexpected urban combat and need more, while taking cover? Why there's bandoliers of stripper clips? I would think that happens at least once in a while. Then there's police use.

This thing was very loud. Personally, I would not want the thing that says "I am reloading, my weapon is inoperable at the moment" to make a lot of noise like that. YMMV.

[AZRedhawk44]

I would expect so, but people never empty their mags in unexpected urban combat and need more, while taking cover? Why there's bandoliers of stripper clips?

Do soldiers carry stripper-clipped ammo into combat any more if equipped with a magazine fed rifle?

Maybe some eastern European peasant patrols armed with SKS's... but somehow I doubt there are US Army/Marine troops that carry a dozen AR mags and then also clipped ammo.

Another use:  Your platoon is taking heavy casualties and you have a lot of half-empty magazines lying on the ground... ammo is running low.  Easier to re-consolidate the ammo with this type of magazine than the standard type.

I may get one or two to try out... They're $20 over at ammunitiontogo.  I'm definitely not finding any P-Mags anywhere. :rolleyes:

[MechAg94]

I wouldn't call it a smear campaign.

I'd say that Magpul oopsed, and had to do some hasty QC to fix their injection molding problem.

All the reports I've read since then state that they've made good on the bad mags.

However, it doesn't instill a lot of confidence in some folks, myself included.

Then again, I've been stockpiling new aluminum USGI mags since well before Y2K. 

I forget which forum it was on, but I saw an explanation from a Magpul guy that the damage was caused by droping a loaded mag on the feed lips that causes all the loaded rounds to put pressure on the end of the mag.  It may have been in cold conditions also.  I forget.  He said they strengthened that area.  What he also said was that you could still use the damaged mags, they were just cracked.  He also said aluminum mags would be unusable if the same thing was done to them.  

Just passing that on.  

[Marvin Dao]

This thing was very loud. Personally, I would not want the thing that says "I am reloading, my weapon is inoperable at the moment" to make a lot of noise like that. YMMV.

If you're reloading any magazine from a box of loose ammo during combat, you've done something really wrong in the planning phase. In any case, the EasyMag can be loaded from stripper clips like any USGI mag.

[Jamisjockey]

If you're reloading any magazine from a box of loose ammo during combat, you've done something really wrong in the planning phase. In any case, the EasyMag can be loaded from stripper clips like any USGI mag.

AKA "blackhawk down"?  Those boys ran low and out of ammo, since they expected it to be a quick in/out mission.

I know were I tossed into a combat situation, under modern conditions of war, I'd probably hump a couple extra boxes of ammo on stripper clips.  It doesn't take that long to top off or fill up magazines.

[AZRedhawk44]

I'd probably hump a couple extra boxes of ammo on stripper clips.

Why mess with stripper clips in the field?  The bulk of the weight of a spare magazine is the ammo in it... Why not just carry another magazine or six?

(That being said... these EasyMags are steel... making them MUCH heavier than a P-Mag.)

[Matthew Carberry]

If your resupply team is really on the ball, they don't drop a crate of ammo into a hot zone, they drop a crate of loaded mags.

However, for military use you aren't going to be alone making "loading mag sounds" if you are pinned down and need to reload mags in a fight.  You will be with your team or squad or platoon and one or two guys (perhaps the wounded) will be frantically loading while the rest of you are maintaining security or shooting back.

[Boomhauer]

Oh, and the Easymag can come open while inserted in the magwell (even though it's not supposed to), quickly unloading your rounds onto the ground...

A LULA costs $25 and works on every mag, too.

Get on the backorder list for PMAGs somewhere if you need mags...or get some aluminum GI mags where you can.

[Manedwolf]

I have all Pmags and Bravo Company D&H aluminums, and a couple "you suck and we hate you brand", aka HK High Reliability.

You want gimmicky, though...

Command Arms Accessories have designed an interesting AR magazine called the the CountDown Magazine (CDMAG). It displays a self-illuminated round count indicator that as well as showing the number of rounds it also changes color. 20 - 30 rounds have a green background, 10 -19 have a yellow background and less than 10 have a red background

Someone see "Aliens" too many times?

[Boomhauer]

Command Arms Accessories is at the bottom of the barrel of quality. There magazines are on the same level as ProMag and National Magazine crap.

Ugh.

[Manedwolf]

Command Arms Accessories is at the bottom of the barrel of quality. There magazines are on the same level as ProMag and National Magazine crap.

Ugh.

Oh, I know. CAA is the Mall Ninja Xtreme displays at shows. That just amused me. If someone was serious about that, they'd just put a simple piezo impulse counter at the top of the magwell that could talk to an EOtech or the like and show Rounds Remaining in the corner. Keep it simple, if you have all 30rd mags that aren't downloaded at all, set it for "30", and let it reset each time the mag is changed.

[Balog]

The idea of reloading from stripper clips in combat.... 

HK is hardly my favorite company, but those heavy ass black steel mags are about as reliable as any AR mag can be. Never tried a Pmag so no opinion on them.

[Boomhauer]

HK is hardly my favorite company, but those heavy ass black steel mags are about as reliable as any AR mag can be. Never tried a Pmag so no opinion on them.

Actually, those HK mags have some issues of their own...rusting, feedlips will bend, way heavy, way overpriced.

[Balog]

Actually, those HK mags have some issues of their own...rusting, feedlips will bend, way heavy, way overpriced.

If you let your mags rust you're doing it wrong. I find it hard to believe the steel mags feedlips bend easier than aluminum. They are heavy; I think I mentioned that? I was issued mine, so price isn't a big deal. Like I said pmags may be better, but against the normal GI issue ones the HK's are hands down better.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Someone see "Aliens" too many times?

That'd be a darned-cool range toy.  How much?

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

If you let your mags rust you're doing it wrong. I find it hard to believe the steel mags feedlips bend easier than aluminum. They are heavy; I think I mentioned that? I was issued mine, so price isn't a big deal. Like I said pmags may be better, but against the normal GI issue ones the HK's are hands down better.

I think all metal feed lips will bend pretty easily.  I've seen steel 308 mag get nasty'd up simply from being dropped on a hard surface.  One of the things I like about Pmags is that they can't bend.

[Boomhauer]

I think all metal feed lips will bend pretty easily.  I've seen steel 308 mag get nasty'd up simply from being dropped on a hard surface.  One of the things I like about Pmags is that they can't bend.

Right. PMAGs will function with pieces of the lips broken off.

[Balog]

Why do people keep bringing up Pmags in a discussion about GI vs HK mags?

[Gewehr98]

Dunno, really.

I've got some 20-round AR/NATO mags that are steel, I think they're British, but if I beat the snot out of them I'll wager I could probably bend the feed lips on those, too.   

[zahc]

So the pmags are actually good? This would be the opposite of 10/22 land where plastic-lipped magazines tend to be junk.

let it reset each time the mag is changed.

I understand that the impulse counter could be an elegant way to count the number of rounds fired, but I'm scratching my head wondering how the device could know when you change magazines.

[Balog]

Dunno, really.

I've got some 20-round AR/NATO mags that are steel, I think they're British, but if I beat the snot out of them I'll wager I could probably bend the feed lips on those, too.   

Yeah, I hate the GI ones because the ones I was issues had about a 1/4-1/3 failure rate.  :| Old and crappy they were, but it still doesn't inspire confidence in me for em. Of course I don't really like AR's or 5.56 so a bit of a moot point for me.... 

[MechAg94]

So the pmags are actually good? This would be the opposite of 10/22 land where plastic-lipped magazines tend to be junk.
I understand that the impulse counter could be an elegant way to count the number of rounds fired, but I'm scratching my head wondering how the device could know when you change magazines.

Yes, as far as I am concerned they are excellent.  In some ways they are better than GI mags.  After some years in use, I haven't heard of any issues aside from things that would damage GI mags also. 

That said, I still have plenty of aluminum mags so if all my Pmags suddenly fall apart, I'm okay.  :)

[crt360]

Since the thread has as already veered:

This would be the opposite of 10/22 land where plastic-lipped magazines tend to be junk.

I bought some of the 10rd Butler Creek Hot Lips on a sale quite a few years back.  I didn't expect much from them, but I've never had a feed problem with them in thousands of rounds.  One did develop a crack in the red lip plastic, but still works fine.  I still prefer the compactness of the Ruger rotary mags.

[Gewehr98]

I went hawg-wild with the Ruger rotary mags.  They've since come out with clear versions, but they all have the integral metal feed ramps.

The Butler Creek Steel Lips mags work pretty well, if you can find them. 

I'm wondering why, if Bulgarian Waffle AK mags were so easy to produce and sell with molded-in steel bits in all the right places, why we can't do so with a polymer AR mag.