Troy Battlemag failure*. (pictures included)

[Beaux Nehr]

I purchased a Troy battlemag, and it looks like they have a serious design/production flaw. It's a shame, because I've always been a huge fan of the products Troy industries puts out.

A.) It is packaged with a large rubber bumper installed in the base of the magazine. That bumper is poorly thought out, as pushing it in is the first step in magazine disassembly. It just looked whacky, too.
I.) To replace the large whacky bumper with a flat piece, you have to disassemble the magazine. I don't know if I was just being a huge dork that day, but I had a hell of a time installing the flat bumper. Also, in doing so, I noticed that the body of the magazine was easily fatigued, and turned white in certain stress points where the bumper clicked in.

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w361/Stone_Phillips/P1070041.jpg

note the stress around the tabs where the bumper clicks in
http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w361/Stone_Phillips/P1070040.jpg

B.) The Battlemag lacks certain pearls that other polymer magazines do have. most importantly: the seam along the spine of the magazine extends from the base all the way to the rear of the feed lips. Looking closely at a Magpul Pmag, I noticed that a small circle where the seam appears to have been "welded" shut eliminates weakpoint.

Pmag seam which has a circular "weld":

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w361/Stone_Phillips/P1070047.jpg
http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w361/Stone_Phillips/P1070043.jpg
http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w361/Stone_Phillips/P1070044.jpg
http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w361/Stone_Phillips/P1070045.jpg



I consider this to be a fatal flaw in the design of the Troy battlemag.
I loaded 31 rounds into my Troy mag at the range on accident, which I later discovered caused the seam to split behind the feed lips. It isn't difficult to seat a 31st round, and the split is only a millimeter or so in length. I noticed the split when the magazine started to rub in the magazine well.

notice the crack near the rear of the feedlips:
http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w361/Stone_Phillips/P1070038.jpg
When the feedlips are pushed together, the split closes up again.
http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w361/Stone_Phillips/P1070039.jpg

The split seems to have caused the seam to cave in a bit, but I can't be sure it wasn't that way before:
http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w361/Stone_Phillips/P1070042.jpg

What I don't understand is why they had the foresight to eliminate the seam in the front of the feedlips, but not the back:
http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w361/Stone_Phillips/P1070050.jpg

Someone at Troy really dropped the ball in the design of this magazine.
They have a bunch of videos on youtube where they shoot their magazines with various rifles, but they seem to have failed to notice that they goofed at the drawing board.

To be fair: this was a user induced failure (but what isn't?). Furthermore, the magazine did function 100% once I had it fully inserted into the mag well. I suspect this was due to the pressure exerted on the feed lips by the mag well, forcing the seam shut. However, I just don't trust this magazine anymore.



P.S.: to the fanboys-

I did try contacting Troy about this issue via their website, but they simply ignored my emails.

 

[Beaux Nehr]

I'm in touch with someone at Troy, and they offered to replace the magazine.
I just need to ship them the busted mag.

I'll keep posting as this progresses.