AR magazine question

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Scoutsout2645

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NJ...How you doin'?
I'm looking to get a few new magazines for my AR and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on manufacturers. I'm looking at Magpul, National Magazines and ProMag--any opinions/experience/criticisms of these products would be greatly appreciated. Additionally, any opinions on polymer vs. steel mags would also be appreciated.
 
Promag = poo
Cproducts = poo

Pmags are good, and Magpul is a great company.

The best deal going on magazines hands down is the Bravo Company GI mags with Magpul followers. Comes out to $11/magazine.
 
If you want the best, go with Magpul. If you want the best available in a classic aluminum mag, use C Products. I've found those to be the most trouble free out of my stack of magazines.
 
a baby angel dies every time someone uses a Cproducts magazine.

Larry has them all stuffed in a sack under his basement.
 
a baby angel dies every time someone uses a Cproducts magazine.

a baby angel dies every time you make an unsupported statement advising against a product with out specifying your reasons to do so.
 
that's no better than an unsupported statement advising for a product without specifying reasons.

i got a great deal on the D&H mags some years ago. I have since bought a bunch of PMAGs as well. My preference is to have some of each.

If I were buying today, I would buy half pmags, half bravo co deal.
 
Scoutsout,

You sig shows you to be a fellow NJ'er so remember our fine politicians, for our own good, have restricted mag capacity to 15 rounds.

All you will be able to buy on line will be 10 rounder as 15 rounders do not exist.......The main online companies will simply refuse to send you anything above 15.

The only 15 rounders I have been able to find, but not purchase as yet have been here.

http://www.ar15.com/lite/topic.html?b=7&f=24&t=376185
 
If someone makes a worse magazine than National, it'd be hard to see how!

ProMags, well I've had more that didn't work than did, but the ones that worked have worked well.

Any of the "military sub-contractor" AR15 mags are generally fine and if not a Magpul anti-tilt follower is usually the cure.

Pmags seem fine, no issues for me so far, but how long have they actually been on the market? will they still be fine in 20 years?

Right now its about two Pmags for the price of three "GI contractor" mags. I like the black Teflon coated CProducts or D&H mags with Magpul followers that Cope's, AIM, and others are selling.

OTOH I've got plenty of used, finish wore off, GI mags that are 20+ years old and still working just fine.

--wally.
 
that's no better than an unsupported statement advising for a product without specifying reasons.
Bingo-bango.

This thread is full of "worthless" frankly. "I use this" and "I use that", so what? Use it for what? How? How often? In what environment? etc.

I am fortunate enough that I attend at least two carbine training classes a year, run a monthly drills night for between 10 and 20 shooters where we fire +/- 200 rounds a month, and run a monthly carbine match for between 15 and 30 shooters where we fire between 100 and 200 rounds a month.

Pmags and the military contract mags are the best things going in magazines right now.

I have orchestrated two group buys of the Bravo Company magazines with the green followers (they weren't doing the Magpuls at the time). That's 200 of these magazines that have come through my hands and are now in the hands of shooters who participate in the above events with me. To date there have been ZERO reported magazine related failures. None.

I have yet to witness a Pmag failing at any of the above events. Because they are the hot new thing, I would say that at least 1/4 of our shooters have been running these magazines at drills and matches over the last year or so. There were some early Pmags that had issues dropping free from some tight magwells, but virtualy all of these have been returned to Magpul or are at least sold out and in the hands of other shooters. If you're buying new stock you will be fine.

I have owned several CProducts magazines. I bought 5 of the stainless steel magazines that wouldn't feed (followers binding) and I bought 5 of the 9mm magazines that wouldn't feed (same problem). Attempts to resolve both of these issues with Larry were less than helpful, and in fact he simply KEPT the returned 9mm magazines and then claimed to have not received them, and then stopped answering my calls. I have also personally witnessed more than a couple (sorry, no hard number here) of the CP magazines fail at matches and drills, mostly due to the same binding follower issue. This leads me to believe that, while the company may produce a decent product, their QC sucks and the chances of getting a bad one are high, and the chances that the owner will do anything to help you after the sale are slim to none.

The bottom line is that with two superior products, the Pmags and BCM D&H mags, there is really NO reason anyone should buy a CP magazine, a Promag, etc. It's really a no-brainer. Do you want a magazine that may or may not work from a company that may or may not make it right, or a magazine that WILL work and in the rare event that it won't its' from a company that WILL make it right (witness the thousands of free magazines Magpul sent out due to the magwell issue).
 
NHMTG, D&H, LaBelle, USGI, Colt, etc.

The best deal I've seen lately is the BCM USGI mags that Rob posted. I was going to get some out of this paycheck but had to throw money at my car, had to use the CC, so now that money is going to Capital One:banghead:

44Mag sometimes lists NIW USGI mags for less than 10 bucks. Havent got any though. Normally when I plan on getting some my wife beats me to that money:banghead:
 
.450 Bushmaster

Speaking of magazines - I just purchased a Bushmaster .450 with a 5 shot magazine. I am advised that this magazine is actually a 20 round mag used in the AR15 .223. I am also told that this magazine has a single stack follower and a bigger spring to make this a "hunting-legal" rifle. Being quite new to the AR world, I have a couple of questions: 1) can one purchase the single stack follower by itself and 2) can I convert this to a .223 by simply changing out the upper? I would also appreciate any insight into the type of sight/scope that is the most popular with AR shooters.
 
I like CProducts mags. I've got 6 30-rounder aluminum mags and they all work just dandy. They came with the MagPul followers, which is good.

Another one I'd recommend is AR Stoner mags from MidwayUSA. I picked up a handful of their 20-round curved body aluminum mags, with the green followers (I like the looks of the curved 20-rounders better than the straight ones, to be honest :)). They have been very reliable, as well. I've got 1 of their 30-round aluminum mags too, which works just fine. They were just on sale for $12 at Midway, but are back up to $17 now. For that money, the PMags would probably be a better way to go... but I can't say for sure, as I've never used them. I honestly just like the looks of grey aluminum... think its classy :)
 
P-Mags are great but a little expensive. C-products with the Magpul followers, from my experience, have also been excellent.

This is what I did, I went and bought a bunch of C-products magazines and then a couple Magpul ones. This seemed like the most reasonable solution since I would still have a few Magpul mags to play with but wouldn't be stuck with only a few magazines due to cost.

I made us of the great aimsurplus sale on C-products. That's the best price that I've seen on the internet. I'd recommend taking advantage of that as well.
 
I've used Pmags without any problems for about 6 months now. Watched other people using them since they came out and haven't seen ANY failures with the Pmags.

Magazine failures used to be fairly common at our local rifle matches. Now that most people are using Pmags I just don't see magazine related failures.

I've used Cporducts stainless steel mags for about 2 1/2 years. Many rifle matches and a 4 day rifle class, all without any problems.

Since they are more delicate than Pmags my Cproducts mags stay loaded and packed away for a rainy day. I use the Pmags for matches and stuff as they are much more abuse resistant than anything else.

BSW
 
as others have reccomended i am a strong advocate of magpul pmags. i also enjoy C products!

BUT. i should say one thing about pmags in my experience with them; while the 30 round pmag magazines feed without issue and are a pleasure to use, the 20 round pmags are a different story.

my 20 rnd pmags, dated 06/08, are manufactured with a different follower than the 30 rnd pmags. and because of this, myself and others have not had good luck using them.

if you disassemble a 20 and 30 round pmag, you will notice the the follower from the 20 round magazine only has one "anti-tilt" leg in the front, while the 30 round follower has them both in the front and back. obviously this would mean the 20 round followers are not made as well and have alot more movement. this is demonstrated by taking a pencil, or bullet tip, and pressing it down on the rear of the follower. it tilts.. alot more than a 30 round pmag, or even a standard C products mag with a magpul 2nd or 3rd gen follower.

for me and many others, this causes a few problems: typically the 2nd to last round would hang up and jam, between the bolt and feed ramp. on top of the fact that the rear of the follower would tilt horribly; and as a result, the bolt catch would often not engage when the magazine is empty.

now, i am not against magpul at all. they are one of my favorite companies i use all of their popular products. but their 20 round pmags are not very impressive and i thought you should all know of their potential design flaws before purchasing them.
 
I own a bunch of Okay mags and have had no problems with any of them. Some are pretty beat up but function perfectly. I bought them in bulk and paid less than $10 a piece.
 
Cproducts mags work well. I have several 20 and 30 rd with the orange follower and no problems to date.

My next order though will be for some Pmags to give them a shot as well.
 
I have tried a few CProducts, and they work, but mostly I use some old 30-round USGI mags which all run fine. Years ago, I replaced the followers with the green ones. They ran fine before, not sure why I did anything, except "everyone" said to make the change. They are "used" for 3-gun matches, so they get dropped and banged some.

On one occasion, I saw a shooter put brand new Pmags in his FNC and the gun did not run, and it worked fine with USGI aluminum. Granted, not an AR, but the FNC takes the same mags. Also, match day is not the time to try a new design of mags, regardless of source. For instance, I have some Thermold mags which run fine in one rifle, but they do not drop free.

Speaking of magazines - I just purchased a Bushmaster .450 with a 5 shot magazine. .... 1) can one purchase the single stack follower by itself and 2) can I convert this to a .223 by simply changing out the upper?
Contact Bushmaster.

Lee
 
Out of the ones you listed go with Magpul. Anyone who has a USGI contract mag is also a good choice.

Cproducts Al mags are garbage. Out of 100 I bought, around 15 were junk. That's around a 15% failure rate. In addition to my issues, several others in my circle have bought CP, and also see around the same failure rate. They did offer to replace them, but most of them were already scrapped by their owners. They did not offer to pay for return shipping either, and for the money I spent, that is the least they could do AFAIC.

I haven't had any problems with a USGI contract mag. There is a reason they have a contract. It's because they work. Don't you think if Cproducts worked, they would also have a contract?

Then there's the issue of alleged theft of proprietary design of the guy who makes the Hahns blocks for 9MM ar's. Ask Cavarms about this accusation.

Also their legendary customy service isn't always that great. There's a guy on arfcom who had a bad experience that is documented and earned them a -1. Most threads of this type just get transfered to CP's own forum, and then deleted. That's why you don't hear about it.

Lastly Cproducts used to go by Creative Products. I was actually billed by Creative Products. A poster on arfcom asked about Creative Products, and was told they were known junk mags from back in the day. Larry also offered to warrenty his old Creative Products mags.

Sure you will probably get your mags replaced if they are bad. Will they pay return shipping? Maybe, maybe not. Do you have the time to test every mag out? Because they don't always crap out right away. I've seen them go bad after quite a few cycles. I don't know about you but my time is far more valuable than that. I'll buy what I know works, and spend a lot less time and ammo testing out the quality mags.

My SS ones do actually work though.
 
Just read the whole thread.

Dead angel comments aside, Rob S. is the only person who posted some real heavy usage experiences with these mags.

My usage is similar to Rob's, but I haven't been able to take many classes lately due to lack of money. I still get out once a month at least and shoot a few hundred rounds. I also have the benefit of around 20-30 regulars who shoot the same or more than me.


Also Magpul donated several hundred Pmags for our championship match. I walked away with 11. They also donated some stocks, and some other things. I still have some USGI mags that I'm wringing out, but after that those go into storage loaded for SHTF, and the Pmags will be getting a workout. Magpul is a standup company from everything I have seen so far.
 
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