hueyville
Member
This is going to sound like paid advertising but the people are real and the events are factual. Only some names may have been changed to protect the innocent. Grab a cup o Joe like I did, sit back in your easy chair and since it is a day of relaxation I will spin this story in full.
Back in the 1980's I worked as a civillian contractor instructing mountaineering and rock climbing to the Army Rangers at Camp Frank D. Merrill. Maybe Pappy Pavlov & a few of the cadre from back then are in these dusty halls round here. I guess statues of limitations is up so here is the deal. One day I noticed a drum of AR magazines sitting with the range brass going to the local recycle facility. They said they were ones that gave trouble. Since I purchased most of their brass from the scrap metal yard they sold it to I made it a point to keep my eyes sharp.
Sure enough a couple weeks later that drum of magazines was sitting in the mixed scrap section. I purchased them all and the drums of brass too. Being a reloader drums of 5.56 and 7.62 Lake City at scrap metal prices were always a good buy. Took it all to work and unloaded on the dock. Actually rolled the magazines inside. Most of them just needed a little maintenance and made great give aways when friends would buy their first AR. Quite a few never worked right and even though they were just trash ex G.I. 30 round mags I never got around to throwing them away.
Those of you that lurk in the reloading area here have read where I am remodeling my gun room. When the wife and I bought the house 19+ years ago i was too impatient to fix up my room so in went the.benches, vaults, cabinets and racks. Recently decided my room in the basement was too shabby cause wife didn't like hanging out while I loaded anymore. So I drug everything into my indoor rock climbing gym which put both shooting and training out of commission. I pulled out the ceiling tiles & painted them, painted the walls, installed new lighting, upgraded my automatic fire suppression equipment, epoxy coated the floor with the little multi-colored specks that are popular now, etc.
So as I am putting everything back I am opening some boxes that have not been opened since packing them to move here. It has been better than a dozen Christmases wrapped into one. Especially with the current situation. I have "found" hundreds of magazines, cases of primers, even an 8 pound keg of powder I had forgotten, etc. Three of the boxes were slam full of the remnants of the drum of AR mags. Each box had around 30 of the poor neglected 30 round G.I. magazines. Biggest issue with them from the beginning was just a cleanliness issue but most did show wear on the anodizing.
I picked out a couple dozen, wiped them off and ran a few rounds through each. It was such a miserable task but I suffered through an afternoon of dirtying up a couple of AR's. The mags were mostly unreliable to the point I would not trust off the bad guys had me surrounded. Tuesday I noticed one of the shelves at one of the local gun stores had these cute little packages of Magpul "self leveling magazine followers" for AR mags. Also had these other really cute thingymabobs called "Ranger Plates" to replace bent up floor plates and looked all spiffy with a rubber pad to protect the little magazines when they go bump on the ground.
I bought a dozen of each and Friday night I pulled the 12 worst looking mags of the lot. These puppies were ugly mongrels. I disassembled all, cleaned them, light coat of "ice wax" and reassembled with the new followers and floor plates. I loaded them all up and made a trip to one of my ranges. Every single magazine functioned flawlessly through multiple AR's. I purposely tried to trip them up with bullets stuffed in carelessly, didn't give them a good tap to ensure seated properly and so on. No matter what ammo, what gun, how I treated them they are stinking perfect and 110% reliable.
I am pleased as punch with these Magpul products. Now the trick is to get at least 100 sets before the locals figure it out or the price goes up. Every AR magazine I have is going to get this setup. So what I thought were total losses now are a bonus lot of over 100 high cap mags in a day when folks have put the run on new ones. Rather than worry if a dozen good mags per rifle is enough, I have around 30 per rifle not counting all the Colt branded 20 founders have been hoarding for years. Kudos to the Magpul family. Thanx guys.
Back in the 1980's I worked as a civillian contractor instructing mountaineering and rock climbing to the Army Rangers at Camp Frank D. Merrill. Maybe Pappy Pavlov & a few of the cadre from back then are in these dusty halls round here. I guess statues of limitations is up so here is the deal. One day I noticed a drum of AR magazines sitting with the range brass going to the local recycle facility. They said they were ones that gave trouble. Since I purchased most of their brass from the scrap metal yard they sold it to I made it a point to keep my eyes sharp.
Sure enough a couple weeks later that drum of magazines was sitting in the mixed scrap section. I purchased them all and the drums of brass too. Being a reloader drums of 5.56 and 7.62 Lake City at scrap metal prices were always a good buy. Took it all to work and unloaded on the dock. Actually rolled the magazines inside. Most of them just needed a little maintenance and made great give aways when friends would buy their first AR. Quite a few never worked right and even though they were just trash ex G.I. 30 round mags I never got around to throwing them away.
Those of you that lurk in the reloading area here have read where I am remodeling my gun room. When the wife and I bought the house 19+ years ago i was too impatient to fix up my room so in went the.benches, vaults, cabinets and racks. Recently decided my room in the basement was too shabby cause wife didn't like hanging out while I loaded anymore. So I drug everything into my indoor rock climbing gym which put both shooting and training out of commission. I pulled out the ceiling tiles & painted them, painted the walls, installed new lighting, upgraded my automatic fire suppression equipment, epoxy coated the floor with the little multi-colored specks that are popular now, etc.
So as I am putting everything back I am opening some boxes that have not been opened since packing them to move here. It has been better than a dozen Christmases wrapped into one. Especially with the current situation. I have "found" hundreds of magazines, cases of primers, even an 8 pound keg of powder I had forgotten, etc. Three of the boxes were slam full of the remnants of the drum of AR mags. Each box had around 30 of the poor neglected 30 round G.I. magazines. Biggest issue with them from the beginning was just a cleanliness issue but most did show wear on the anodizing.
I picked out a couple dozen, wiped them off and ran a few rounds through each. It was such a miserable task but I suffered through an afternoon of dirtying up a couple of AR's. The mags were mostly unreliable to the point I would not trust off the bad guys had me surrounded. Tuesday I noticed one of the shelves at one of the local gun stores had these cute little packages of Magpul "self leveling magazine followers" for AR mags. Also had these other really cute thingymabobs called "Ranger Plates" to replace bent up floor plates and looked all spiffy with a rubber pad to protect the little magazines when they go bump on the ground.
I bought a dozen of each and Friday night I pulled the 12 worst looking mags of the lot. These puppies were ugly mongrels. I disassembled all, cleaned them, light coat of "ice wax" and reassembled with the new followers and floor plates. I loaded them all up and made a trip to one of my ranges. Every single magazine functioned flawlessly through multiple AR's. I purposely tried to trip them up with bullets stuffed in carelessly, didn't give them a good tap to ensure seated properly and so on. No matter what ammo, what gun, how I treated them they are stinking perfect and 110% reliable.
I am pleased as punch with these Magpul products. Now the trick is to get at least 100 sets before the locals figure it out or the price goes up. Every AR magazine I have is going to get this setup. So what I thought were total losses now are a bonus lot of over 100 high cap mags in a day when folks have put the run on new ones. Rather than worry if a dozen good mags per rifle is enough, I have around 30 per rifle not counting all the Colt branded 20 founders have been hoarding for years. Kudos to the Magpul family. Thanx guys.