AR15 Mag followers: current wisdom?

[Derek Zeanah]

With the election coming up it's probably time to buy more magazines, and Brownells mags have always worked flawlessly. I just don't know how the milspec followers perform versus the Magpul followers.

What's the current advice here? Pepsi vs Coke, or does Magpul still offer better reliability than USGI? If so the extra $1 per magazine seems like a no-brainer, but I've been to schools on the current USGI mags and haven't had a single problem over a few thousand rounds.

What say Y'all?

 

[chicharrones]

I've yet to have a problem with USGI mags that have been made new in the last few years. When I purchased a set of followers recently to fix problematic non GI mags, I did get the yellow MagPul followers. They work fine.

 

[basicblur]

I'm probably way outdated on the newest USGI followers as everything I've bought was either Magpul, USGI with Magpul followers already installed (44 Mag or Bravo, can't remember which), and all my old USGI mags I installed Magpul followers on.

Do the latest USGI milspec followers have the anti-tilt feature?

Probably totally useless to you, but maybe others wandering by may want to save the attached doc - something I threw together when I updated all my ancient USGI mags with Magpul followers.

Well, I tried to upload my Word.doc, but apparently the new site doesn't allow .docs!?

 

[AlexanderA]

I don't know anything about the Magpul followers, but I do know about the GI followers. There are actually 5 generations to be concerned about.

1. The first 30-round magazines to be fielded had dark green followers, stamped on top with a white drawing number. These are considered collectors' items. Hang on to them, because they are becoming valuable.
2. For many years, the issue 30-round magazines had black plastic followers. Occasionally, these would tilt and jam the magazine.
3. The next followers were light green. These were the first anti-tilt followers.
4. These were replaced by tan ones, that were even more reliable. These were the preferred followers until very recently. Orders were issued to scrap all black followers, to retain the light green ones for training purposes, and to exclusively use the tan ones for combat.
5. Just this year, an entirely new magazine, the Enhanced Performance Magazine or EPM, is being introduced. It has a blue follower, which is not interchangeable with the older ones.

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/...performance-magazine-for-m4m16-series-rifles/

 

[Walkalong]

I don't know the answer, but both the Magpul followers in general and the Brownell mags with USGI followers have great reputations. I would be happy with Magpul mags, "USGI" with Magpul followers, or Brownells mags. In fact, I have all three kinds, plus some Lancer mags.

Wish I could be more helpful.

 

[CapnMac]

This thread has given me to consider my AR magazines. And, I have so many USGI that I've never gotten any non USGI ones to compare them too (price was never good enough, either, at least when I was buying).

Does mean I need to cull through my MTM boxes of spare parts, and perhaps update the followers.

 

[GRIZ22]

I'm not being critical of the new follower designs. There must be something to them. However, I've used 20 rd GI magazines made in the 60s with no issues. I think it's more important your rifle is cleaned and lubed properly.

 

[basicblur]

This thread has given me to consider my AR magazines. And, I have so many USGI that I've never gotten any non USGI ones to compare them too (price was never good enough, either, at least when I was buying).

Does mean I need to cull through my MTM boxes of spare parts, and perhaps update the followers.

I had a bunch of USGI mags - bought a bag of the latest generation Magpul followers on eBay (in gray, which was a custom color) and replaced all my followers in my USGI mags.

All my USGI mags would fail the "tilt test", so I replaced 'em all.

 

[basicblur]

I had a bunch of USGI mags - bought a bag of the latest generation Magpul followers on eBay (in gray, which was a custom color) and replaced all my followers in my USGI mags.

All my USGI mags would fail the "tilt test", so I replaced 'em all.

 

[IMtheNRA]

I'd like to add another sub-question to the OP's post, if you don't mind.

While the green GI followers have never failed me in terms of tilting, I had a failure to seat a mag in a recent match which I attribute to my circa-2000 production Colt "restricted" 30 round magazine. The stage called for starting with an empty rifle, bolt closed, then seating a magazine and chambering a round. I was not able to seat the mag because the 30 round column would not compress enough under the bolt carrier to allow the magazine catch to engage. I tried and tried, then finally tossed away the mag and pulled out a 30-rd Gen-2 Magpul, which seated without a problem.

I don't want to retire my collection of aluminum GI mags and I don't want to underload the mags to 29 rounds.

I was wondering if those of you who have switched from green to Magpul followers in GI 30s, saw an improvement when seating a fully loaded magazine in a rifle while the bolt was closed.

 

[1KPerDay]

The aluminum follower on my OEM Colt SP-1 magazine still works fine for me so what do I know. Never had any problem with ANY AR-15 magazine actually.

While the green GI followers have never failed me in terms of tilting, I had a failure to seat a mag in a recent match which I attribute to my circa-2000 production Colt "restricted" 30 round magazine. The stage called for starting with an empty rifle, bolt closed, then seating a magazine and chambering a round. I was not able to seat the mag because the 30 round column would not compress enough under the bolt carrier to allow the magazine catch to engage.

this is why a lot of people load 28 or 29 in mags they will be inserting on a closed bolt.

 

[md7]

Most of my usgi magazines (D&H) came with gray Magpul followers. They've been just fine in my experience.

I've seen several mags with tan followers. They seem to do well also and I'd be ok if that's what I had in mine.

Either would be ok with me.

 

[Old Dog]

I've still got a whole bunch of GI mags with the green followers, and none have failed me -- a few are old Colt mags. But I've got about 20 C-Products and D&H GI mags still in the wrappers, too (gray followers) ... That said, I use mostly PMags, though my inventory includes a few Troy Battle Mags, a couple Lancers, a couple HexMags ... I have never switched out followers in any AR mags, ever; I just try to rotate them so none are subjected to much hard use, abuse or too many round.

Frankly, at this point though, all I'm buying are PMags ... simply trying to standardize.

 

[bfoosh006]

I'd like to add another sub-question to the OP's post, if you don't mind.

While the green GI followers have never failed me in terms of tilting, I had a failure to seat a mag in a recent match which I attribute to my circa-2000 production Colt "restricted" 30 round magazine. The stage called for starting with an empty rifle, bolt closed, then seating a magazine and chambering a round. I was not able to seat the mag because the 30 round column would not compress enough under the bolt carrier to allow the magazine catch to engage. I tried and tried, then finally tossed away the mag and pulled out a 30-rd Gen-2 Magpul, which seated without a problem.

I don't want to retire my collection of aluminum GI mags and I don't want to underload the mags to 29 rounds.

I was wondering if those of you who have switched from green to Magpul followers in GI 30s, saw an improvement when seating a fully loaded magazine in a rifle while the bolt was closed.

Sometimes the follower ( regardless of make ) is slightly to long.

I altered some Lancer followers after they were hard to seat in my lowers.

I just belt sanded the follower's legs a little shorter.

They seat fine now.

I will say.... the followers have a certain length to them because ... if you drop a full mag the length of the legs keeps the rounds from "bouncing" enough to allow a involuntary mag emptying... ie they can unload themselves if the legs don't stop to much bounce.

 

[ColoradoShooter77]

I have 5 of the GI aluminum magazines and switched them all out to magpul followers. They're cheap and its good insurance against mis-feeds.

I have 1 GI magazine with the tan follower, I left that one as-is.

 

[Varminterror]

Match your followers to your mag bodies and you'll be fine. If you're not talking 20rnd mags, it largely doesn't matter much, as the long bodies are built curved to accommodate the tilt - and in the 20's, just line up specs for tilt vs. non-tilt and curved vs. straight and you'll be fine.

I've ran over 2 million rounds in the last 20yrs+ through AR's with hundreds of different mags from a couple dozen makers. Any brand/manufacturer can have bad sheep which need tweaking to run right (or need trashing), but overall, ACS, Magpul, Blackhawk, USGI, Lancer, AR-stoner, Pro-mag, etc etc all run fine.

 

[bikerdoc]

Pm in bound.

 

[bullzeye8]

I said it doesn't matter because it probably doesn't. That being said I still prefer and recommend the Lancer mags as being a better all around mag.

 

[Tirod]

"The stage called for starting with an empty rifle, bolt closed, then seating a magazine and chambering a round. I was not able to seat the mag because the 30 round column would not compress enough under the bolt carrier to allow the magazine catch to engage."

I suspect the match rules do this because it levels the playing field for other rifles with no bolt hold open. It is NOT the preferred method of loading the M16/AR rifle, precisely because of the related difficulty involved. Training doctrine over decades states you open the bolt, lock it back, load the magazine, then use the bolt release to chamber that mag and every subsequent magazine. That is oriented to battlefield use. Competition range use where another shooter might choose to use a different rifle would make the AR demonstrate a significant advantage on that stage, putting the AK shooter behind as he struggles to get the gun into operation. So the rule was likely introduced to "be fair." Goes to accommodating outdated designs for the sake of focusing on shooter skills. Nothing morally wrong with that in a competitive exercise, it should be considered a war crime in battle.

The new mags the Army is now buying have another difference, the feed lips are not the same angle or shape, they raise the nose of the cartride higher to promote a better path into the chamber. That implies that the blue followers may not be worthwhile at all if used in older magazines as the flatter feed lip angle would cause jams, and certainly is a reason they are shaped to be incompatible to prevent that.