C-Products AR15 mags, good or bad?

Do you like/trust/use C-Products AR magazines?

  • Yes

    Votes: 32 68.1%

  • No

    Votes: 11 23.4%

  • Never heard of them, but at that price I'd give it a try.

    Votes: 4 8.5%
  • Total voters
    47
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halfded

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I went to the gunshow over the weekend and picked up a couple C-Products mags, 2 20's and 2 30's. The 20's have the magpul followers, but the 30's didn't. I have some on order as I know the magpul followers seem to be a good upgrade for any magazine.

Anybody have any love/hate experience with this company? Looking around online I learned the company is owned by Vietnam veterans and meet or exceed USGI standard.

I paid $13 for the 30's with the new followers and $10 each for the 20's.

I know the Pmags are the most popular (got 2, love 'em) but if you choose 'NO' in the poll, what magazines do you like/trust in your rifle?
 
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Do a search and you'll find there is a wide range of strongly held opinions ranging from love em to hate em. I will never buy them again. I bought some of their SS mags, and they were welded visibly crooked, and were so out of spec that the rounds would actually pop out of the magazine on their own. Was that because they were made during the height of the rush? Maybe. But if their QC is that poor once, I'm not willing to take a chance again. Not one of the 5 magazines I bought would hold rounds in them.

You bought them; you tell us what you think. Do the welds look straight? Do the rounds pop out if you tap the mag against your hand?

I have and like USGI (Bought a bunch at the Indy 1500 for $8/ea. that still have a lot of life in them). I have some Brownell's, which are the nicest I've seen from a build quality standpoint. I also have some P-Mags, which I trust, although I prefer the standard metal mag.
 
I bought 4 of their 6.8spc 10 rounders to alter to 5 rounds for hunting. They work for that.
 
I've used lots of them, all types (for 223), and they are highly unreliable in my experience. I don't even like them as range mags any more. You'd be crazy to use them for self defense. The vast majority of AR jams I have are attributable to their mags (or TAPCO polymer mags).

And you didn't even get a good deal. The 30's are available for about $8 each right now.

Sorry to give you the bad news.

Here's a much better deal on better mags:
http://www.bravocompanyusa.com/AR-15-Magazines-p/magazines dh bt30.htm

In my experience reliable mags are Pmags, Lancer L5, Cammenga Easymags*, and D&H or NHMTG GI mags.
*My experience with Easymags has been perfect, but I have read plenty of comments from others who have had problems with them.
 
I think they're fine as range mags. I've use a whole bunch of them without problems, but my "serious" mags are all Magpuls.

Mike
 
My Cproduct mags are several years old and they have always worked fine. I've seen some come through with used guns I was transferring that looked bad, and I've seen pictures that looked even worse.

Mine have been fine, but I doubt I'd buy again based on what I've seen. Plus Pmags are only a few bucks more.
 
I won't touch them.

ALL of my magazines are serious use magazines. I don't have the time, patience, or sanity to waste dealing with at best questionable magazines.

If CProd mags were ultra cheap and everything else cost 3-4 times as much, then I could see the utility of buying them for range use only. However, since that is not the case and better quality magazines are available for very little more, I'll just stick with what is repeatedly proven to be a good option.
 
http://www.aimsurplus.com/acatalog/C_Products_AR15_30rd_.223_mag.html

I bought one on a lark. It's okay. It looks like a USGI mag painted black with a magpul follower. Probably original spring, although, a wolff spring would be an upgrade. I haven't had any issues. GI mags are the ones that stay paired with the rifles though.

Oops, I see two posts prior someone already referenced the AIM link.
 
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I bought some SS 20 round mags, one wouldn't hold the last round in the mag, I contacted customer support to exercise the 'lifetime warrenty' and received RMA instructions. I sent in the mag, USPS return receipt, and it went into a black hole. Nothing ever happened, no replacement ever arrived, and emails went unanswered for over 6 months until I decided my time and sanity were worth more than a magazine.

With all the other options available, why would you want to take a chance? Bad word-of-mouth can cost you many times the profit gained by screwing a customer.

Just Say No.
 
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Dammit! There were Pmags right next to them for $14 but I cheaped out...again. The ones I have look okay as far as build quality, they've passed a function test and held the rounds as I whacked the mag from every angle against my hand. The only thing i see that MIGHT posea problem is when I empty the mag by hand, the rounds catch a little right at the primer end of the case. Probably a big difference between the pressure of the bolt and my wimpy little finger trying not to get bitten by a magazine.

The 20 rounders are for the range since they don't hit the table when I use a rest so I'm not as concerned with them. The 30 rounders, on the other hand, were going to go into the "working" category, but now I think I"ll take them out and run some rounds through them first.

This is my first AR; knew nothing about them before I bought/assembled mine. So far it seems the main thing I've learned is how little I've learned. So many parts from so many vendors; all with their own level of quality and quirks. Spending piles of money on something I have fun with at the range and hold on to for that ever popular "end-times" scenario is just not my thing. I don't need a $400 handguard, and all my mags don't have to be perfect, just functional. I think EOtech's are cool, but can't justify spending 2/3's of what I spent on the gun on a little red dot (i hate red dots, BTW) when the gun came with perfectly good iron sights. Point being, I like functional and cheap. If I can find something that works as good as a Pmag for less, I'll buy them in droves even though I think the Pmags look cooler.

I'll see what comes of these mags next range trip. If they work than I've got 4 more mags for the pile. If they don't, I'll have to chalk it up as another learning experience.

While reading and responding to this thread, I went on a search for cheap Pmags. I found them for $11.95 and somehow the computer ordered 3 of them for me. Not sure how that happened...
 
Why would you bother with questionable mags to save a couple dollars? You can get the Magpul PMAG's online for $13 all day long. If they were like buying HK G3 mags at $0.99 each I could see your point.
 
Definitely gonna give them a try before I toss 'em. They all cycled rounds by hand with no trouble, so if nothing else, they'll be good range mags. That's all the 20 rounders are intended for anyway.

Kinda sucks I paid a little too much for them but as long as they work I'll be happy.

What, in wiser eyes, is an acceptable amount of operation for a magazine to be trusted and put into rotation?
 
Last time I heard, C Products would replace defective mags. So, I'll second the advice to try them and see.
 
CDNN has them on sale for $8 now.

I've had no functional issues with their AR mags but the "black teflon" finish is poor and flakes off if you look at it wrong.

--wally.
 
Last time I heard, C Products would replace defective mags. So, I'll second the advice to try them and see.
Click to expand...

AFAIK they will replace defective mags, but my time and ammo is too expensive to play that game. All the professional instructors I know locally have had as bad experience with C-P AR-15 mags as I have. When CP mags are $8 and quality D&H or Brownells mags can be had for $9, is it worth the potential hassle to save $1/mag?

My bad experiences have been with CP mags made over the space of 3 or 4 years (yeah, I didn't learn from the first bad batch) and using five different ARs, including one each factory Armalite and Bushmaster ARs. The worst for me, by far, have been the aluminum 30's passed off as GI mags (they aren't). I've had slightly better luck with their stainless steel 30's and 20's, but not enough better that I could recommend them. There are too many other options that work right, out of the box, 99.9% of the time to play around with saving a buck.
 
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