ORLITE Date stamp question

[Blacky]

Does anyone know how to decipher the date stamp on this Orlite magazine? I am interested to know the date and how to read the code.

 

[briansmithwins]

Is that a date stamp or a mold number? I suspect the latter. BSW

 

[Blacky]

It is the only stamp on the magazine, your guess is as good as mine. A good source has it at March 09 but I'm not positive. I have contacted Orlite but haven't heard back yet.

 

[nalioth]

Orlite is a trade name and has a US office?

Those are mags made by the Israeli government for their M16s.

They are mold marks.

If you want to know if they're pre-ban, the answer is 'yes'.

 

[Blacky]

Orlite is a trade name and has a US office?

Those are mags made by the Israeli government for their M16s.

They are mold marks.

If you want to know if they're pre-ban, the answer is 'yes'.

I contacted Orlite via their web contact page. Are you asking if they have a US office because I couldn't find one.

How can you tell they are pre-ban?

On October 8th 1980 the ownership of Orlite was passed to Ampel and Poalim Investments. During this time Orlite expanded its activities to include production of helmets, ammunition containers, polyester cabinets (electricity, communication etc.) In addition Orlite continued to produce Aviation/Aerospace parts.

Orlite magazines were developed for the Israeli Armed Forces. The bodies are made from high-melt-temp black nylon with a steel reinforcement mesh embedded in the top 1.5 inches to strengthen the feed lips. New Orlites come with a rubber cap to help keep sand out of the mag. Orlites have a rib around the middle of the mag which helps to seal the bottom of the mag well and also prevents the magazine from being over-inserted and the feed lips damaged. The location of the rib was based on the deep mag well beveling on Colt M16s, and in ARs that aren't beveled as deeply, early Orlites won't seat completely. This is easily correctable by trimming a bit of material from the top surface of the over-insertion rib; just enough to allow the mag to seat. This problem only occurs with early Orlites with mold numbers from 0/1 to 0/19. Starting with batch 0/20, the rib was moved about 1/32" further down the mag body, and these later mags work in all ARs with no modification. Used Orlites are often found at gun shows with their over-insertion ribs completely ground off. Avoid these mags, as it's too easy for these mags to be over-inserted, banging the feedlips against the bolt or getting stuck. Orlites are quite reliable, and were general issue in the Israeli Army through the 80s, but it was found that they don't hold up to hard combat use as well as USGI mags, which Israel switched to in the 90s.