Plastic AR-15 Magazines

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Pmags are all I use, I sold everything else. I have never had a mag issue running them, and I have never seen my friends guns have issues running them. So in my experiance 100% reliable over many thousands of rounds.


IMHO any other AR mag is a waste.
 
Ben, seriously, have you been living under a rock for the last few years?
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No, but I did just buy an AR a few weeks ago.

I'm glad to hear they live up to the reputation, I'll have to get some.
 
I bought plenty of NHMTG, my favorite, just to be sure I have good working mags many years from now.

However I have been really impressed with PMAGs, and use them mostly. Just not convinced the plastic will not embrittle over time and have difficulties before my life time is up.
 
Just not convinced the plastic will not embrittle over time and have difficulties before my life time is up.
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I too like the NHMTG mags, but honestly doubt that they will outlast the PMAGs; the new polymers generally perform really well unless they are subjected to atypical amounts of UV radiation (IOW you probably shouldn't store them on your dashboard).

:)
 
As others have said Pmags are great, I wish i could remember the brand but i purchased another poly mag from cheaper than dirt and they were complete crap. i wouldnt worry about pmags but others i would watch out for personally
 
Any new AR owners should spend some time over at reading and researching over at M4Carbine.net for all the info you could ever want to know about the rifles as far as what's good and what's not.
 
First off I will second what Wahoo95 said. Read over the threads at M4C.net. Lots of good experience there.

Secondly, there is a torture test out there where a PMag was shot and still functioned, although it could only be loaded up to 20 rounds or so.
 
E304life said:
I've seen pictures of PMAGS breaking when dropped from some height ( i don't remember how high) when they are fully loaded. Does anyone have info on this? I'm believe pmags are great, and maybe better than metal mags, I just want to point out a potential weakness. Not a big deal.
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I've seen those vids too. I think they were on YouTube. The video I saw had a fully loaded rifle dropped from about 5 or 6 feet onto the magazine. The Pmag broke. Of course every mag in the test broke. I think someone did another test at -20 degrees and the Pmag broke when dropped.
I don't really consider these tests realistic for my uses and I have a bunch of Pmags. They are great magazines.
BTW, there is another YouTube vid in which someone shot a hole through the side of a Pmag and the spring sticks out of the side. The mag still works.
 
The metal throw away design of aluminum M16 magazines has been a problem area since it's introduction. And since most stoppages are directly related to bad feeding, in tactical competition, few depend on them. In combat, even more so, since the introduction of the Pmags.

It didn't help to expand the capacity to thirty rounds as the straight mag well design can't accomodate the curve required to stack them. 30 rounders are not optimally designed and have that problem added as a potential malfunction. The mags use a spiral wound spring with the feed pressures at marginally acceptable levels that really do cause excessive friction when loaded fully.

Many shooters work through a pile of metal magazines sorting out the bad ones and marking them. They often go straight to the next gun show for disposal. Army surplus is the same, why sell a good serviceable magazine? What leaves the inventory are regarded as junkers not fit for combat.

Many new shooters buy these and then load them up to full capacity, which binds the older followers because of inefficient design and high spring pressures. Leaving them loaded spreads the feed lips, and the mag simply won't work correctly. The uneducated naked eye can't tell one from the other. The weapon gets the blame, tho, the stupid thing really is a jammomatic like Uncle Fred said.

It's pretty easy to see how the public is taken advantage of, distorts their misunderstanding, and perpetuates a falsehood.

Since unscrupulous people can and will dump their bad magazines for profit, the best attitude in buying them is that they are all damaged and won't work unless refit and repair is planned first. Those that do that and competently repair and service them have few problems. Some even crush the ones that won't work right at all, collectible, pre-ban, AWB, or not.

Maybe we should all start treating magazines as our life depended on them, then maybe they'll work when we need them.

Pmags don't dent, have low friction internal surfaces, anti tilt followers that don't bind, won't corrode internally, and are designed to be stored with no pressure on the feed lips. They have earned their rep as a superior magazine.
 
I buy a rotation of magazines that includes Pmags. They feed fine in my rifles, but do stick in AR magwells, indeed every single one that I've ever personally owned or tried them in (LMT and BCM lowers, as well as others that I have tried them in but do not own). As a result, personally I would not run them in a 3gun type competition since they don't drop free for me, if I thought most of the loading would be done from a locked open bolt. I will add that they do drop free from my XCR. Some things I like about them, some things I don't... much like many other products. I like that they have a little extra clearance in the bottom and can be inserted on a closed bolt with notably less force than that needed to do the same with a USGI mag.

The truck videos are mildly interesting, but personally I think way too much hoopla is made of them. One day I might try it myself and see what happens. There are also notable physical differences between mags produced during different timeframes (nearly every time I buy them, I can see some differences between the new batch and prior batches), and those vids are very old by now.

IMO it is a good product, but made by the hand of man like everything else. I don't want "all my eggs in one basket", so I buy USGI mags as well, and am considering some of the Troys now just to see what those are about. Also, there are rifles out there with stanag magwells that simply won't accept Pmags at all; this seems to be a consistent report with the FS2k and SCAR for instance.
 
Another vote here for the Pmags. Since trying them out, they are all I use for my AR's. I'm just bummed that they don't work in my FS2000. For that, my stash of USGI has to do.
 
mrnkc130 said:
I wish i could remember the brand but i purchased another poly mag from cheaper than dirt and they were complete crap. i wouldnt worry about pmags but others i would watch out for personally
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They were probably ProMags (not to be confused with PMags). I had a few and had horrible service out of them, due to squishy feed lips. OTOH there are other polymer mags out there that work well. Lancer L5s work great (I even prefer them over PMags), and the Thermold magazines do good enough (though I prefer PMags). I'd bet that the new Tapco magazines work alright as well, but I don't have any plans to try them.

:)
 
TangoDown and Troy also, in addition to Magpul, make plastic mags that I would assume are good quality unless proven otherwise. In fact I remember reading one report stating that the TangoDown mag won some sort of contest that was related to the SCAR trials, though haven't heard anything about it in a while.
 
I'm taking ten pmags with me to Iraq.

I just broke the tie between RRA, Armalite, or DPMS AR-10 because Magpul just started making mags for the DPMS.

If Magpul makes a bad product, I haven't seen it yet. I'm in the process of deciding how much of their stuff to put on three different rifles.
 
Tirod - When I was in the army many of the mags issued within my units were junk. They were simply worn out. I don't know that alumium mags are a problem, other than they have a history of sometimes being expected to last forever.

In my experience the easiest way to cull out bad mags is to measure between the feedlips. I started doing this sometime back to try and figure why bad mags had feed problems. I can't recall a malfunctioning magazine I ever checked that didn't measure well over 0.460" between the feed lips.

Some manufactures put new mags out that vary in this dimension dramatically, with some well over 0.460", and those are the ones that are likely to create feed issues even when new.

Personally I consider up to 0.460" as reliable, 0.461 to 0.470" OK but best suited for range use, and over 0.470" as not something I would rely upon.

I am surprised the army hasn't (to my knowledge) adopted some kind of check, maybe with a go/nogo gauge, of feedlip spacing as a unit level maintenance check. With a shooting conflict going on, the time to ID a bad magazine is not once it has already malfunctioned.
 
I am surprised the army hasn't (to my knowledge) adopted some kind of check, maybe with a go/nogo gauge, of feedlip spacing as a unit level maintenance check.
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I believe I have seen something like this (it also measured the feed lip angle IIRC), but I am not sure where, and was unable to find one with a quick search.

:)
 
I am surprised the army hasn't (to my knowledge) adopted some kind of check, maybe with a go/nogo gauge, of feedlip spacing as a unit level maintenance check.
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From what I remember from reading 'The Black Rifle' it was tried. The problem was that some mags that failed the gauge were perfectly functional while some mags that passed the gauging would not work in a rifle. BSW
 
cdnn has 20 round thermold mags for 5 bucks. are the thermold mags any good or is it a waste of cash?I haven't been able to find much out about them other than canada used a modified thermold (same deisgn, different plastic) that did not work so good.
 
Also, there are rifles out there with stanag magwells that simply won't accept Pmags at all; this seems to be a consistent report with the FS2k and SCAR for instance.
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For those who have had issues with the PMAG not fitting in other rifles, take a look at the Magpul EMAG:

http://store.magpul.com/product/8/10


8_142_popup.jpg

The EMAG (Export MAGazine) is a lightweight 30-round 5.56x45 NATO polymer magazine that features a number of aesthetic and functional changes from the original PMAG®. While EMAG remains 100% compatible with the AR15/M16 platform, its unique geometry is optimized for foreign-made weapons such as the HK 416, FN SCAR, British SA-80, Beretta ARX-160, IMI Tavor, and others.

To enhance compatibility with double and triple magazine pouches as well as aftermarket mag couplers, the EMAG features a slim, rib-less, anti-snag profile. Front-to-back and side-to-side dimensions have been adjusted to ensure compatibility with as many STANAG 4179 weapons as possible, including most non Colt-spec AR15 rifles.

EMAG features a pop-off Impact/Dust Cover to prevent dirt and debris intrustion and protect the feedlips from impact damage during storage. When not in use, the dust cover can be stored on the magazine floorplate.

For easier and more accurate identification of loaded round count via the large, single-side MagLevel window, the stainless steel magazine spring is now coated with milspec black oxide and the indicator coil painted with a high visibility orange color. Numerical indicators have been added to the body to identify 5, 15, and 25 loaded rounds.

Made in U.S.A.

Features

* Impact and crush resistant polymer construction
* Constant-curve internal geometry for smooth feeding
* Anti-tilt, self-lubricating follower for increased reliability
* Multi-use Impact/Dust Cover to protect feedlips from impact damage, keep dust and dirt out of the magazine during storage, and can be used as a tool for easy cartridge removal
* Black-oxide coated (MIL-DTL-13924D) USGI-spec stainless steel spring
* Transparent window on one side of the EMAG along with a painted indicator on the spring allows for easy determination of rounds remaining
* Textured gripping surface and flared floorplate for positive magazine handling and easy disassembly
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I've owned (and thrown away) Thermolds AR mags. I'd rather have ½ the number of $10 Pmags as $5 Thermolds. By the time you last Thermold is busted you'd still have all your Pmags. BSW
 
I also use only PMags in my patrol rifle and my son had me send him some while in Afghanistan. He's a USAF TACP and, according to him, that's all the TACPs, CCTs, and other AFSOC guys are using. In fact, after getting back in December, he volunteered to go back early and is supposed to be leaving today. I checked with him and his PMags are packed with the rest of his gear and ready to go.
 
cdnn has 20 round thermold mags for 5 bucks. are the thermold mags any good or is it a waste of cash?I haven't been able to find much out about them other than canada used a modified thermold (same deisgn, different plastic) that did not work so good.
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I had a couple, and they did fine, about on par with USGI aluminum magazines, but were not as robust as the PMag. I bought them when Thermolds and ProMags were the only polymer 20rnd mags. I would, and have since, spent the extra cash for PMags and Lancer mags instead.

:)
 
Many shooters work through a pile of metal magazines sorting out the bad ones and marking them.
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mostly when they buy c-products or worse. there are plenty of good, reliable aluminum mags.

Tirod - When I was in the army many of the mags issued within my units were junk. They were simply worn out. I don't know that alumium mags are a problem, other than they have a history of sometimes being expected to last forever.
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exactly. they're wear items, like springs. expect to replace them. SO ARE PMAGS.
 
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