All posts tagged 30rd AR15 magazines

Do your gun magazines work in your firearms?

Gun MagazinesThere are plenty of people out there that stock piled various firearm magazines in the last 2 years, especially after the Connecticut shooting when everyone thought that President Obama would have the Political climate to ban the AR15.  I won’t ask all of you reading this, to raise your hands if you actually thought that would happen. I found it embarrassing to watch people panic.  I had a friend who recently picked up his first AR15 a Colt 6920 and got a pretty good deal but it looked like it was sitting around for awhile from a Y2K panic buy, apparently the seller had large quantities of magazines for sale and he asked if  it was a good deal.

I told him to buy whatever he wanted but if he was buying large quantities of them he better test them out before he thinks they are all going to work in his AR.   Gun magazines are like wine, they need to be store properly, and all are made on different dates.  There is truth to the fact that a Magpul Pmag will not be durable 30yrs from now just based on it’s material break down, and metal magazines won’t if stored properly, but how bad is your outlook on life if you have to worry about that?  If you got a good buy on bulk magazines take atleast a half dozen of them and test them on the range and make sure they drop free, rotate the magazines when you use them, and when they need to be tossed out, open up the packaged ones and test them out again.  Don’t expect the brand spankin newly wrapped magazines to work, I’ve one too many times seen people have issues with magazine dropp

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Is there anything else besides Magpul Pmags?

lancer magazines It seems that there are other manufacturers that are putting out really good magazines and usually we find  this out from the guys that a running 3 gun matches.  Competition shooting is not only a competition between shooters, but also a place to test out gear, firearms and everything you can put in them.   We hear feedback from our customers about various scope mounts, iron sights and sometimes about various brands of ammunition.   Every once in awhile we hear people mention products from Larue Tactical and it’s on our “things to do” to get setup as a dealer for them.   There have very well price rifle scope mounts and lots of guns run aimpoints ect on them.

When it comes to reliability of firearm magazines, you pretty much have to stick with factory magazines but in the case of the AR15, factory magazines are probable what USGI mags are and they are inferior to the commercial market.  One name we’ve been hearing more and more lately are the Lancer magazines that are made in Allentown Pennsylvania.   These magazines have a unique look to them and instead of having windows like the magpul pmags, they are translucent and you can see what you have in your round count.   Not everyone cares about these but the Lancer 30rd magazines seem to be run by the 3 gun guys more so than Magpul Pmags.

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Keeping a Carbine running

There are a lot of really good sources of information about maintaining an AR15 and now that there are so many variations of AR15’s out there you really have to pay attention to the type of gun you have.   I’ve found that one of the best sources of information is SWAT Magazine because the writers they get have a long track record of knowing the products that our out there and  what the real world use is like.    Issues like over cleaning firearms is something you rarely hear about it goes on a lot more than you realize.   Especially when it comes to bolt carrier groups.  I was amazed at the number of Instructors that weren’t cleaning their Carbines and were only dropping lube in the guns as maintenance.

Now that piston driven guns are becoming so prevalent, there are areas that don’t need as much lubrication as other AR15 variants.  One thing that hasn’t changed over years, but has only continued to grow are the use of Magpul Pmags.   They are everywhere and although there have been some minor issues with dimensions and materials, they still beat USGI mags in just about everything except for weight.  One thing you still need to keep in mind when operating a Carbine and keeping it running is you still need to clean magazines out.   Pay attention to how many rounds you are putting through your magazines and inspect them.   Magazines get dirty at some point and they will cause malfunctions.

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