A family member has some PMI-Precision Mag Industries- Mini-14 magazines from a rifle the father had for years. They are not stamped on the base plate but everything points to them being PMI made mags- from the location of the witness holes in the sides, quality of the metal, staking marks,formed metal around base plate, etc.. I have found not all PMI mags were stamped on the base plates. I even found a Bingham Ltd. 40 round magazine in the pile,has the waffle stamping near the mag. witness holes--- had to really search to find out who made it and found it by luck. I assume these are pre-ban era mags-maybe? Are these worth shooting and are they reliable? I have found limited info. on these and was wondering if anyone ever ran into these mags and can shed some light on them.

my experience is 20-rd PMI mags are good to go

IIRC - during the ban they were a readily available reliable 'hi capacity' mag when actual Ruger mags became unobtainable

once Ruger resumed mass producing 20 and 30 rd factory mags -- the PMIs lost their place in the market

I'm sure a mag expert will chime in shortly but I have a couple PMIs that are 100%.

these are not to be confused with Pro-Mags of course

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Originally posted by Sig209:


these are not to be confused with Pro-Mags of course

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I learned that the hard way.

All true. I have seen PMI mags in the original poly bags that were not stamped on the baseplate.

PMIs were considered a (close) second only to factory. Before Ruger opened standard cap mags to general sale, they commanded a bit of a premium. Maybe they'll still have some collector value going forward.

All PMI magazines are preban.

PMI went out of business before the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons ban.

From what I have heard, they were very good Mini-14 magazines.

Verifying an out-of-the-bag magazine as PMI is a different story though.

For the record; here are some pics of PMI stainless and blued 30 and 40 round magazines.













I have only seen PMI maker marks on stainless magazine floor plates.

quote:

Originally posted by MG34_Dan:
For the record; here are some pics of PMI stainless and blued 30 and 40 round magazines.

I have only seen PMI maker marks on stainless magazine floor plates.

Those are exactly like the ones I have in blue. Thanks for the replies

I had 7 PMI 20 and 30 round mags for the Mini-14. I bought them new in the 1980s. They were all very reliable.

PMI mags actually had one possible advantage over the factory equivalents. They were shorter than the corresponding Ruger 'zine, due to the fact that the latter used the longer "anti-tilt" followers, necessitating a longer body. Sometimes you even had trouble fitting longer mags inside mag pouches.