As to best mag, 20, 30 or 40, most R&D dollars and product research and improvement has been done on 30 rd magazines. They are probably statistically more reliable than 40 rd or 20 rd mags because of this.

As to the best mag available, the later revision Gen 3 PMAG are the best mag in the world in my opinion. The best metal mag I have laid my hands on is the Beretta steel stanag/ARX magazine. The best aluminum mag in my opinion are made by Okay.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
The older (well proven) Okay mags are generally considered the best mil-spec style AR mag you can buy.

I used those when I was in the Army. They were, well, ok.

I'm stuck in magbanastan so I just settled on P-Mags for my 10 rounders. P-Mags have been used and abused by our fighting forces for quite some time now, and they have been proven beyond question.

FWIW Battlefield Los Vegas is a rental range that puts up an annual round count that rivaks the DOD. They use alluminum USGI magazines because they're cheap, reliable, and they last.

Best to me always implies some criteria. I think the absolute best overall AR mag are the HK maritime steel ones. But they cost a fortune. So if price is on your list, cancel that. After that you have to balance the low cost of the GI ones to other choices that might be a bit tougher overall. I have a portfolio of Pmags, lancers, HK, GI. Mostly I stock GI as price makes that practical.

quote:

Originally posted by Rustpot:

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Hate Lancers, too slick and hard to seat on a closed bolt.

If you modify the tab on the floorplate they're easier to seat. Lancer has a note posted about it.

Meh, not worth the trouble. I had 3, tried em out pretty good but too slippery and hard to seat. Several tac-reload instances of the mag not seating and dropping out after the first shot, where as a PMAG M3 or Okay/NHMTG/D&H magazines seated every single time.

Just my personal experience, plenty of people seem happy with them. The guy I sold mine to was glad to get them.

In 2016, I ran about 16,000 Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen through live fire ranges each firing approximately 210-240 rounds of ammo in the heat, dust and sand of El Paso, TX.

We had a large job box full of GI mags that we used for all of those personnel/ranges and I can think of less than 5 instances where the magazines were the problem. We as range cadre never disassembled or cleaned those mags.

GI mags are definitely worthwhile.

Smoke Lancers

The only AR mags I can honestly say ever gave me fits were surplus Israeli Orlites. The Canadian military, who were issued Thermold mags at one time, referred to them as “Thermelts” due to their propensity to do just that when inserted into weapons hot from sustained fire.

That said, I don’t think any true GI spec aluminum mag will do you wrong. Or P-mag of any generation. As for the best, who can say? There are so many flavors out there now, and so many “best” features, it’s mind boggling.

But I digress. For the money, p-mags or GI pattern aluminum.

I really like the Okay’s, Lancers, and the Colt 20round surplus mags.

I'm not fancy just military surplus works for me. They are cheap, metal(steel/aluminum), and don't look pretty but ready for action. I think we had one bad one out of the last group purchase. Chris

Like everyone, I have a bunch of Pmags of course. My favorites are the GI aluminum w/Magpul followers from various sources as others have mentioned. They are typically well under $10, I've gotten them for $6ea. even.

For 30 rounders, either Lancer AWMs or GI aluminum with the Magpul followers. For 20 rounders, Colt or NHMTG/Okay aluminum. I've been using the 20 rounders since 1980-something and have never had one fail.

Palmetto has 30 round D&H with Magpul follower on sale for $7.99 each with free shipping on 10+. Hard not to stock up at $8 a pop!
http://palmettostatearmory.com...m-magazine-8416.html

I don’t have the round count and experience of many on this board so take this for what it’s worth. I’ve used USGI, DSG, Lancer and Pmag. Never a failure from any.

Ok, the politically correct answer in Vermont would be 1) metal mags= HK Maritime (predates ban)
2) polymer= Magpul Gen 1-3 (predates ban)
You of course owned these prior to Vt ban.

I like p-mags gen 3 and lancer smoke, but you still need to shorten follower stop...

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
.

GI mags are definitely worthwhile.

with the exception of a few HK mags, that is all I have,

probably a handfull from each manufacturer as well,

no issues no drama,

did have one 20 round mag with issues so I turned it into my single shot mag for high power,


HK are good, but read somewhere if you drop one on the lips it is toast,

never dropped one, so don't know,, (yet)

I'm in the Lancer, USGI, PMAG gen3 camp. In that order of preference.

quote:

HK are good, but read somewhere if you drop one on the lips it is toast

I ran HK mags as my competition mags for some time and dropped them hundreds of times, mostly on concrete. I didn't have any issues.
as I said above, other than price they are the gold standard. I've grown weary of all the issues that non GI mags come with (will it run in my SCAR, etc.), so at less than $10 each I mostly just run GI mags. And I am happy.

I have been using Pmags for a long time now without issues. I number all my mags and PMAG #1 with a 2009 date code is still in regular use without any signs of slowing down.

I have had one D&H USGI magazine that the welds failed on and it swelled at the top, and became impossible to seat in a magwell.

The rest of my USGI that I bought around 2006 are still working fine although they get very limited use because I much prefer Pmags.



I have bought fairly large amounts of both USGI and Pmags, many of which are still sitting NIB because of concerns about petty little tyrants in office. If I see either for a great deal I would buy a few.

With many options that work, I'm not sure how you define 'best'.

I've been using Brownell's mags for the past 10 years with no problems. Just ordered another batch of ten 20rd mags with the chrome silicon spring. That size works well off the bench and in service rifle competition.