If the AR-15 is America’s rifle of choice, then it stands to say the AR-15 magazine is the most popular firearm magazine in production.
So you need to feed your AR-15, the most common rifle in America, and want to know, “what is the best AR-15 magazine?” Top quality AR-15 magazines are readily available and should be hoarded, I mean purchased frequently. My rule of thumb is that I buy a few every time I go into a gun store. These are my choices for some of the most reliable magazines for your AR-15 in America today:
I like the USGI mags. Only have a few pmags so far, but zero problems.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the GI mags, there were a lot of manufacturers over the years and quality varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. I don't remember the ones off the top of my head, but there were a few that were junk right out of the box . Most times it was cured with a different follower. I've still got a stack of yellow followers that are the good replacements from back in the early 2000's.
At one point there was a bulletin to dispose of certain ones by the military. A local shop bought the lot at a surplus sale. About ten years later we were talking and he said he had no issues or complaints about them.
I'm not a fan of the high capacity drum mags. You can pack a lot of 39 rounders in the space they take up.
I like PMag and own plenty of them, I don't used the ones with the clear sides. Nothing wrong with that I suppose just not a fan
ReplyDeleteJD
Same.
DeleteI have never had any problems with GI mags. I was slow getting into the "black rifle" sub-culture and am still not as deep into the abyss as some of buddies. GI mags were the first ones I purchased. I started buying them when I could find a bargain. I bought a few P-mags when they first came out and have never had any problems with those. When the P-mags got cheaper I bought more and ended up with a few that had the clear window. For some reason or another the first round and sometimes the second would jam in my unmodified Colt AR with a 20" barrel. The mags have never failed to feed in any other AR and no other mags have failed in the Colt.
DeleteBack when my niece lived in Boulder she passed the Magpul plant on her way to work. When Magpul offered to give people that visited their showroom 2 magazines she hooked me up. She gave me 50 magazines for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteIs your niece single?
DeleteI use the gen 2 magpul with zero issues,can get em at 8 bucks delivered.
ReplyDeleteI also recommend the magpul 300 mags,some idiot I know made(assembled) two rifles ,one in 5.56/one in .300,they look identical and cannot go out together!
I have the 300 mags. I also painted a sand colored stripe around the bottom.
DeleteHard fast rule: Nothing but 300 BO goes in those mags. No magazine with a sand stripe goes into a 5.56.
I have somehow acquired a bunch of different mags. Magpuls are very reliable, I have a bunch of dot mil spec steel mags that also work well (no idea of the manufacturer, I recall seeing them in a bin in a gun store and were for sale by weight! ). Saw an article recently talking about pros and cons of leaving magazines loaded (maybe it was on here?). Anyway, after reading that I pulled 2 loaded mags from the SHTF chest rig and they ran fine, been on the shelf for at least 3 years.
ReplyDeleteSprings break down by being cycled. You are right; keeping a magazine loaded does not wear down the spring. Repeated loading and unloading of magazines wears the springs down. “Resting” a spring by unload by it for a while is retarded.
DeleteThis has been known for decades.
Guess I should paint my 300 mags, I am getting older and starting to forget shit. Thought about red for super and blue for sub. I reload a bunch of both. I use both Magpul and milspec for 5.56 and am okay with either. Did change followers in the older milspecs, though. Eod1sg Ret
ReplyDeleteI like the Dura mags in stainless steel the best myself. not a big fan of Magpul plastic mags
ReplyDeleteas I had a few of them break at the feed lips. back my day, we had a used plenty of 20 and 30 round magazines. had footlockers full of them as a matter of fact.
and I had a few magazines sitting around loaded for over 10 years that worked fine when I got around to using them. hell I even have some really old G.I. magazines that still work just fine. I do have a fair bit of SR-25 magazines made nu Mag pul as they where about the only ones you could get years ago at a fair price. I have also replaced them with Dura-mags in stainless steel. dave in pa.
I have Viet Nam era mags from when I got my 1st AR15 from a San Diego deputy sheriff in '74. It had a 4 digit serial no. starting with 4. It's worth crazy money these days.
ReplyDeleteLately I got a dozen metal body, military mags, all but one have the latest anti-tilt followers. Hunnert bucks.
Well, the author just about lost me at "How many bullets does an AR 15 magazine hold?" Bullets? Seriously? Are you writing a Hollywood script or a serious article?
ReplyDeleteI have a motley collection, starting with the GI mags I acquired decades ago. My 20 rounders are Colt. They run fine, always have. I prefer them if want to go prone. My 30 rounders are a mix of OKAY and Cooper. I have replaced the original black followers with Magpul followers. On a few of the 30 rounders I have installed Magpul rubber base plates.
These days I mostly run PMags to save wear and tear on my treasured GI stuff. The PMags have run fine but can't say I've put that many rounds through them. I've read about folks having issues with PMags, and suspect some of that may be caused by heat. I know they have been tested seven ways to Sunday, but a lot of heat comes back out of the chamber with an extracted case. Several mag dumps on a hot day just might cause an issue.
For those that don't already know, the Magpul snap on dust covers are great for storing loaded mags. When in place, the cover depresses the cartridge column slightly, taking the pressure off the feed lips. Also, the M2 magazine covers and the M3 magazine covers will NOT interchange.
It's only been the last few years that I've heard people objecting to somebody calling cartridges bullets. I was raised in a very gun friendly military household and they were called bullets then and among my friends all the way up to recent times, without objection.
DeleteHe gonna be big mad when I tell him I only keep 28 bullets in my clips...
DeleteI see guys with ten or more mags for one rifle or (shudder) each pistol. I think, if you're planning for a firefight you're doing it wrong.
ReplyDeleteLots of battle rifles came with one mag each.
Shit, I keep 3 loaded AR magazines in my bedroom just to buy me time to get to the rest of them in the other room.
DeleteI keep 7 for the AR and 4 for each pistol handy plus the others
DeleteJD
Every single round of 5.56 in my house is either on stripper clips or loaded into magazines.
DeleteAside from a 20-rd box that is used to top off a magazine after a shot at a fox or coyote.
I like Windham Weaponry Mags. I've found their 5 - 20 rd mags work well for 300blk. I use pmags for 5.56. Having a straight vs a curved mag makes for zero error in IDing what I've got.
ReplyDeleteI'll add a vote for PMAG Gen 2. I have some Gen 3s but have very little time with them so far. I have a few Lancer mags (plastic with steel lips) that seem to work very well. They're spendy, tho.
ReplyDelete