308 mags

[survivalshop]

Any one have any input on the ProMag or MagTec 308 mags?

[edgecrusher]

no but i might sell off some c-product mags to buy more pmags

[imschur]

I have not heard of a single person owning either. Strange.

[98Z5V]

Both companies are good - I haven't heard a thing about them producing .308 AR mags, though.  I think we're seeing a "lack of advertising" here.  I'd pick up one of each without hesitation, just to see how they do. 

[Robocop1051]

I like ProMag magazines. I don't know anything about 308 mags, but I have a ton of their 22rnd P226 mags. I even carry two of them on my duty war-bag. (I had to use an MP5 molle pouch to carry them)

[survivalshop]

The Mag tec is 39.95 & the pro Mag is 29.95. Yes the PMag is cheaper ,but won't work in my CMMG lower.

Both mags available from Brownells,in stock.

They look like they changed the Lower receivers for there 308 rifles ,of course , they show them with a PMag in them .

Edgecrusher

I may be interested in your CProducts mags.

[survivalshop]

I ordered a Mag-Tec 308 mag yesterday & also a three pak of the new Troy  AR 16/15 battle mags to do testing on & will get a Promag 308 next order ,of course all from Brownells .

[survivalshop]

I got the Mag Tec mag , the Troy three pak is back ordered .

The mag looks good with S/S follower & has a slight grittiness to it as it is slid down the inner mag. .

Probably just feeling the rough finish on the inside of the mag., looks well made .

Will do some photos & a range report when I get a chance this week .

I was in my Fun store looking around & came across CMMG 308 mags, for DPMS/SR25 style rifles & never came across them before .

Went to CMMG web sight & they are not on the sight .

I did a search & came up with them all over the place & price range , damn another one I have to try.

Ya know ,if my CMMG lower would just work with Pmags, I wouldn't be going through this .

[survivalshop]

Mag Tec mag function tested with my dummy loads & dropped free test ,worked ,today .

Will do range time tomorrow .Also took some photo comparisons with Pmag,CProducts & DPMS mags.

So far I'm impressed.

Try to post if I have time tomorrow.

[98Z5V]

Great news - based on the quality of their pistol mags, I kinda figured that this would be a winner.  <thumbsup>

[survivalshop]

Here's some photos ,the tallest one next to the Pmag is the Mag Tec & its the only one with a S/S follower.

Even though it looks longer ,it isn't by much , its a pretty much straight up Mag.. With the DPMS & CProducts Mags. have a slanted floor plate & if you put them side by side ,there's not mush difference.

The range session did not go well for the Mag. .It would not feed with more than 16 rd's at first ,but got better as I went on. At first if I took three or four rd's out ,it functioned flawlessly .

You could tell by the way the top rd. was ,that it wasn't going to feed with out help.

I did get to 18 rds. before I ran out of the limited amount of test ammo I brought with me.

The follower is rough inside the mag. ,But was much smoother by the time I went through the test.

I will disassemble the mag & inspect it for burr's & such & do more testing next week.

I still think its a good mag. ,just needs some breaking in & or cleaning up. Its labled as a 20 rounder & should work with that amount .

[survivalshop]

After Field striping this Mag Tec mag , The problem I see is the S/S follower is cheap & flimsy & has a lot of sharp edges .

I believe it being flimsy & sharp edges are whats causing the mag to act up with more than 15 rds. in it.

I have some photos of all four mags field striped for comparison & will post some time today .

The only way I can see this mag work correctly is with a different follower.

I can also say I will NOT buy another ! (Unless they get a better follower )

[survivalshop]

After about an hour of filing & de-burring , I have the follower running up & down in the mag. pretty good .

Will do some loading tests with dummy rd's .

Here are some photo's , first from the left is the Mag Tec , then Cproducts ,DPMS & of course the PMag.

[imschur]

Interesting. The two in the middle have springs that look pretty similar. the one on the left is the shortest, and WOW is the PMAG spring long

Thanks for posting this.

[survivalshop]

Ya the Pmag is impressive ,it was by far the simplest to disassemble . The Pmag has other differences than the rest , the lead round is ( first to chamber ) is opposite of all the others & the spring end is also opposite of the others .

The DPMS was by far the hardest to disassemble , You have to wedge a  flat blade screw driver in between the floor plate & mag body to raise the keeper notches so you can use a punch or rod in the one hole to tap it off while holding the gap between the mag body & floor plate , to get it off .

The Mag Tec was the hardest to remove the follower , CProducts& DPMS ,just fell out & of course the PMag is attached to the spring .

If you look at the photo's of the Mag Tec mag spring & how it is twisted . I believe the sprung spring my be part of the problem , so I took some time & straightened it out & the mag did function better because of it .

Not sure if it will stay that way ,but who knows .

I plane on some range time Friday , for further testing.

Bottom line is , if I had to do this with every mag I bought for a (semi auto fed )rifle , I might stay with Bolt actions .

[98Z5V]

Ya the Pmag is impressive ,it was by far the simplest to disassemble . The Pmag has other differences than the rest , the lead round is ( first to chamber ) is opposite of all the others & the spring end is also opposite of the others .

Pmag disassembly has always been a strong point for me.  I've marked enough issue mags in my time, on the training ranges, as failures.  Once I get back from the range and rip 'em apart, they're just dirty as hell.  Taking them apart is always the "pain in the ass" part of the weapons maintenance.  Hard enough to get the gun "armorer-clean," and now I'm dealing with gunked up mags, and that was on my own time, not Army time.  >:(  Combat mags were a different story - get a new stack of issue mags everytime, no worries.

It was interesting to count the number of coils in the mag array, SS.  From left to right, I got 6 1/2 coils, 8 coils, 8 coils, 11 coils.  That had to impact feeding, but I'm not up to thinking about how it impacts feeding right now.  There are different round-count capacities for those mags, but if you think about a 19 or 20-rounder feeding with 8 coils, you'd think the 20-round Pmag with 11 coils would have too much pressure on the first round - not so. Wire diameter, relaxed length, and compressed length are the factors that impact springs, so if you could gather that data, I'd get into the deeper thought more.  It's just like the impacts on valve springs on race engine building, and I can crunch all those numbers and come up with some real data.  <thumbsup>

As far as the feeding of the Pmag, I can only think about military "tradition" that's gone with decades of training on the 5.56 guns - when 20 and 30-round GI mags are loaded to capacity, the last (top) round is always on the right. Lots of military folks believe in the tradition of only loading 28 rounds in a 30-round mag (I think that's bullpoopy, turn in your mags for good ones, and 30-rounders should hold and feed 30 rounds).  That "last" 28th round is still on the right.  Military "tradition," kind of.  Definitely not "Doctrine," but for sure, it's a "tradition."  It was always a "known..."

Well, the NEWEST military mags fugged that all up, and that's a personal piss-storm I'd rather not get into.  The new issue mags screw that all up, and the last round is on the left now.  Doctrinally, they haven't messed with anything - but they HAVE fucked up years and years of "recognition training" for those people that actually load and fire enough rounds in a training year, for it to make a difference.  Bottom line is this:  the .mil contractors and bean-counters didn't want to buy truly better anti-tilt followers from MagPul, so they made their own.  The poop is exactly like a MagPul anti-tilt follower, but they changed the position of the "hump," which changed the position of the last round in the mag - which pissed off people that really DO shoot their issue rifles.  No "copyright infringement" that way, so they can make their own.  Woulda been cheaper to buy the poop from MagPul in the first place, too.  That's my soapbox rant, and I'm off it now. 

So, in a 20 or 30-round mag, last round is in the right.  Here's a few pics of (left to right) the latest issue mags with the tan followers, USGI issue mags with MagPul anti-tilt followers, actual 5.56 Pmags, and the MagPul LR20 mag.  All are loaded to capacity, which is 30x5.56 rounds, 30x5.56 rounds, 30x5.56 rounds, and 20x.308 Win rounds.  Top round left (on the new fucked up one), top round right, top round right, top round right.  I honestly think MagPul did it because it's a "training thing."  IMHO.  <thumbsup>

You can't even convert the "new issue" USGI mags to the MagPul anti-tilt followers, for a training-consistency reason, because the damn spring ends on the wrong side, and the end is in a different position.  I hate that poop...  >:(