IIRC the Gen 3 PMAG was found to be much more durable than the standard aluminum USGI mag as per @Default.mp3 's post, but neither is indestructible. Historically when buying a lot of magazines at once I've always tended to get USGI mags, as the $3 savings vs equivalent polymer mag adds up when you're buying in substantial quantity.
Pmags and Brownells/D&H Aluminum with "magpul" style follower have worked well for me in classes and at the range. My default rec these days is PMag as they seem to be readily available and are never more than 20.00 per even in these times.
I beta tested a set of steel Fusils in an 08 EAG class. They worked really well for me too.
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“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
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I won’t use aluminum GI mags unless I’m desperate. They work fine until they don’t. So easy to bugger the feedlips, and not notice. These are basically disposable magazines.
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
long-ass thread, probably outdated information, and eventually another junky thread got merged into it, but if you want to go down the rabbit hole of AR mags ten years ago...
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread...ines-a-journey
I still won't use anything but GI. But that opinion is probably irrelevant today.
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I recall the Brownells aluminum mags being highly regarded as well. Due to my state of residence, I’ve been limited as to what I had pre 2000 and what was available during those windows I could acquire or build new magazines so I run a fairly eclectic assortment. I have had zero issues with my Pmag 2nd Gen or any aluminum mags I’ve upgraded with green it magpul followers (even my Adventure Line). Heck, I’ve even had good luck with Canadian Thermolds I bought back in 1994 (I just don’t leave them loaded).
The Lancers look sexy and I like their hybrid material design. If I was starting from scratch they would be tempting but I’d probably just go with P Mags or Brownells, whichever was cheaper.
The only mags I’ve had issues with when new were aluminum magazines modified to hold only 10 rounds or factory 10 round shorties. While I’ve had a few used GI mags (crime Bill era gun show specials) - they have been few and far between.
You thinking more Colorado restrictions or Federal?
Last edited by Suvorov; 03-23-2021 at 02:33 PM.
FWIW, a friend of mine said he saw issues with the Lancers not feeding due to rust on the steel feed lips, so that could be a potential concern for the L5AWMs (I believe the L7AWMs use stainless steel feed lips). I personally have both opaque Lancers and PMAGs M2 and M3, and prefer the Windowed M3s at this point; I've had the little tabs at the front/feed side of the Lancers break off, and while Lancer has told me they do not provide any real function and should have no impact on performance, I'm still a bit leery.
As an aside, some more info on translucent magazines. I have been told that the clear H&K rifle magazines are just polycarbonate, so quite tough under normal circumstances, but will degrade when exposed to solvents such as DEET. Same source told me that ETS uses ether sulfones, so are rather soft and have "grit problems" (which I assume to mean that grit will wear them down quickly), and Lancer uses polycarbonate with modifiers for their translucent mags that make them a softer than normal PC, but thus has better impact resistance, and also use a chemical resistant coating, which means that its resistance against solvents will eventually go away. Magpul tried to do a translucent magazine, too, but was unable to find a satisfactory mix for polycarb that met their expectations.