Loading your AR15 rifle magazines with ammo and shoving them into the mag well of your AR seems like a simple task, and for the most part, it is. However, I have seen too many mistakes, made by shooters, when they are loading their AR for a match. In a competitive match, the shooter starts with an empty weapon. The Range Officer tells the shooter “Make Ready”. The shooter can then do whatever they want to get the gun loaded up and ready to go. The most common practice is to just shove a full 30 round magazine into the gun, rack the charging handle and hope for the best. When the Range Officer hits the timer and it beeps, the shooter begins their course of fire. They raise the gun up to their shoulder and click. They pull the trigger and nothing happens. In some cases the magazine falls out onto the ground.

What happened here? It should have worked. It works every time when they are at the shooting line on the range. It worked at home. Well it has nothing to do with where you did it now or before. The issue arises when people do not understand the problem. The problem is how you are loading the magazine into the gun.

AR15 Magazine Loading Problems

When you load a magazine full to the brim with ammo, the magazine spring is fully compressed. There is little to no room left when you shove that magazine on a closed bolt. With the bolt closed, it pushes all 30 rounds further down into the magazine. Often the magazine you are using does not have enough room to compensate for this and the magazine catch does not engage with the magazine. So what happens? You think the magazine is seated when it is not. With the magazine improperly seated, the bolt cannot strip off the first round and feed it into the chamber. You have now created a malfunction.

Great so now you know what is the problem. How can you solve this? Some people, even firearm instructors, have recommended to download your magazine. “You don't need 30 rounds for a gun fight” so they only load 28 bullets. I prefer to have 30+1. But my needs are not the same as yours. But if I can have more ammo, why not? Some people like to shove the magazine real hard and then tug the magazine a bit to make sure it is properly seated. That brute force tactic works but why work harder and not smarter? I prefer the use of something like a BAD Lever, by Magpul. I can use my trigger finger to lock the bolt open while my left hand pulls the charging handle back. Then I insert my fully loaded magazine into the mag well. With a bolt locked open, I do not need to worry about my magazine not seating properly. Then I hit the bolt release lever and the bolt strips off the first round off the magazine.

Well that sounds great right? But if I want to have 30+1 loaded in the gun I can't open the bolt with a round in the chamber and I have to insert a full 30 round magazine into a closed bolt. The solution to this is magazine choice. Some magazines are easier than others to insert a full 30. Out of my personal small collection of magazines I have found that my Hexmag mags and Lancer mags are the easiest to insert when fully loaded with 30 rounds. Pmags are a close third. Other mags I have in my collection take a lot more force to push and click into place and it would be easy for me to not notice that it did not seat and have a malfunction. Check your mags and not just your 30 rd magazines. Some of you that live in capacity restricted states have 10 or 15 round magazines. Check to see how much effort it takes you to insert a fully loaded magazine. For those of you who do not have capacity limits don't forget to check your high capacity magazines higher than 40 rounds. I noticed a significant difference between my Magpul 40 and ASC 40 round magazine. The ASC can actually fit more than 40 so it is easier to insert and lock into place, on a closed bolt, than the Magpul 40 magazine.

More AR15 Loading Methods

 
There is another method I have seen many people take in loading their AR. They will look at the top of the full 30 magazine before inserting it and chambering a round. They are looking at the double stack of bullets. They take note which side the top bullet is on. After inserting and chambering the first round, the shooter removes that magazine and looks to make sure the top bullet is now on the opposite side of the starting bullet. This way they know that a round was stripped off the magazine.

I prefer to simply do a press check or brass check. I will pull back my charging handle ever so slightly so that I can see brass coming out of the chamber. Then I release the charging handle. Be careful in doing this, sometimes the bolt wont properly seat. It is important to check your ejection port and if needed press the forward assist button to get the bolt to close all the way.

Some of these rifle techniques can work with other guns and are not exclusive to the AR15 platform. For example, I use these techniques when using my SCAR17S. Locking the bolt open to insert a fully loaded magazine can also work in a semi auto handgun. I often lock my slide back before inserting a fully loaded magazine.

I hope these techniques have shown you some options in loading your AR Rifle and maybe you learned something new. Give them a try and do so safely. Remember the firearm safety rules.

Some states restrict magazine capacity, so it is important to know what the limits are and which states restrict them. Ignorance is never a valid defense. It is always a good idea to check if you are unsure. Some cities can have different laws than the state has. What do you do if you are in violation of magazine capacity? It is up to you. You can send them to a friend outside of the region of limitation. For example, if you lived in NY State, you can no longer possess magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds. So, you can send them to a friend in another state. Another option would be to permanently modify them so they can only hold 10 rounds. You could also change calibers. A traditional AR-15 30 rd magazine can only hold 10 rounds of .50 Beowulf. The upside is that you do not have to do anything with your AR magazines, but now you have to chamber your AR in an expensive cartridge. There are compromises. But, those are not the only options. You need to know the laws that affect you, and then you can find out what to do about large-capacity magazines.

Why do we have magazine capacity restrictions? There are many reasons. The most common is the belief that restricting magazine capacity will save lives, because a mass shooter will have to reload more frequently thereby allowing time for someone to take out the shooter. This is discussed in an article by Alex Yablon of The Trace. You can read his article here. The concept of "reloading saves lives" has been debunked by a sheriff. He also pokes holes in the "if it takes more than ten bullets you should not have a gun" myth.

Magazine capacity limits work both ways. The fiction that a mass shooter will have less bullets to commit murder applies to a law abiding citizen and his or her ability to defend themselves. With fewer bullets they have a lower chance of protecting themselves. However, logic does not trump state laws, so it is important to know where magazine capacities are restricted and see if it affects you.

Gun Magazine Capacity Restrictions By State

Here is a list of states with magazine restrictions:

For a more detailed look by each state, go to Smartgunlaws.com.

Carefully Read Gun Laws and Know Your Limitations

If you read the laws carefully there are some exclusions and contradictions – such as Colorado and some other states, where a tubular magazine that is contained in a lever-action firearm is not considered a "large-capacity magazine". In most cases these people are thinking of older style firearms like the Winchester or Henry lever action guns. What they do not realize is that there is a shotgun made in Turkey by a company called Adler.

This modern sporting style shotgun is lever action. If you look, that shotgun has a magazine tube extension which Colorado deemed illegal.

A fixed, tubular shotgun magazine that holds more than 28 inches of shotgun shells, including any extension device that is attached to the magazine and holds additional shotgun shells.

One could argue that the gun is lever action and therefore not under the Large-Capacity Magazine restrictions. If that is the case, you could then attach any extension on the end of the shotgun like the Xrail which would give the shotgun a 24 shell capacity.

If you read the limitations on shotguns further, the Kel-Tec Shotgun and the UTAS UTS-15 could be exempt from these restrictions. The KSG and UTS-15 have two tubular magazines that hold 7 rounds of 2 3/4" 12 gauge shotgun shells. By the definition of the law, the length is satisfied. In other states, the fact that the shooter has to manually switch over to the other tube satisifies that they are not high capacity magazines. Another work around, mentioned in Yablon's article above, is using smaller ammunition to increase capacity. Aguilla makes 1" 12 gauge shotgun shells, and you can fit 11 of them in just one of the Kel-Tec Shotgun tubes.

Some states, like Colorado, have "grandfathering". If you owned a large capacity magazine prior to July 1, 2013 then you can keep it. How do you prove this? You do not have to.

Exceptions – A person may possess a large-capacity magazine if they owned the large-capacity magazine on or prior to July 1, 2013, and maintain continuous possession of the magazine.  When a person charged with illegal possession of a large-capacity magazine claims to fall under this exception, the burden of proof is on the prosecution to prove otherwise.

Carefully read and study the laws. Know your limitations. What you read here may be out of date so do not rely solely on the information you find here. Laws may have changed. They might have been relaxed or they might have become more restrictive. It is your repsonsibility, as a firearm owner, to know and understand the laws that affect you.

Owning and shooting a handgun can be a lot of fun. Learning to control recoil and muzzle climb while trying to be accurate requires focus. You need to line up the sights while concentrating on the proper grip and a smooth trigger pull to achieve accuracy. Once you are comfortable and confident enough with your pistol manipulation then you can move onto transitioning to other targets as well as reloading the gun with a fresh magazine. During this practice a shooter can get into a rhythm where they are in the zone. However the one thing that causes this to come to a screeching halt is having to reload the magazines with more ammo.

THE PROBLEM WITH RELOADING PISTOL MAGAZINES

For many shooters, typically beginners and elderly shooters, reloading a pistol magazine can be difficult. The magazine has a spring that pushes a follower which is what pushes the bullets up so that the slide can pick up the round and load it into the chamber. Well, pushing the bullets back into the magazine gets tedious and sometimes difficult depending on the magazine and bullets being used. In most cases when loading the magazine, as you get close to full capacity, pushing the last couple rounds is almost impossible. This is called stacking. As a spring compresses more and more, the force required to continue compressing it increases. Traditionally shooters use their thumbs to load the bullets into the magazine. However your thumbs will start to hurt the more you load bullets into the magazines. Some shooters might lack the strength to even load the first bullet into the magazine. Of course like any repetitive exercise your thumbs could get used to it. But there is an easier way to put the rounds in the magazine.

Some handgun manufacturers include a basic magazine loader with their guns. Glock, Ruger and Springfield are just some examples that include a magazine loader when you buy their handguns new. These magazine loaders are better than using your bare hands but they are not that great. These style of magazine loaders have some form of protrusion that helps push the follower or the top bullet down allowing you to insert a new bullet into the magazine. The problem with this is that the protrusion is often just barely long enough to push the follower or bullet down. The gap created by the follower is often tight which means you still have to push the bullet in and under the magazine feed lips. Once you inserted the new bullet into the magazine it will hit the protrusion before being fully inserted into the magazine. So you need to lift the loader up and continue pushing the new bullet further into the magazine. All the loader did was help you push the bullets down. It did not help you load the bullet. Also these loaders are generally specific to the magazine they came with. You can not really use the Glock loader to load a 1911 magazine. Or vice versa. Now take a look at the Maglula Uplula.

A RELOADING SOLUTION

The Universal Pistol Loader was designed and made in Israel. It can accept single stack and double stack magazines. The UPLula can load 9mm up to .45 acp magazines and in some cases it can load .380 acp magazines. The wide range of compatibility is great but the loading of the bullets is where this pistol magazine loader shines. To operate the UpLula, you grasp the loader in your hand like you are grabbing a soda can. Then put your index finger on the top.

The UPLula is hinged so you will squeeze the loader and push it down over the pistol magazine. There is a metal beak that pushes the follower/bullets down allowing you to insert a new bullet. Due to the UPLula design it creates a large opening so you can just drop the bullet into the magazine. No need to push it into the magazine. Next you just release the tension on the UPLula and repeat the loading process.

The UPLula also works as an unloader. There is a protrusion on the spine of the loader. You can use that to strip the rounds out of the magazine when you want to unload the magazine without shooting the bullets.

Here is a list of incompatible magazines from Maglula's website:

• S&W 7rd 9mm SS for models 908,3913,3913,3953 & 3954 (Beak too wide, does not enter between lips). It will load the S&W Shield magazine !
• Glock G36 6rd .45 SS (Single Stack) (Beak will not come out of mag.)
• Kel Tec PMR-30 mags. 
• Rounds longer than 33mm, like: 9×23 Win, .38 Special, .357 Magnum, .357 Max., .41/.44 Rem. Mag., .44 S&W Special, .45 Colt, .45 Win Mag., .50AE.
• May not load the last round in few types of mags.
• Mags with less than 8.0mm between their lips.

Maglula also makes a baby UPLula for loading .22LR - .380 single stack magazines. It works just like the regular UPLula.

These are available on the website. Check them out here.

SHOT Show 2016 was just a couple weeks ago. There were a lot of products and many of them are exciting. Here is a summary of some of the most interesting items.

Probably top of the list for everyone there would be the Cobalt Kinetics AR15. Their AR has a unique feature that has not been done before in the world of AR15s. When the AR fires the last round of a magazine, the empty magazine is automatically dropped out of the magwell. When the shooter reloads with a fresh magazine, the bolt will automatically close when the magazine is seated. This feature will be very popular in the competitive world of 3Gun.

 On the horizon of magazine development Magpul is following the competitive market. Just like Elite Tactical Systems made a competition length 140mm Glock magazine, Magpul showed their new Glock magazines in 21 rd capacity and 27 rd capacity.

Torkmag has an interesting roller follower design. While there have been roller style followers in the past, the Torkmag is different than the rest. Due to the dual spring design, coil and clock spring, there is more room for more ammo. Their standard size AR15 magazine holds 35 rounds. And a ½ inch longer than a 40 round magazine and their magazine can hold 50 rounds.

Hexmag showed off their AR10/SR25 prototype magazine. Hexmag has been wildy popular and now they are expanding into .308 magazines.

With regards to AR15 accessories, the PDW style stock can be seen everywhere. Originally designed by North Eastern Arms, the NEA Compact Carbine Stock concept has been copied by so many. Troy Industries came out with their M7A1 stock. One downside to that design and the NEA version is that they require a proprietary bolt carrier group/buffer. So companies like MVB Industries made a version that is compatible with any bolt carrier group for an AR15. Troy has followed suit with their release of the Tomahawk Stock. Similar to the M7A1 PDW design, it is a collapsing stock. Strike Industries has come out with their take on the PDW stock. Their version has a spring release so when you deploy the stock from its collapsed position, it shoots out automatically into the deployed position. They plan on making two versions. One compatible with Troy/NEA BCGs and normal BCGs. Falkor Defense has their own take on the collapsing PDW stock. 

Their Optimus stock uses a single rod, compared to NEA style dual rod systems, and it unfolds to a carbine length stock.

For classic firearm afficionados Hill and Mac Gunworks has released their reproduction Sturmgewehr STG44. A couple years ago GSG made a .22LR replica of the infamous STG44. For those not familiar with history, the STG44 was designed by the Nazis at the end of WWII. It predates Kalashnikov's AK47 and Stoner's AR15. The STG44 is known to be the predecessor of the modern assault rifle. Well HMG's version will be in an assortment of calibers. It will be made in its original caliber of 7.92x33 Kurz but for those wanting a more common caliber HMG will make them in 5.56x45 , 7.62x39, and .300 BLK. Cost is a bit high at $1799 but if you compare how much a real STG44 costs, it is a real bargain.

SilencerCo brought out their Maxim9 integrally suppressed handgun. When SilencerCo first announced the Maxim9, it was built onto modified Smith & Wesson M&P9 handguns. They have switched focus and decided to build the Maxim9 around the ubiquitous Glock 17 magazine. With the popularity and availability of Glock17 magazines, it made sense to design the gun to use them. The Maxim9 will also be cut for Glock sights. They are looking into cutting the Maxim9 for RMR MRDS and integrating a light/laser system.

With regards to suppressors, none were as impressive as OSS Suppressors. While they are not new to SHOT Show 2016, they have reached out to get their product and name better known. They rented the Battlefield Vegas range for the entire week of SHOT Show. My friends and I got to go and test their system. We were inside a small indoor range with only about 8 lanes. It felt too small to be shooting such guns as full automatic belt fed M249 and Barret MRAD .338 Lapua Magnum. But my concerns were assuaged once we started shooting the guns with OSS suppressors. We were like kids in a candy store. The back wall was covered in rifles outfitted with their suppressors. There was even a .50 BMG rifle. Strangely none of the guns available to test were actually normal civilian weapons. My friend wanted to try a 16” bbl AR15 and the closest thing they had was a 14.5” SBR. Most of the guns were full auto. Shooting a .338 Lapua inside this small space was the most impressive. We got a chance to take our hearing protection off momentarily to hear the Lapua. It sounded like an unsuppressed .22LR. We were required to wear hearing protection because there was another group at the first 4 lanes and they were shooting unsuppressed.

A few months back I had the pleasure of running one of the new Century Arms C308 battle rifles through a 1,000-round torture test. While loading the magazines and firing all the ammo was positively brutal, one aspect was surprisingly easy - finding affordable magazines.

Good thing too, since most surplus G3 magazines hold 20 rounds. If you just did the math, you know I had to buy 50 magazines for the test. At face value, if someone were to say they bought 50 HK magazines of any variety, most shooters would assume that person had either hit the lottery, or had a rich uncle pass away. Let's face it, HK products aren't known for their affordability. They are however, known for being nigh-indestructible and relentlessly reliable.

The HK G3's magazines still retain that legendary reliability, but without the bank-breaking cost. There are actually two main varieties of surplus German G3 magazines available on the market today. Semi-glossy black aluminum 20-rounders, and matte dark grey steel versions of the same capacity. 

 Both are dimensionally identical, but the aluminum ones are predictably much lighter than the steel variety - they're also a bit more expensive. But like so many other things in the industry, you get what you pay for. In my experience with G3-pattern firearms, the Aluminum magazines tend to insert easier than steel ones, but they do have one small shortcoming; tensile strength.

The steel pattern magazines are so overbuilt, they would be used as stepping stools or makeshift hammers. The aluminum ones, while durable, wouldn't tolerate this sort of abuse nearly as well - at least when empty.  Once full of large, heavy .308 ammunition, the magazines resist crushing much better. 

I digress, these magazines are influenced by previous Mauser Werke designs, like the STG-44 it originated from decades before. As such, the magazines don't insert straight into the magazine well like an AR-15, but rather rock into place like an AK47 magazine. This lockup is so strong, it's next to impossible to forcefully dislodge one without utterly destroying it. 

One of the cooler things about the design, are the reinforcement ribs that run along the magazine body. They give the G3 magazines a very unique appearance, while adding strength to the relatively thin aluminum walls.

So, how do these magazines hold up compared to more modern designs? Well, they can't take the same amount of punishment as modern polymer magazines like the ubiquitous Magpul PMAGs, but they aren't as fragile as the aluminum 3-round 5.56mm HK93 either. While not as robust as their steel brethren, these magazines offer shooters a lighter weight option that looks as good as it runs. Just be careful buying used ones - sometimes these magazines get slightled deformed by previous users. The good news is that it's pretty easy to bend them back with a screwdriver. Though at their current price, it might simply be easier to buy a new one.

The IWI Tavor has brought bullpup rifles up into the spotlight of popularity. Your stereotypical bullpup was relegated as a niche oddity for collecting purposes. Such as the Steyr Aug, P90, FS2000 and most of the bullpups available in the market. Part of the populartity of the Tavor is that it is issued and tested by the IDF.

Now they have brought out the X95. The X95 is an updated versionof the Tavor SAR. One of the biggest changes is the new relocated magazine release. Instead of the trigger style mag release found on the SAR mag well, the X95 has a push button similar to an AR15.

The Tavor X95 takes AR15 style magazines and while most of them will work in the gun, there are differing degrees of compatibility. Of the various makes of magazines I have on hand, only some of them work the best. I have tested these magazines by inserting them fullly loaded, partially loaded and empty. The best magazine was the Lancer L5AWM 30 round magazine. They dropped free in any condition. The next best magazine was the Gen2 Magpul PMAG. The Gen3 did not drop free when empty and neither did my windowed Gen2 PMAG. My old first generation PMAG actually worked better than my brand new Gen 3 PMAG. It drops free when empty and is easier to load with 30 rounds than the Gen3.

Troy Battlemags work rather well but needed to be pulled out when there were rounds in the magazine. By far the worst were the Hexmag and GI mags by Okay Industries. Both types saw a lot of friction between the mag well and the magazine bodies. Those magazines were difficult to insert and did not drop free at any stage of magazine capacity.

I also tested my two 40 round magazines by ASC and Magpul. The ASC works better than the Magpul with regards to inserting the full loaded 40 rd mag on a closed bolt. The ASC can actually hold more than 40 rounds so there is enough room for the rounds and follower to move down when inserted under the pressure of the closed bolt. The Magpul 40 round PMAG was tough to insert and required a bit of physical force to insert the magazine to lock into the mag catch. The ASC does fall short of the PMAG when it comes to removing the magazine The PMAG 40 round magazine drops free but the ASC does not. In fact it catched a bit and requires upwards force when the magazine was full. When they are empty both magazines drop free with ease.

My short 10 round pmag did fit just fine in the X95 as does my Magpul D60 Drum mag. Now the D60 is interesting. It fits and you can shoot it but it will touch the inside of your wrist unless you chicken wing the X95. This will position your wrist up and away from the body of the D60.

Most magazines will work in the X95. You just need to decide what kind of performance do you want in your magazine. I like my magazines to drop free and be easy to load on a fully loaded magazine. Of course I can always lock the bolt open but on an X95 it is a bit awkward to do so. The best scenario is to shoot to bolt lock and insert the magazine on an open bolt.

The most finely made semi-auto firearm in the world isn’t worth a damn without two crucial components: quality ammunition and magazines. Without these two parts of the equation, any magazine-fed firearm quickly becomes a frustratingly unwieldy, single-shot nightmare.

Thankfully, during the last few decades, magazine development and design has kept pace with the prolific of the AR15. So America’s favorite black rifle, now has a dizzying array of magazines available for it. These range from single-shot to ultra-capacious drum magazines and are constructed from steel, aluminum and even high-impact polymer. With so many options available, picking the best one for a shooter can seem like a truly daunting affair.

In response, the editorial staff here at Gunmagwarehouse.com, are assembling a few handy guides to make the buying process easier.

Now, since the AR15 market is so vast, it’s important to first determine a shooter’s needs and desires before deciding on anything. A benchrest shooter who needs to keep his rifle as low as possible, doesn’t want or need a Magpul D60 drum, just as three-gunner would not appreciate a flush-fitting five-round magazine. Both magazines are tremendously effective in their given roles, but ill-suited to others.

The first installment of this guide sill focus on narrowing down one major aspect of a magazine design – capacity.

Though I already have to stop and add one caveat.

Certain states, and even counties within of the United States fall under magazine capacity legislation. These stem from a now-expired national law colloquially referred to as, ‘The Assault Weapons Ban’ or AWB. In the AWB, magazines capable of holding more than ten cartridges were limited to law enforcement and military use only. Shooters buying used magazines previously owned by police who bought them during the ban will often see ‘LEO’ written on them with a date. LEO is an acronym for Law Enforcement Only. – If you’re living in a state without a ban, this stamp is meaningless.

What about shooters living under such restrictions?

They should take a look at our simple guide to magazine capacity laws.

Everyone else should continue reading.

So you’re all set with legal restrictions, and want to narrow down your search for the first bullet-feeding device. The first step is to determine your rifle’s focus. If you own a varminting benchrest rifle tipping the scales at 15 pounds, you’re going to want something fairly streamlined, and low profile. Assuming no hunting capacity restrictions, the longest magazines that doesn’t protrude past the pistol grip of an AR15, is the 20-round straight magazine.

Note: Some manufacturers build limited capacity mags from full-capacity bodies. These are great for capturing the aesthetics of standard-capacity 30-round mags, but negate the low profile of magazines designed for 20 rounds of ammunition.

These types of magazines will be immediately familiar to anyone who has seen footage of the Vietnam War. US Soldiers in Vietnam armed with the original M16, were issued a few aluminum 20-round magazines. The short length of these magazines allowed infantryman to fire their rifle while prone, or laying down.  While these magazines often get a bad rap for being unreliable, they’re actually quite good if properly maintained. Though the biggest issue with them, like all aluminum magazines, is durability; step on an empty aluminum magazine once, and odds are it won’t feed correctly ever again.

What about classic 30-round magazines?

These are the jack-of-all-trades of the AR15 magazine world. Note quite perfect for anything, but more than good enough for everything. The best part about 30-round magazines is compatibility and commonality.

Nearly every AR15 mag carrier on the market today is designed for a standard 30-round magazine. These are the most ubiquitous and affordable magazines available for the AR15 platform. Dozens of manufacturers make them in dozens of colors, but they all adhere to STANAG guidelines. 

STANAG, or Standard Agreement NATO, is a set of design guidelines that list every conceivable aspect of the 30-round AR15/M16 magazine’s design. The purpose of the agreement is to ensure magazine compatibility between member armies of NATO in times of crisis.

But I digress, these magazines are great for three-gunners as they strike a great balance among weight, capacity and size. They’re not so large as to snag on obstacles when running, but still offer shooters a respectable amount of in-rifle ammunition supply that doesn’t ruin the gun’s balance or user’s back.

Higher capacity, non-drum magazines

Other common magazines in competitive circles are 40-round or greater variants. Some of these are simply a standard 30-round magazine body with a replacement baseplate that facilitates more ammunition, while others are purpose-built.

Most shooters shy away from these as they seem awkward, but they’re great for extended plinking at the range and especially run-and-gun competitions where shooters aren’t penalized for magazine capacity. Certain shooting sport disciplines like three-gun or steel challenge feature stages with target-rich environments.

Shooters racing the clock to engage these targets will often go too fast and miss several, costing them precious seconds. Miss enough, and you’ll be forced to perform a magazine change in the middle of the stage, and waste even more time. For these instances, less isn’t more. More is more, so competitors want as much ammo as they can carry. So when 40 or 45-round mags aren’t enough, they turn to drums.

Drum Magazines

Drum magazines are named for their resemblance to the percussion instrument with the same moniker. These ultra-capacious magazines use a giant clock spring to wind ammunition around a outward spiraling cylinder.

These mags hold anywhere from 50 to 120 rounds of ammunition and can feature either a single, or pair of drums like the Beta Company drums. Drums are great for three things. Plinking, certain competitions and photographs; nothing makes a gun look meaner than a giant drum hanging off it.

Almost like an instrument of freedom.

Whichever capacity a shooter determines is best for them, it’s important to practice with it regularly. Rapidly slamming home a 30-round Magpul PMAG is worlds apart from trying to quickly change BETA C drums. Stay tuned for part two, coming next month as part of our giant magazine-buying guide for the AR15.

What is co-witnessing? You may have heard this term mentioned in various gun forums and Facebook groups. It is a term that means an optic is in line with the iron sights on a firearm. So that when you look through your iron sights your optic reticle should line up with the irons when you aim.

Why would you want to do this? If you have a good red dot that is rugged and has a great battery life, like the highly praised Aimpoint T1, then you might not need iron sights on your gun. However having iron sights on your gun are great in the rare chances that your optic battery dies or even worse the optic breaks and you cannot see through the optic anymore.

But why does it matter that the irons and optic all line up? Ease of use is one feature. Bringing up your gun and aiming it, you get used to seeing the same sight picture. If you have folding iron sights you can leave them down and then if the battery dies, you just flip up the iron sights. That way you can still see through the optic to see your front sight post and aim.

There are other benefits besides having a back up system for your rifle. If you have a good red dot with clear reticle, like a 2moa dot, then the dot will help you be more precise than your ordinary front sight post. You can even zero the irons to a different distance than your red dot. By having two different zeroes, one for your irons and one for your red dot, you can actually accurately engage targets a varying distances. For example, you could set up your irons for a battel zero of 50 yards. The ballistics of 5.56 say that a 50 yard zero is the same for a 200 yard zero. So now you can engage 200 yard targets. Well what about the red dot? You could zero it for a 300 or 400 yards.

You could also use your irons as a quick zeroing benchmark for when you get a new red dot. That is assuming your iron sights are zeroed in already. If so then you just mount your co-witnessing red dot and adjust the reticle to line up with the front sight post. This comes in handy if you invest in a good red dot and swap it onto different guns. You can quickly re-zero the red dot to the each gun you mount it onto.

Now there are some things you need to know about co-witnessing an optic. This really only works with red dots. Your traditional magnified scopes will not work simply because you cannot clearly see your front sight. That does not mean you shouldn't have back up iron sights they just wont be able to work with the scope simultaneously. Unless you go with angled iron sights and shift the sight plane to the side of your gun.

When co-witnessing a red dot with iron sights, the height of the red dot will determine what type of co-witness you have. Absolute Co-witness is when you look through your iron sights, they line up in the middle of the eye piece and block most of the sight picture. Not an issue if your iron sights can fold. It helps to at least have a folding rear sight if you have a fixed front sight on your rifle. Some red dots sit higher on the gun and you can get a lower 1/3 co-witness where your iron sights only occupt the lower third of the sight picture thereby obscurring less of your view.

There are some guns that you might not be able to co-witness due to the design and location of the iron sights. Such is the case for man of the H&K rifles. MP5 style weapons have iron sights that sit very low on the upper receiver. Other H&K guns like the G3, G36, and UMP all suffer from this problem. The rail for an optic sits too high in relation to the iron sights that it is impossible to co-witness the iron sights with a regular red dot sight.

In the case of the CZ-USA Scorpion Evo3, the factory sights sit rather low. An aimpoint or similar red dot will not co-witness unless you mount it directly to the rail. Smaller pistol red dot sights like the Burris Fastfire or Trijicon RMR rail mounted co-witness nicely with the factory sights on the Scorpion.

In the case of handguns you can have iron sights co-witness a slide mounted red dot. Guns like the FNH FNX-45 Tactical and the Smith & Wesson M&P C.O.R.E. all have tall suppressor sights mounted to the slide. Then a pistol mini red dot sight is counter sunk into the slide. By raising the irons and lowering the optic, you can co-witness a red dot on a hand gun. by having your irons co-witness thru a slide mounted red dot, you avoid "chasing the dot". The iron sights give you a reference point when you bring your gun up and sight the irons. When the front and rear sight are aligned the red dot you be right there. Without irons often shooters spend time trying to move the pistol around to see the dot. The other added benefit is if the battery in the red dot dies, you can still aim with the iron sights.

Our previous entry on AR-15 magazines read like a strange combination of choose your own adventure, and a buyer’s guide to these little capacious cartridge-carrying commodities. It helped readers decide on the best magazine to fit their wants and needs for America’s favorite rifle.

This second entry into the series assumes readers decided that in the battle between polymer and metal magazines, they choose polymer. (Don’t worry traditionalists, a metal companion piece will go live later this month as well.)

Polymer magazines are a great choice for shooters who want the lightest, most durable method of carrying rounds for their rifle or carbine. While Magpul Dynamics is responsible for the rise in popularity of these magazines, polymer mags have been around for much longer than Magpul.

Technically, the first mass-produced polymer magazine was made in Russia from what is erroneously referred to as Bakelite. The faux-wood material used in old radios, jewelry and ICBM warheads is actually different from what the Reds employed in their wooden-like magazines.

The Soviet used a substance called AG4, and was one of the first Nylon-based polymers invented. Unlike most polymer magazines today, the AKM AG4 magazines are ultra-rigid, somewhat brittle and feature a glossy finish – not exactly high speed low drag.

The West didn’t produce a comparable polymer magazine for America’s favorite black rifle until the 1960’s when William Howard of Wilson, NC founded Thermold Magazines in an attempt to sell the idea to the US military. He sought to replace aging stocks of USGI STANAG magazines whose performance left many wanting.

While the US didn’t show any interest in the mags, the Canadian military did. Our Northern neighbors purchased tens of thousands of magazines for their C-series of M16 derivatives and have been mostly happy with them. The only exception is when running blanks on full auto. After several magazine dumps the rifles would get hot enough to melt the feed lips of the Thermolds, earning them the dubious nickname, ‘Thermelts’. 

Between the production of Thermolds and Magpul PMAGs, the Israelis also tried their hand at a polymer AR15 magazine. The result was the Orlite magazine. Some shooters wear by these mags, but I’m not one of them. In my experience, these magazines are less reliable than standard aluminum magazines, and should thus be avoided unless ultra-cheap or free.

Since both of these magazines, and many imitators have been around for so long, the used market if positively flooded with sub-standard polymer mags. So shooters not in the know often get burned buying anything but magazines from mainstream companies like Magpul. While these PMAGs are undeniable the gold standard for AR15 magazines, there are other equal and even superior options, provided shooters are wiling to pay for them. Rather than have shooters suffer through several bad buys, I’ve condensed six polymer AR15 magazines every AR15 owner should have.

HexMag HX30-AR Magazine

We recently posted an article about the maker of these geometric pattern magazines, but they’re newsworthy on their own. These high-impact polymer magazines feature blaze orange anti-tilt followers that make is easy to check their status, while reliably feeding rounds to your favorite carbine.

For shooters looking to shave every ounce from their setup, the HexMag HX is one of the lightest magazines available for the AR15. They use a fiber reinforced polymer which is lighter than the polymer used in most polymer AR15 magazines, while featuring a heat-treated 17-7 PH stainless steel spring for years of consistent performance. Available in 30, 15 and 10 round capacities.

Lancer L5AWM

What happens when an aerospace composites manufacturer attempts to build the perfect AR15 magazine? The Lancer Systems L5 Advanced Warfighter Magazine.

These ultra-durable polymer magazines are available in several color variations including translucent white and gray, as well as opaque solids like FDE and standard black.  But it’s not what’s on the outside that sets these exceptional magazines apart from competitors, it’s what on the inside.

Steel.

Unlike more prolific polymer body AR15 magazines, the Lancer series of mags feature steel reinforced feed lips and collar. While this makes the magazines slightly heavier than most, it ensures they’ll tolerate hard use and abuse for years – and still continue to feed properly. A favorite of competition shooters, these magazines are the author’s favorite. They even reside in his personal defense carbine, and competition rifle.

Elite Tactical Systems Group Magazine

These smoky, translucent magazines are a more recent arrival to the polymer magazine scene, but are an excellent addition nonetheless. Constructed of an extra rigid proprietary polymer compound, they boost increased resistance to feed lip cracking caused by drops. Particularly, landing on those feed lips while loaded.

The magazines feature pronounced reinforcement ribs along the bottom half of the magazine body, and an oversized baseplate with a polymer cartridge protruding from the base. This faux round is actually the magazine disassembly button, that when pressed allows the baseplate to be slid forward and free of the mag body. This makes maintenance and cleaning a rapid, effortless affair.

One feature not found on any other polymer AR15 magazine, is the built-in coupler system. This allows magazines to be attached to one and other in the same style as so-called jungle magazines. It’s a nice feature for shooters who wish to keep a reload close at hand, but don’t want to buy a separate coupling system.

Troy Industries BattleMag

Troy Industries made a name for itself with high quality railed handguards, effective muzzle devices and other well-made firearm accessories. It was a logical choice for them to create a quality magazine to go along with all their other products.

Featuring a fish-scale pattern body and ultra-slim profile, these magazines avoid the pitfall most polymer magazine fall into: snagging on magazine carrier pouches.

Available in multiple colors including FDE, black and olive drab, these tough mags also include an optional, extended baseplate tab to facilitate easier extraction from pouches and carriers. The polymer used in these magazines isn’t as hard as that employed on the ETS magazine, and even feels somewhat spongy. Though this extra, ‘give’ permits the magazines to bend when others might break. These magazines are available in a pinned 10, and standard 30 round capacity.

Plus they have the distinction of being sold in-stores at many non-firearm-centric sporting goods shops, so picking up some in a pinch won’t involve next-day air shipping.

Tapco Intrafuse

Tapco often gets an unfair shake in the gun world. Many shooters dismiss their products as second rate, based solely on the reputation of its AK furniture components. While I admit I was a little biased towards that magazines myself, after running them for a few hundred rounds I have to say I’m impressed.

While the aesthetics of the magazine will turn some shooters off, their functionality will not. They utilize quality anti-tilt FDE followers and heavy duty magazine springs to provide consistent, reliable feeding. The pronounced magazine ribs that many elitists bemoan, are actually integral to reinforcing the design and provide increased rigidity that allows the magazines to tolerate harder use.

While the nylon-filled polymer used in their construction might not be as cutting edge as others on the list, Intrafuse magazines make great range mags and can often be found for very cheap. Plus if a shooter manages to destroy one, Tapco has great customer service that will be happy to replace any faulty items.

Magpul PMAG

The gold standard of AR15 magazines introduced the masses to the wonders of polymer construction. Originally founded selling Magpuls, or loops that attached to STANAG magazines that made them easier to retrieve from a magazine pouch, Magpul has built an empire.

From polymer magazines to iPhone cases, the brand of Magpul has built a cult of personality around their high quality products, and the zeal of those followers. Though this zeal isn’t misplaced, their magazines are much lighter and more durable than the STANAGs they sought to dethrone. But now that they aren’t the only major polymer magazine-maker, are they still as relevant?

In a world: absolutely.

The same reasons that enamored shooters to them more than a decade ago still stand strong today: dependability, durability quality and a fair price. At the risk of sounding like a paid advertisement, these magazines are flawless as both range and home defense choices.  They might not be as durable as some of the more advanced examples above, but shooters will be hard-pressed to find a more reliable, durable magazine for the price.

Polymer AR15 magazines offer shooters the best solution to keeping their favorite rifle fed, without extra bulk or weight. On top of that, they’re far more durable than aluminum AR15 magazines, immune to rust and are virtually crush-proof. They can be somewhat tricky to pull from carriers and vest pockets on newer apparel, but once broken in are great.

Given the price of magazines now, shooters looking to get serious about shooting should buy cheap, and stack deep.  After all, the best magazine in the world is the one closest at hand when you need it.

Hexmag, the polymer AR-15 magazine manufacturer known for its hexagonal-pattern designs and iconic orange-on-black aesthetics, announced it has been awarded patent protection for their True Riser System.  Hexmag made the announcement on their website, Hexmag.com, a few days ago.

“Hexmag has recently been awarded the patent on our True Riser in our 10 and 15 round magazines. This patent is very important to us as we have developed an evolutionary system to offer factory made 10 and 15 round magazines for capacity restricted states.”

Russian magazine makers use a similar, but more rudimentary system for restricting capacity on otherwise full-size magazines, although theirs isn’t very durable, often interferes with the follower’s smooth operation, and is designed to be removed by the user once stateside. Hexmag apparently has designed a proprietary method of circumventing this issue, while retaining a full-sized magazine body.

“The Hexmag True Riser system for standard size Hexmag magazines was carefully engineered with the AR-15 consumer in capacity restricted states in mind. You get a standard size magazine that is magazine pouch friendly, looks natural in your AR-15, and can still be dissembled for normal, routine cleaning/maintenance or to change the HexID system. It features our patented True Riser and a short spring. The True Riser brings the base of the spring up mimicking, internally, a dedicated 10 or 15 round tiny magazine without the drawbacks of a tiny magazine. This has all been done here at the Hexmag facility to eliminate 3rd party dealer “blocking”, “pinning”, or “gluing” the magazines. Ultimately saving the dealer and consumer considerable amounts of money.”

One aspect not mentioned is the fact that some aftermarket pinning operations are ugly and could potentially be removed by accident if roughly handled. The last thing any law-abiding citizen wants is to accidently dislodge the pin, and potentially land themselves in a world of legal trouble. Especially if said magazine were employed in a self-defense scenario. Regardless of the scenario, this system is a huge advancement, and we here at GunMagWarehouse are proud to offer an extensive collection of Hexmag AR-15 magazines.

"Hexmag 10 and 15 round magazines have the same MSRP as the standard capacity 30 round Hexmag magazines of $14.99. Our HX10/30 10 round magazines were made for California, New York, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, Chicago, Connecticut, Washington DC. The Hexmag HX15/30 15 round magazines were made for New Jersey and Colorado. If you live in one of these states or areas with a magazine capacity restriction you are not alone, rest assured that Hexmag has your back. All Hexmag magazines come with a Lifetime Warranty. For more information, please visit the Hexmag 10 and 15 round magazine page on our website.”

As someone who once lived in Boston, I can truly appreciate companies creating products for consumers stuck in less ‘gun-friendly’ areas. This is certainly great news for folks still living ‘behind the curtain’ looking for high-quality magazines at an affordable price. Hopefully we’ll see this begin shipping soon!

After more than two decades of absence from the civilian market, Heckler and Koch today announced the return of a semi-automatic only version of their ubiquitous MP5 to the American market. The roller-delayed handgun has proven increasingly popular in recent years, with many overseas manufacturers introducing their own variants.

The press release reads:

 “Designed and manufactured as a civilian pistol, the SP5K marks the return of the roller delayed blowback operating system to an HK commercial product. This system is well-known for its accuracy and reliability. Originally developed on the G3 rifle, it has been used on many of Heckler & Koch's most memorable firearms of the last 60 years.

"The SP5K is a unique and historic HK pistol that captures the essence of the legendary MP5K but as a semi-auto handgun,"said Michael Holley, HK-USA Vice President for Commercial Sales and Marketing. "It's equipped with a special ergonomic handguard that protects the shooter's supporting hand and enables a stable and comfortable grip. A bungee cord sling is also included and makes shooting an SP5K easy. It's a fun gun to shoot and goes a long way in recreating the experience of handling and firing a real MP5 subgun."

“The SP5K duplicates the quality and fine details of the MP5, including its precision machined components. The same cold-hammer forged barrel used on the MP5K is found on the SP5K, ensuring a service life of tens of thousands of rounds. The SP5K is manufactured completely in Heckler & Koch's Oberndorf factory in southwest Germany. 

 “As a large size handgun that uses the proven roller delayed blowback system, the SP5K's inherent accuracy makes it an excellent choice for target shooting and an ideal household security arm. 

“A wide variety of accessories can be added to increase its functionality. A Picatinny rail scope mount is attached to the upper receiver and allows optional sights to be easily mounted. The SP5K also comes "ready-for-action" in a custom-fitted, lockable, high-quality carrying case.

“Covered by Heckler & Koch's limited lifetime warranty, the HK SP5K is a faithful rendering of the iconic MP5K as a semi-automatic pistol. Projected availability is July 2016 with a MSRP of $2699.”

With more affordable options already flooding in, it remains to be seen if Heckler and Koch can recapture the roller-delayed market. One thing is for sure, rumors of the roller-delayed system's death have been grossly exaggerated.

May’s magazine of the month, is the extended .45 Glock stick-mag from SGM Tactical. Formally known as Surefire Gun Magazine company, SGM Tactical made a name for itself selling affordable, standard-capacity, polymer Saiga 12 shotgun magazines in the early 2000s.

These were well received by Saiga enthusiasts, and eventually led to the company venturing into new products like their flush-fitting Glock magazines in various calibers ranging from 9mm para to .45 ACP. Previously, the only option for extended Glock magazines were imported ones that lacked any metal reinforcement, or high-quality, high-price factory examples in 9mm.

Factory-made extended mags were limited to 9mm, as they were initially designed for the select-fire version of the Glock 17, the Glock 18. These were prohibitively expensive, and only functioned with 9mm Glock pistols. Shooters with other calibers had no recourse until SGM brought their new products to market.

Though they aren’t limited to simply functioning in Glock pistols. Several pistol caliber carbines like the Kriss Vector are designed to utilize the ultra-durable, ubiquitous polymer-bodied magazines. Indeed, due to their durability and reliable feeding, these magazines have become the gold standard for pistol caliber carbines. The fact that they also function in Glock safe-action pistols isn’t just an added bonus, but an integral piece of a bigger, logistical plan.

 Preppers, and pragmatists alike can appreciate a carbine and pistol sharing not only caliber, but also magazines. This makes keeping both fed during times of upheaval and uncertainly dramatically simpler.

Logistical boons aside, these SGM magazines are a fantastic investment and a great way to extend your shooting/practice sessions at the range. They increase the Glock 21’s magazine capacity from 12 to 21 rounds of hard-hitting .45 ammunition. This makes them ideal for home defense scenarios, where racing hearts and adrenaline rushes make accurate fire challenging.

Also, these magazines utilize heavy duty feeding springs, a self-leveling follower steel body reinforcements and even witness holes at the rear.  

When coupled with a quality tactical light, expanding defensive ammunition and sound suppressor, this makes an ideal home defense tool. One with a proven record of fight-stopping capabilities that won’t damage shooter’s hearing or dangerously over penetrate. Shooters looking to keep their Glock or .45 ACP-caliber carbine fed, should take a serious look at SGM Tactical’s extended magazines. 

Magpul 20-round AK PMAG Review

When I first saw the announcement for Magpul AK mags, my initial thought was something like, ‘why bother?’ Not because Magpul doesn’t make great kit, they absolutely do. More because steel AK magazines are next to indestructible, and at the time, dirt cheap. Once these little steel mags started rising in price, I began to take a more critical look at them.

Certainly, these robust communist relics are durable as hell, but they’re also quite heavy. Not necessarily for range use, plinking or hunting – but stick six or more loaded steel magazines in a backpack or carrier and polymer magazines start sounding better and better.

The only hurdle standing in Magpul Dynamics’ way were Bulgarian circle 10 magazines. Long considered the gold standard of polymer magazines, these waffle-pattern, steel reinforced magazines proved every bit as durable as their steel counterparts at a fraction of the weight. For a short time, these Bulgarian beauties were plentiful, and affordable -but slowly, almost unperceivably, their price began to slowly rise. Now these one inexpensive magazines run close to $50 each, when shooters can find them in stock.

For shooters like myself who like to have at least ten magazines for any given rifle, this was just too expensive.  Leaving shooters to choose between heavy and affordable, or lightweight and expensive.

This is where Magpul AK PMAGs come in.

Lighweight, affordable and built from the same high-strength polymer as the AR15 magazines that built the company’s name, the AK PMAG is ideal for modern AK enthusiasts. Especially those that wish to purchase a dozen or so and run them hard.

Initially, AK purists and Bulgarian Circle 10 fan alike, bemoaned the PMAG’s lack of metal reinforcements. Rightfully so, while unimportant for most shooters who don’t take their mags to war, the lacking tab on an AK magazine must be reinforced to ensure longevity. This is due to how the magazine locks up in the rifle.

Unlike STANAG or AR15 magazines that insert straight up into the magazine well, retained by a magazine catch – AK magazines use a lip at the front and tab at the rear to lock and rock into place. This lip needs extra reinforcement since dropping the rifle on its magazine (or performing a Spetsnaz pushup) applies crowbar-like pressure on the mag itself.

In response, Magpul released a new version of the magazine featuring steel reinforcement at critical locations. The magazine is more expensive and slightly heavier than the originals, but offers peace of mind to shooters who regularly use and abuse their equipment.

While great news for most shooters, folks like myself still yearned for another Magpul option. One that would replace the increasingly expensive Hungarian AK magazines, with lighter construction than metal Korean 20-round magazines.

I know what you’re thinking, ‘but Magpul released a 10-round version, isn’t that good enough?’

In a word, no.

While the 10-round magazine is great for placating politicians and bench-rest shooting, it’s not capacious enough for serious use.  In particular, as the ideal magazine for a truck gun or bugout rifle.

Which is why I was so thrilled at the recent announcement from Magpul – a 20-round AK PMAG!

These magazines are completely polymer, and incredibly lightweight. Normally, I’d be concerned with their lack of metal reinforcements, but given their truncated length, they don’t have as much mechanical advantage applied to them as the full-length 30-rounders.

In testing, the magazines performed predictably great, with no malfunctions whatsoever in six test guns: a Romanian SAR-1, a Serbian N-PAP, an RAS-47, a C39, a milled Arsenal SAM7-SF, and an Arsenal SGL-21. This sample selection covers el cheapo all the way up to one of Arsenal’s most expensive products. In every single one of these guns, the magazine had solid lock up and zero wobble.

 After extensive testing, I’m replacing the steel, 20-round Hungarian magazine in my bugout AK with a Magpul 20 round AK PMAG. The weight savings, and ease of insertion/removal more than make up for any tensile strength concerns. Plus, given the magazine’s low cost, can be replaced for less than a third of the cost of a Hungarian mag.

It may ruffle the feathers of more traditional shooters, or AK purists – but pragmatists and any shooter who simply wants a light, handy option for their Avtomat that allows them to carry a good amount of ammo and shoot from the prone position, needs one of these magazines. That said, hopefully Magpul will release a steel reinforced version in the near future. If not, I won’t leave any sleep, but atl east it would silence the naysayers.

Some people have mistaken Sand PMAGs for Flat Dark Earth PMAGs. Unfortunately they are not the same at all. Flat Dark Earth (FDE) has been made ubiquitous by Magpul. However their new Gen M3 magazines only come in black or sand. These sand colored magazines look almost white and something akin to the color of vanilla ice cream. This makes it difficult to color coordinate with your gear and gun.

However this does not mean your should forgo a sand PMAG or get rid of your sand PMAGs. They are the perfect platform for dyeing custom colors.

As shown in the Magpul video above, dyeing a sand PMAG is easy. It does not even require the use of the outdoors and a camp fire. You can do it in your home.

You will need a few items. Rit Dye is what they use to dye the sand PMAG a different color. Rit Dye comes in either a bottle of liquid dye or a box of dry powdered dye. These can easily be found in the laundry detergent aisle at your local Walmart. Next you will need a sand PMAG of course, and while you are at Walmart go pick up a disposable tin pan. This will hold the dye and allow you to dip and soak the PMAG in dye. Optional is the use of a metal wire coat hanger. The coat hanger makes it easier to lower and raise the PMAG in and out of the dyed water. Be careful with the dyed water as it is not safe to be ingested so if you are working around your kitchen be mindful of where you spill.

To start dyeing the PMAG get hot water, boiling if possible. Fill the pan with enough hot water to cover the PMAG. Make sure you have a clean PMAG when you try dyeing it. Add the Rit Dye to the hot water. If you have the liquid bottle version then make sure you shake it up before pouring it into the pan. If you have the powdered Rit Dye, then just empty the contents into the hot water and stir until it is dissolved.

Set up the wire coat hanger and disassemble a sand PMAG so that the PMAG slides over it and it holds on well.

Dip the PMAG in the hot water. I went with yellow Rit Dye to be a little different. It took about 20 minutes to get the level of yellow I was happy with.

Check on the PMAG's status every couple of minutes to see how well it took the dye. Once you have achieved the desired color saturation, rinse the PMAG in cold water. Now some colors of Rit Dye are misleading and have surprising results. I tried to dye a 30rd PMAG with Pearl Gray and it came out blue.

BEFORE

AFTER

Even Rit Dye's Camel color is not what it shows on the box. It turned out a bright green color.

I tried to salvage the blue PMAG and dipped it in the camel colored dye. It came out rather well. I also wrapped the blue PMAG in Saran Wrap to block off sections to keep the blue color. It looks like one of the velociraptors from Jurassic World.

When dyeing with multiple colors, just remember that you can always go darker. But you cannot go from dark to light. For example, you cannot dye a black PMAG.

Dyeing a Sand PMAG does take some trial and error so go slowly. Test smaller parts like the base plate and dust cover.

Anibal Salinas of @Weapons_armament_research customized his Glock so he can see how much ammo is left in the gun. He uses an ETS Glock magazine which have transparent mag bodies. He cut a hole into the grip and epoxied clear windows into the grip. He says it is as strong as the factory grip as far as he can tell. Live fire testing still needs to be done but it looks great.

Seeing into the gun and knowing how much ammo is in it can be a benefit. It is like a fuel gauge in your car. You know how much gas you have without pulling over, and trying to look into your gas tank or try using some sort of dipstick to check your fuel. Same with running a gun. Shooters will count their shots and in some instances have an idea they are low and swap out their mag for a fresh one. Here you know exactly how many rounds you have left in your gun.

While some internet tough guys pretend they’re, ‘Ministers of death, praying for war’ the reality of having to use a firearm for home defense is a grim, terrifying one. Making the decision to defend one’s home and loved ones with lethal force seems like an obvious choice for many gun owners, but it isn’t so cut and dry for everyone.

Personally, I couldn’t live with myself if I had the chance to stop any terrible harm befalling my family – and while that may be the most ethical choice for me, it’s one that gun owners shouldn’t take lightly. Taking a human life, no matter how justified, takes a toll on our souls, or for you more agnostic readers, our psyche.

Though the cost of saving the lives of you and your family may be more material.

Even if you’ve steeled yourself to the idea of that, courts are full of easily influenced jurors and blood-thirsty prosecutors. While the extent of which greatly depends on your home state – Texas is a different world compared to California. Also, even if you’re found innocent, unscrupulous family members of your assailant will go after every cent you’ve ever earned.

Once a shooter has made the choice to at least consider the use of deadly force, they must fully commit if they truly care about the outcome.

Think of it like the meek drivers who slowly attempt to merge into fast-moving traffic before getting slammed by a semi. While their milquetoast mentality buys them a few moments more on this Earth, their reluctance to take the initiative ultimately leads to disaster.

Does that shooters should pounce at the thought of engaging in a firefight with every mysterious sound they hear in their homes?

Not at all, it means being prepared both physically and mentally are equally as important.

When you awake at three in the morning to the sound of your daughter screaming in fright and the icy sound of shattering windows, it’s too late to ponder the moral quandary of having to shoot a man.

If you’re wondering what on Earth that has to do with picking a magazine, it’s all related. Though for me, I believe I would be remiss to not mention the cold hard realities of the situation. That said, part of being prepared for dangerous situations at home, is having good, reliable equipment.

If a shooter is worried about their equipment not performing, they aren’t 100 percent focused on the task at hand. This is true for competition, target shooting or home defense; though each requires a unique approach and solution.

As I mentioned in my AR15 magazines guide, extended magazines are great for competition use, but their ungainly weight and added length/bulk make them a poor choice for navigating the tight hallways of a residential home.

The key to picking the perfect home defense magazine, is to set out certain practical ideals for the magazine, and choose a solution that meets or exceeds as many of those metrics as possible. For this guide, I’m going to use my own metrics, but I’ll present them in such a format that they can be tailored for other shooters.

The five areas I use to narrow down my selection are reliability, durability capacity size and weight.

“But Jim, you forgot price!”

I didn’t forget price, I intentionally excluded it.

When picking any product that could potentially safe your (or someone who love’s) life, cost should be the least influential aspect. After all, would you skimp on a life jacket or seat belt for your child because it was a hundred bucks more than you budgeted for?

(Don’t answer, it’s a rhetorical question)

Reliability

So we’ll start with reliability. This is a content for basically every firearm decision you ever make, save for collectors and such. An auto-loading firearm is an expensive, awkward single-shot piece of junk if its magazines aren’t feeding correctly.

The best way to determine which magazine runs best in your given firearm is to test dozens of variations and eliminate them based on your personally experienced failures, while minimizing as many variables as possible. So shooters should load the same ammunition they intend to use in a home defense scenario. Also, be sure to clean the gun between tests.

This is prohibitively expensive for most shooters, so I normally suggest narrowing down your selection to three examples: what the military uses, (if a military uses the gun) what competition shooters use and what the factory ships the gun with. 

For example, we’ll use the AR-15.

The US Military issues their rifles with STANAG aluminum magazines, but soldiers often purchase polymer Magpul PMAGS, making both of these an acceptable solution. On the competition side, Magpul and Lancer L5 Warfighter magazines rule the day. As for factory magazines, most tactical rifles today ship with Magpul PMAGS for two reasons: they work, and they’re inexpensive.

So we’ve got our selection to USGI Aluminum 30-round magazines, Magpul PMAGs and Lancer Systems L5AWM mags.

Durability

Further narrowing down the selection process, let’s take the next metric into consideration – durability. My personal favorite test for this is as simple as it is effective, a drop test.

Get somewhere high enough to drop your fully-loaded magazines approximately ten feet onto concrete. (Note: do not throw them, you want to let gravity determine their velocity, now your arm strength)

Inspect each magazine for anything other than cosmetic damage, and discard any with cracks.

For me, this resulted in the elimination of the USGI aluminum magazine, whose body deformed and prevented the magazine from fitting any magazine wells. The Magpul magazine regurgitated about a half dozen rounds and showed minor scuffing, while the Lancer lost a single cartridge and scrapped its baseplate.

Since these magazines will reside at my bedside, this test was sufficient to determine their ability to withstand abuse. If I were going to deploy somewhere with mechanized infantry, I’d like test how well these mags tolerate being ran over by heavy vehicles.  – Always tailor your test to the target environment, and make sure not to go overboard. If my favorite magazine melts inside a hot oven or stop .50 BMG rounds, that doesn’t invalidate an otherwise completely reliable performance.

Also, after these durability tests, be sure to use a fresh example for home defense: there’s no sense in taking chances on an invisible crack or hairline fracture. Though you should obviously run your unsullied version through your chosen home defense firearm a few times just in case.

Capacity and Size

With reliability and durability out of the way, it’s time to address capacity and the directly-related issue of size. For the foreseeable future, the larger the magazine, the more rounds it holds -at least until we manage to capture tiny black holes to endless streams of ammunition.

As such, picking an ultra-capacious magazine tends to have diminishing returns; especially if the host firearm has a sizable magazine well like the AR15. More on that in a moment.

For now, I take a page from the Roman architectural playbook, and ascribe to a golden ratio of magazine-to-rifle size.  Unlike the Roman ratio, mine is a nice easy whole number – one.

I try to make the magazine extend no further than the lowest handing portion of the firearm itself – this obviously doesn’t apply to tube-fed firearms. For guns like the traditional-stocked Ruger Mini-14, this is a little tricky as the stock only extends downward far enough to accommodate a 10-round magazine.  But, extending past that isn’t as big of concern since the Mini has such a low profile.

For the more prolific AR15, I try to pick magazines that doesn’t extend past the pistol grip if possible. I do this because it makes shooting from either a prone or supported position much easier. From the prone, this means not having to balance the rifle on its magazine. For shooting supported or from cover, it’s one less protrusion to get snagged while manipulating the rifle.

Keeping your defensive tool compact means making it more maneuverable in close quarters and tight hallways. It also makes you more mobile. Another contributing factor to this is weight.

 Weight

One can ascribe to my ratio theory, and still have a tremendously capacious magazine – just look at the Beta Company drum, it barely protrudes past the pistol grip and holds a whopping 100 rounds of 5.56mm ammo.

It’s made of plastic, yet it weighs a freakin’ ton, because it holds a ton of ammunition. This is fine, if you’re not concerned with moving around with your firearm. So shooters who either don’t have children or family members residing in their homes can pick as high a capacity magazine as their budget or local laws permit.

But if there is even a small chance you’ll be forced to venture out from your bedroom to rescue children or elderly relatives, this weight can be a curse. Manipulating a long arm indoors is already pretty difficult. Add extra bulk and weight and the logistics of flipping light switches and turning door knobs while one-handing a fully-loaded carbine becomes daunting.

This advice, like most I give, is situational, and carries a caveat. – Ideally, when dealing with an armed home invader, shooters should take a defensive position in their bedroom facing the only means of egress. Then, call 911, explain that someone is in your house, you’re armed and are currently in fear of your life.

Most importantly, nothing in your house is worth dying for that isn’t alive – if you can help it at all, stay put. It’s always easier to defend than attack.

The Sig MPX magazines are manufactured by Lancer Systems for Sig Sauer. Inside the magazine is a base plate that the spring pushes against and locks the magazine floor plate in position. The base plate has a long protrusion that hits the magazine follower too soon.

If you look into the magazine you can see there is still space for the spring to be compressed.

Using a punch or similar tool, push the base plate up and slide the floor plate off. Use your left thumb to keep the base plate and spring from flying out. Remove the contents.

Remove the black base plate from the bottom of the mag spring. You might need a flat head screw driver to pry the spring out of the little hole in the base plate.

Next pick a spot and cut the protrusion down. I was a little conservative and cut it in the middle. Then reinstall the spring.

Reassemble the magazine and load the ammo. On the first try I was only able to fit 34 rounds of 9mm in the magazine. You could chop all the way to the hole for the mag spring but keep that hole as it holds the spring in place.

Now you have 35 rounds of 9mm in your Sig MPX magazine.

In the competitive shooting world and in some cases defensive training world many people uses extensions on their Glock magazines. The added benefit is obviously more ammo without having to reload. Other added benefits is adding a bumper to insert the mag if you have a mag well on your Glock grip. Most people are aware of the Glock 17rd magazine and the 32rd extended magazine.

Well in the world of competition magazine size is strictly regulated. In Production class you can only use factory magazines loaded to 10 rounds. In Limited division you can use magazines up wo 140mm in length. And in open division you can use magazine as long as 170mm in length. Unfortunately the extended 32 rd Glock magazine is not allowed in many competitions. However with the onset of Pistol Caliber Carbine division in USPSA the provisional rules do not limit the size of the magazines. This is simply due to the wide variety of pistol caliber carbines like the MP5, MPX, Sterling MK4 etc that have long 30+rd magazines.

If USPSA doesn't rule on this then an extended 30rd Glock magazine can be further extended an additional 12 rounds. Introducing the Taylor Freelance +12rd extension.

Using the Taylor Freelance +12 extension on a standard 17rd Glock magazine makes it 29 rounds and stays in the 170mm size constraint for open division.

Here is the 29rd extended Glock mag next to a 30rd SGM Tactical magazine.

One issue I discovered with the 29rd magazine is that the Taylor Freelance extension hits my ALG Defense mag well and the magazine will not seat properly in the Glock 17.

However I did not get the Taylor Freelance extension for shooting my Glock handgun. I got it to feed my Kel-Tec Sub2000 Gen 2.

Now I have 42+1 rounds in my Kel-Tec Sub2000. However I will download to 40 rds so I can insert the magazine on a closed bolt.

The recent terrorist attack in Orlando is among the gravest tragedies in American history. More than 50 innocent people lost their lives to abhorrent acts committed by a zealous psychopath bent on spreading hate and fear throughout the United States.

This deplorable act of terrorism has many political, religious and foreign policy causes, but American gun control isn’t among them. Despite this, many politicians have demanded tighter gun laws, believing that new legislation would have prevented this and future tragedies -  despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Unfortunately for supporters of the Second Amendment, anti-gun politicians believe the most auspicious time to pass these laws is in the immediate wake of any tragedy involving a firearm. They’ll talk about so-called, ‘Military-type Assault Weapons’ (WARNING: this site may require a tin foil hat to read without brain damage) and regurgitate what their staff members quickly ‘learned’ from browsing the Brady Campaign website without any real grasp of what these words mean.

Make no mistake, there is no such thing as an ‘Assault Weapon’. While modern anti-gun politicians may not know this, the first ones to coin the term absolutely did. They invented this term very deliberately to conjure images of fully-automatic M16s due to its resemblance to the term, Assault Rifle.

Most gun folks know this by now, but it bears repeating. An assault rifle is a select-fire (meaning it can operate like a traditional semi-automatic rifle, or as a fully-automatic or burst fire weapon) shoulder-fired rifle chambered in an intermediate cartridge.

Assault rifles aren’t illegal for private ownership in the United States, but are exceptionally difficult and expensive to own due to laws passed decades ago preventing construction of new examples. This means the current supply of civilian-legal, select-fire or fully automatic firearms in the United States is ever-diminishing.

If any of you reading this are balking at the idea of private machinegun ownership, and believe only military or police officers should have access to them stop and consider a few things. Since 1934 when legislation was passed restricting private ownership of fully-automatic firearms, only three legally-owned machineguns have been used in violent crime. Two of those three incidents were committed by police officers, one of which was to murder a police informant. – But I digress.

Assault Weapons on the other hand are defined by the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban as semi-automatic rifles, pistols or shotguns with two or more prohibited features. These features include a threaded barrel, a bayonet mount and adjustable stock or pistol grip. Design characteristics that don’t make a given firearm more or less dangerous, but merely make them more ergonomic or modular.

This is one of the core issues with politicians passing any sort of legislation on firearms, they don’t know anything about them. Worse yet, many of them are proud to be ignorant of the finer points on them. They speak and act as if they’re above knowing the gritty details of items they consider to be, “scary murder machines.”

Truthfully, I’m sick of writing about this subject, because the opposite never changes their argument and is always wrong. Not subjectively, but objectively, willfully wrong. If the opposition was at least honest in their attack on private gun ownership in American, it would almost be possible to sympathize with them. But when the president makes statements like the following, it just illuminates his own willful ignorance of the facts and disgusting contempt he holds his countrymen in.

“This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school…”

Because the weapon and the Americans who voted against gun bans in the past are the ones to blame in this situation, right? Shame on us all for not trusting the government to protect us at all moments of our lives, despite the Supreme Court ruling that police have no duty to protect anyone.

I mean, the guy who plotted for months to commit these acts wouldn’t be hindered by stricter gun laws. Furthermore, if a magazine ban was enacted, I doubt he would have said, “I don’t want to break any laws on my way to committing mass murder. I better only use legally-purchased, low-capacity magazines during my killing spree.”

The ethical and logical gymnastics required to justify a ban of firearms with specific frightening cosmetic features is so ludicrous it leaves me speechless. Meanwhile, these same people condemning inurement objects give a pass to radical Islamic terrorists, while damning the NRA.

Look, I’m not a political guy. I hate talking about, dealing with and even reading about politics. The stuff is so goddamn maddening it could drive a man to drinking. But when the men and women of this country who took an oath to represent the common people and their interests willfully misrepresent and divert attention away from the core causes of a tragedy simply to further their own narrative and agenda, I feel compelled to speak.

Tandemkross is well known in the Kel-Tec fandom. They make upgrade accessories for many of Kel-Tec's firearms. They recently have come out with an extended base pad for the PMR-30 magazine. Since the CMR-30 rifle uses the same magazine these will work for that as well.

The extended base pad design is similar to the Magpul AR15 magazine Ranger tab and Glock mag speedplates.

As an owner of a PMR-30 and CMR-30 these extended base pads look like they will work well. The magazine release on those guns is at the heel of the grip and the magazines do not drop free. The factory base plate has a little protrusion at the front of the magazine which helps the shooter to pull the magazine out. Now with this larger loop it will be easier to pull the magazine out expecially if there is a malfunction. The added length of the extended base pad also helps with insertion of the magazine. If you look closely you can see at the rear of the extended base pad that there is material that blocks the bottom of the magazine release. There by helping to reduce the possibility of accidental magazine release.

The magazine extended base pads are sold in pairs for $24.99 on Tandemkross.com.