Saturday, March 19, 2005
MWG magazine testing
400 rounds later.....
Today started out cold, cloudy, and raining so the crowd at the range was a little thin. I did get to have two other people try the MWG magazines in their rifles as well as using them in all 3 of mine. Except for one minor issue, the magazines performed perfectly all day in every rifle.
Test equipment
The only issue with these magazines is a common problem with reduced capacity mags: lack of follower movement when full. These mags hold 5 rounds...no more. After the 5th round is loaded, there is absolutely NO follower movement left. Why is this a problem? It means that the magazine cannot be seated in the rifle if the bolt is closed. With the bolt closed, the rounds in the mag have to be able to move down in to the magazine for the magazine catch to fully engage. This happened with both magazines in all 5 rifles ( 1 DPMS, 1 Bushmaster, 2 Ameetec, 1 Armalite ) that were used.
It's not a big deal for range or hunting magazines - normally they are inserted with the bolt open and everything works just fine. The only reason to insert a fully loaded mag with the bolt closed is to "top up" or perform a tactical reload in the middle of a shot string. If I'm doing a tactical reload on an AR, I'll be using a 30 round USGI magazine. These 5 round mags are for the range or for hunting, and for that they work just fine.
Brianna testing the MWG magazines
I haven't taken either of the mags apart (I suspect that I would destroy it), but I imagine that the "closed bolt insertion" issue could be corrected by shortening the leg on the follower slightly. Not enough to allow loading a 6th round, but enough to allow the loaded cartridges to move down into the magazine.
Other than that very minor issue, the magazines performed perfectly all day long. Feeding was 100%, both with M193 mil-spec ball ammo and reloads using 68 grain Hornady match bullets. Bolt hold open after the last round was 100%. The mags both dropped free from every rifle except the already mentioned tight Armalite magwell.
One shooter said that one of the mags seemed to sit slightly higher in his rifle ( DPMS ), causing the bolt to drag slightly when feeding a round. Not enough to cause a mis-feed, but enough that he noticed. Nobody else (including me) noticed this in the other rifles.
If you're looking for range or hunting magazines for your AR-15, I highly recommend these magazines from MWG.
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Today started out cold, cloudy, and raining so the crowd at the range was a little thin. I did get to have two other people try the MWG magazines in their rifles as well as using them in all 3 of mine. Except for one minor issue, the magazines performed perfectly all day in every rifle.
Test equipment
The only issue with these magazines is a common problem with reduced capacity mags: lack of follower movement when full. These mags hold 5 rounds...no more. After the 5th round is loaded, there is absolutely NO follower movement left. Why is this a problem? It means that the magazine cannot be seated in the rifle if the bolt is closed. With the bolt closed, the rounds in the mag have to be able to move down in to the magazine for the magazine catch to fully engage. This happened with both magazines in all 5 rifles ( 1 DPMS, 1 Bushmaster, 2 Ameetec, 1 Armalite ) that were used.
It's not a big deal for range or hunting magazines - normally they are inserted with the bolt open and everything works just fine. The only reason to insert a fully loaded mag with the bolt closed is to "top up" or perform a tactical reload in the middle of a shot string. If I'm doing a tactical reload on an AR, I'll be using a 30 round USGI magazine. These 5 round mags are for the range or for hunting, and for that they work just fine.
Brianna testing the MWG magazines
I haven't taken either of the mags apart (I suspect that I would destroy it), but I imagine that the "closed bolt insertion" issue could be corrected by shortening the leg on the follower slightly. Not enough to allow loading a 6th round, but enough to allow the loaded cartridges to move down into the magazine.
Other than that very minor issue, the magazines performed perfectly all day long. Feeding was 100%, both with M193 mil-spec ball ammo and reloads using 68 grain Hornady match bullets. Bolt hold open after the last round was 100%. The mags both dropped free from every rifle except the already mentioned tight Armalite magwell.
One shooter said that one of the mags seemed to sit slightly higher in his rifle ( DPMS ), causing the bolt to drag slightly when feeding a round. Not enough to cause a mis-feed, but enough that he noticed. Nobody else (including me) noticed this in the other rifles.
If you're looking for range or hunting magazines for your AR-15, I highly recommend these magazines from MWG.
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