I'm not new to ARs, but just haven't dove in as deep as I'd like.  When the last panic hit, I was in good shape, but honestly wanted more 5 and 20 round mags than the 30s I had.  Well, time slipped through my hands again, but it's not too late and I wanted to correct the situation, so I started looking for magazines.  I spent days getting my Masters Degree in AR15 magazines and can now speak intelligently and educate you all.

30 or 20 (well I know that one already).  Aluminum, metal, or plastic.  Dust covers, no dust covers.  Green followers, yellow followers, black followers, tan followers.  Windows or no windows.  If windows yes, translucent or center window or some number image (which I didn't care to totally digest how that works).  Which brand of mag.  Which color.  SS springs or CS - SS is rust proof, but actually stainless does rust.  CS holds its set or memory, but guitar wire does not and they're the same,  therefore CS does not hold a set and buyers have been bunked.  Also, you have to coat CS springs with space oil to prevent rust. Piano wire might hold a set, but I was afraid to try piano wire for fear I might hang myself with it.    

Company A mags work great in the southeast, but on Mars users have have had some durability issues.  Ironically, it wasn't the heat.  A Mars rover ran over the mag and it cracked.  Company B works fine on Mars, but folks on the Millennium Falcon have reported feeding issues in zero gravity.  Company A makes the best magazine, but then company B bought company A, so they are now under a different name and contracting with company C (truth is, company C was actually making mags for Company A and B all along, but since it was a government contract funded by the CIA, no one put it all together).  However, if you have a special decoder ring, you can find the original mags.  And, if you know the password, you can buy them for less than your left arm.  Company B mags work fine, but you need a mag follower from  Company A.  Shave it down and now you have a working 18 round magazine.  No idea what you do with the other 2 rounds from the box of ammo.  Maybe when I do my dissertation for my PhD, I'll have that answer for you.  For now, I just stick one round in each year so I can't hear myself scream while surfing the Internet for answers.

As always, check the forums for reviews:   Joe posted reviews and has been using mag A since the war.  Harry wrote in that Joe's war was really a police action, so the mags didn't see the hard use that they will when AR15 members are fighting zombies.  

OK, you went with Magazine A, good choice.  Now go buy them.  You can get them at Yahoos R us, but you have to be a member.  Mags Be Us has them, but shipping is a bear.  Mags to You sells them with free shipping, but they are 50 cents more per mag.  Gunbroker isn't bad, but is the seller selling the latest version of the A magazine, or is he selling the early version A, before the company realized that shooters want to actually use every round and not every other round.  They corrected the issue, but never changed the name.  Until you get the mag and hold it under a black light (decoder ring works as well), you won't know which model you have.

Are you freaking kidding me!  In my next life, I am living in a communist state where I have one choice and don't have to make so many decisions...

Anyway, Anyone have a good storage solution for all the damn variants I bought!

Hefty 15 qt container will hold 37 30-round mags. That's 1110 rounds if you fill them. Clear. Stackable.

Lowes sells them for $5.

Link to Container

Should have went belt fed.

It's even harder for green horns such as myself, trying to wade through all the opinions and get any correct information.

Thank you.

I use a medium steel ammo can (milsurp 5.56/840 rd) . Each holds 14/30s and 8/20s. Works well for me.

OP, you've got the gist of most GD discussions on mags and almost everything else.

you don't need nothing fancy or elaborate  to store mags in, I kept all my mags to different guns in cardboard boxes. then a friend of mine gave me a huge wood crate that mosin-nagants came in, so I sectioned it and put all my mags and drums  in that

Aint that the truth.  Above ground pool:  Want a heater?  Sure.  Gas or Electric.  Electric really fits the "pattern of use" that your wife believes the family has for the pool.  The gas unit is cheaper, but installation is more expensive.  However, you can now run gas for a gas grill and a fire pit, so that takes some of the sting out of the installations costs.  Of course, the heater has to be a certain distance from the home, or you could kill your family.  Distance is not a problem, except there's a fence there.  And what about the fence?  Your neighbor's tree fell on it, and your pool, two winters ago and never paid you a cent to fix it.  You can fix the fence, but you had been wanting a larger gate anyway.  Speaking of trees, you have none, but if your neighbors would trim theirs your pool would get more sun and you wouldn't need a heater.  That reminds me, your skimmer basket is always full of their leaves and it's broken, so don't forget to order your third.  For some reason they keep breaking and you don't know why.  Back to the gas heater, you could move it to the end of the yard, but that's where the HAM radio antenna is being relocated, since you're taking down the swing set.   The heater might cause interference.  Of course, you could connect the antenna to the new shed you want.  But what shed should you get.  Wood, vinyl, etc.?  What size?  Where should the doors go?  And how close can you get to the property line before your neighbor realizes it isn't quite 5 feet?  

Maybe I have ADD?

Good ideas on storage guys.  I have some mags and ammo locked in cans.  When things went nuts a few years ago, ammo AND magazines, IMO, took on a much greater value and I wasn't comfortable leaving them in a closet.  I began breaking them up into even parts.  Some here, some there, so that if fire or water came, I wouldn't lose all of my eggs in one basket.  And when I did that, I put them in the safe.  Like a rottweiler with a new chihuahua roommate, my guns weren't crazy about sharing the space, but what can you do.  I seriously want to build a gunroom.  Nothing fancy, and my foundation and garage have already provided 3 good walls for that.  Believe it or not, it wouldn't be as hard to decide on as magazines, as FEMA has done most of the work designing a tornado room.  

In the mean time though, I was looking for ways to store them in a safe.  I actually use coated dish racks for handguns, which are hard to find these days.  I have them from yard sailing and they really increase storage space for handguns.

Short answer that will not fail you:

NHMTG/Okay 30s and 20s, Magpul MOE 30s.  There's nothing a 5.56 magazine for an AR that those three mags can't do.  

Except 40's and drums!

 

I really like 40's in my HD SBR, its pretty unlikely that rifle will go prone, but I never want to run dry on ammo with it.

The 40 round Pmags are no problem prone.  Lets you rest on the mag in just a little bit taller grass!

I know that MagPuls are the gold standard and have a few of them, with just as many HexMags thrown in for good measure.  For me, I'm not too interested in 40s or drums, actually I'm looking for 10s.  Okay's I've read have has issues depending on the batch #, date, tide, and current migratory pattern of the North American Spotted Mushroom.

I don't have much use for 10's.  I use 20's for my bench shooting and I haven't had any height issues from them.

Only reason I want them is so I dont blow through 30 rounds and forget to check my targets for accuracy.  10 rounds keep me from wasting ammo.

I tend to load 5rds at a time when shooting for accuracy.  10 only if I'm shooting 10rd groups.

Any reason you don't like the Pmag 20s?  I just picked some up last week,   Monday I also ordered a load of okay's from Botach.

The newest ones are GTG, but honestly, the first couple years of Gen M3 was a mess for me.  I had more problems with those mags (20s and 30s) in two years than a person should have in a lifetime.  To me, a 20 round mag is going to be in an SPR/DMR type gun and the Okay 20s are easier to deal with than the Pmag 20s and they are workhorse mags.  I'm still using 12 year old 20 round Colts in my SPR and they've been in almost continuous use since they were new.  

Love that storage solution, thanks!

Thanks.  At some point, I might have 4 family shooters.  My thought was we'd use the 20 round pmag gen3s for the range.  Function test the Okay 20 rounders and store them with my Colt 20 rounders.  I have some 30 round pmags as well.  I have to be honest, I like the look, feel, etc., of the aluminum mags over the pmags, or even the one Lancer I have.

Just get a BUNCH of good 'uns.

The Mosin-Nagant rifle crates are a gem in and of themselves... there are LOTS of things that you can do with them and turn them into.  Plus they're worth about $100 each as is.  Nevermind the fact that you can fit 20 Mosins in there...which is it's own problem.

Lol. I just went through this a few weeks ago when I decided to panic buy some more magazines. I was surprised to learn that steel mags are cool again and that my stash of pmags are disintegrating as we speak.

I refuse to pay 12.50 for the holy grail of steel mags (Okay) so I went with D&H from PSA and DSG arms. Honestly, if all my steel mags (okay, D&H, Colt) were the same color I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. With pmag followers they all work great.

They're not steel, they're aluminum.  If you know what you're looking at, you know why Okays cost more.

Lol, whatever bro. I hope you're happy with the slightly more attractive magazines you overpaid for. I'll stick with my cheap but just as reliable D&H turds.

Meanwhile, the OP did a great job of pointing out all the BS behind the endless bickering about which is best and why.

It is great that we live at a time when $12.50 seems expensive for an AR magazine.

Seriously dude.  Educate yourself.

D&H are fine mags.  But you don't know what they are made of.

Okay mags are only $9 with free shipping.

Lol, we buy mags by the case bro.   I didn't overpay.

The large, black Plano plastic ammo cans will hold 25 Gen 2/MOE PMAGS each. Every time I get 25 accumulated I buy another can.

Where are they for $9 and free shipping?

This

I was told if you order enough, <Edited........Banned vendor......dpmmn> goes down to $9.  I entered a quantity of 600, just to see, and they're still over $12.  Maybe I'm missing something, or the deal is dead.






 

Amazing how many people think GI mags are steel. See that a lot on here.

Yes, where do you find this?

At work we use GI aluminum  mags of every manufacturer  and pmags. We've gone through the steel HK magazine phase, I dont know if they came with our 416 entry guns or what, in short, they suck. They are actually more prone to failure than GI. We love pmags but they have an issue to, they dont fit in older vehicle lock racks due to being too wide. Now we bought some 20 round pmags and everybody like them as they can keep them with the dust cap on and throw them in their BDU pants pocket if they think they may be going into a situation where they might need more ammo.

The bottom line is ,  the standard GI aluminum  mag is overall the best choice,  and has the least issues. Sure if you run them over with a truck they will get jacked up but well you should take care of your shit and not run them over. As for manufacturer preference the govt' gives us whatever they contract and as far as I can tell they are all about the same, heck the last batch some were from brownells and they have been great. Dont get all wrapped up on brand names. Do look for fubarred base plates, in my experience it is a sign of a fubarred mag (used mags only).

Just buy some Lancer L5AWMs (color, 20, 30, doesn't matter), drink a beer and rest easy.

I'm sure they are great mags, but since they are twice the cost it cuts down your potential stockpile by half. With 49 days to the election, time it takes to acquire stuff is getting smaller. You know if HRC gets elected then there will be a mass panic starting Nov 3rd.

I don't own a single Lancer mag that I paid more than $12 for, and I have a bunch.

Where do you get Lancers for $12?

When DSG has sales, I buy.

Are these the black mags or clear mags?

Guy in the Hometown forum moving here from NY. You could buy his place. Lot less choices up North. Lol

I agree,, then just have a custom backpack with the huge belt in it. I loved my SAW

 
A Tequiza 12 pack of bottles will hold 30 thermold magazines just about perfectly and look like it still holds beer if you're careful. I doubt it the carry handle will hold up if you load the mags.

Lol my box o' mags is an empty IPA 12pk. Not sure how manys in there but it barely closes. The rest are loaded or in my range bag

For storage and transport of magazines I use black top Kobalt tool boxes available at larger hardware outlets. They have large comfortable handles with two large metal closure clamps and a rubber air seal built into the lid. Works well for moving in and out of vehicles and they can stack on top of each other.