Hello forum,

Firstly, I'm a newbie both to this forum and to the AR15 platform (I've been shooting pistols recreationally for several years though), so hello all and please bear with me as I try to explain my issue in as much a technical manner as I can. With that said, here goes...

I just bought a Colt LE6920MP which came with PMAGS. I took it to the range this past weekend to get a feel for it and had an odd issue. After running through just over 90 rounds without issue (loading each mag with only 10 or so rounds so had several mag changes), I inserted the last mag, slapped it home dropped the bolt, aimed and click. So, I locked the bolt back, slapped the mag, dropped the bolt and tried again. And again, click. Then I decided I should pull the mag and that's where my issue happened. I again locked back the bolt and proceeded to attempt to eject the mag. I pushed the mag release button and the mag did not drop. So, I continued to push the mag release and tugged on the mag - still stayed solidly in place. After several minutes of this, I finally asked the person shooting an AR next to me if he could help. He came over and went through roughly the same process I did, then looked at me and said he's never seen a mag do that (I didn't know him, so maybe he didn't have much experience either). Long story short(er), he finally reached in through the ejection port and pushed down on the mag while I pressed the mag release and tugged on the mag. This did the trick and the mag came out fine. I then reinserted, dropped the bolt and it went bang and then released the mag when I hit the mag release.

Obviously, this causes me a bit of concern as 1) not being able to change mags when needed is a bit of a problem and 2) I was having to fix this with live rounds in the mag. After a bit of research, I've learned how to remove the base plate of the pmag so that I can get the mag spring, follower and any rounds in the mag out and then potentially squeeze the mag to unseat it. However, this only fixes the problem after it happens, not prevents it.

Has anyone ever had this issue? If so, what is the fix? I've had a Colt 1991A1 for years and after thousands of rounds never had an issue, so it surprised me to have an issue with this colt platform.

Sorry for such a long post and thanks in advance for your help!

OK - I'll take a look at the magazine. Am I looking for visible damage or is it a potential structural damage? Anything I should look at in the mag well that might've been damaged?

I'll practice the push and tug method. I thought that since the SPORTS acronym has "slap" as the first part, that was the correct way to seat the mag. Just part of the learning curve.

Thanks!

Glad to know there won't be damage to the mag well! I figured it would be hard for a polymer mag to do damage to steel, but I wasn't sure what parts are in there that might be more susceptible to mag damage.

After the click, when I locked back the bolt, no round was chambered nor did one eject. My memory of the details is a little fuzzy right now, but thinking logically about it, is it possible the bolt was never fully seated? If the bolt isn't all the way forward, say it jammed halfway through charging (correct term?), would I still have been able to pull the trigger and dry fire the rifle?

Thinking about there being no round chambered or ejected, it makes it sound like the bolt either didn't fully charge or it just skimmed over the top of the mag.

Sorry about the lack of details - at the time I was really more focused on getting the mag out since there were live rounds in it and I wanted it made safe before hunting down an issue. Unfortunately, fuzzy details don't make for an easy way to ID the problem and find a solution!

That makes perfect sense! I've never used a polymer mag and was curious about the structural integrity of it.

Which leads me to another question. Again, I'll preface this by saying I'm a newbie at the AR and I've had 0 training on it (which I recognize needs to be remedied). But, doesn't that seem like a major design flaw? I don't have any military or police background, so maybe the training overcomes this? It just seems that if you learn on metal mags that can't bulge and don't learn the push-pull method of loading - say you just bang them in - then you switch to polymer mags and you don't fix your training to get into push pull method, won't you eventually get into a similar situation I had? Mine was just on the range but I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have that failure in a real situation. Wouldn't it make more sense for Magpul to "beef up" the upper portion of the mag so bulges can't happen? I would have to believe that if I dropped the weapon on the ground and it landed on the mag, it could cause the same issue, right?

Again, these are just the rambling thoughts of someone who is trying to learn - I'm not trying to get called out on bad practices on this one - I'm really just curious.

I'll definitely contact Magpul and see what they have to say. Hopefully it's not "please send back the defective mag" because, well, guess who didn't mark the mag that jammed...which means I will be purchasing another pmag that stays separate from the 2 I was using that day since I'm not sure which one is the "bad" one. Another lesson learned.

I read the Colt manual, but it was pretty generic and I don't remember seeing anything from Magpul in the gun box. As to the manuals on the forum, I actually didn't realize they were there. But since I know now, I will definitely be reading them! And researching classes that teach how not to do dumb things with your shiny new rifle...