[ARCHIVED THREAD] - pmag will break since its finally cold ETA mine broke at -15-shattered update another dead at -12 (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 12/28/2008 10:05:58 PM EDT
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I know its cold up there. i have a couple sitting out but it will only get to -10 to -15 tonight. One of ya'll sit one out and then drop it to see if it will break/crack. Pics please
Thanks steve ETA Well got to the range. The mags ran fine cold, gun ran fine. I had the green windowed and the FDE non windowed. I dropped the mag from 36" right on the feed lips ON CONCRETE -simulating a drop off the bench or a slip out of the hand when reloading. Guess what-shattered both lips and rounds every where. I was hoping it would at least get to test it on the side/bottom etc but one drop and it shattered. I did the same thing with a aluminum mag. it dented the feed lips making it unusable so I would say it the AL might have the edge as you can rebend the mags once bent -aint no fixin plastic. I would say though the chance of finding non snow covered concrete in extreem cold wx would be hard, as a dropped mag in the packed snow worked fine. 
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I put a loaded non window Pmag outside
Its sitting at a brisk -38 right now, so as the night goes on, I would expect to see -40. Will do a 3 foot and a 5 foot drop and possibly a drop in an AR in the morning. If it survives it would make a great marketing gig... To hell and back, and hell just froze over |
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Ok, pretty anti climatic...
So 1 30 round PMag, fully loaded with dust guard on, overnight at a temp between -30F and -40F All drop test were done on a flat, clean concerete surface from the height listed 3ft onto bottom of PMag - Scuff mark on corner and dust cover fell off 5ft onto bottom of PMag- Again scuff on corner and dust cover fell off 7ft onto bottom of PMag - More of the same 7ft onto top of PMag - Dust guard shattered into several pieces 12 rounds came out of the mag, but not damage to the mag. Functionality was confirmed by loading mag and hand stripping rounds off. So if we were myth busters, its BUSTED On the other hand  its is supposed to be -50 to -60 within the week
Im going to leave the PMag out and test again. Also going to go to the range and empty the mag x3 to confirm that it is as tough as it appears to be. Pictures to come |
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Ok, pretty anti climatic... So 1 30 round PMag, fully loaded with dust guard on, overnight at a temp between -30F and -40F All drop test were done on a flat, clean concerete surface from the height listed 3ft onto bottom of PMag - Scuff mark on corner and dust cover fell off 5ft onto bottom of PMag- Again scuff on corner and dust cover fell off 7ft onto bottom of PMag - More of the same 7ft onto top of PMag - Dust guard shattered into several pieces 12 rounds came out of the mag, but not damage to the mag. Functionality was confirmed by loading mag and hand stripping rounds off. So if we were myth busters, its BUSTED On the other hand its is supposed to be -50 to -60 within the week
Im going to leave the PMag out and test again. Also going to go to the range and empty the mag x3 to confirm that it is as tough as it appears to be. Pictures to come Sweet  Next round take the dust cover off and drop loaded on the feed lips; see if they crack or break off.
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Ok, pretty anti climatic... So 1 30 round PMag, fully loaded with dust guard on, overnight at a temp between -30F and -40F All drop test were done on a flat, clean concerete surface from the height listed 3ft onto bottom of PMag - Scuff mark on corner and dust cover fell off 5ft onto bottom of PMag- Again scuff on corner and dust cover fell off 7ft onto bottom of PMag - More of the same 7ft onto top of PMag - Dust guard shattered into several pieces 12 rounds came out of the mag, but not damage to the mag. Functionality was confirmed by loading mag and hand stripping rounds off. So if we were myth busters, its BUSTED On the other hand its is supposed to be -50 to -60 within the week
Im going to leave the PMag out and test again. Also going to go to the range and empty the mag x3 to confirm that it is as tough as it appears to be. Pictures to come Sweet Next round take the dust cover off and drop loaded on the feed lips; see if they crack or break off.
Damn try to break a brothers shit Will do, didnt actually think of that Should have an order of windowed PMags in any day, will try it with one of those to see what happens |
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dropped mine (a new one by the way  ) from 3 ft
It split about 2.5 inches Needless to say, it is now worthless. was this on the feed lips? or the baseplate? Feedlips I need to get a new memory card reader so I can post pics It starts in the top back corner and runs down the back of the mag diagonally |
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I know its cold up there. i have a couple sitting out but it will only get to -10 to -15 tonight. One of ya'll sit one out and then drop it to see if it will break/crack. Pics please Thanks steve ETA Well got to the range. The mags ran fine cold, gun ran fine. I had the green windowed and the FDE non windowed. I dropped the mag from 36" right on the feed lips ON CONCRETE -simulating a drop off the bench or a slip out of the hand when reloading. Guess what-shattered both lips and rounds every where. I was hoping it would at least get to test it on the side/bottom etc but one drop and it shattered. I did the same thing with a aluminum mag. it dented the feed lips making it unusable so I would say it the AL might have the edge as you can rebend the mags once bent -aint no fixin plastic. I would say though the chance of finding non snow covered concrete in extreem cold wx would be hard, as a dropped mag in the packed snow worked fine. http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e303/taylorwso/PICT1989.jpg http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e303/taylorwso/pmag-side.jpg Send us the mag back and we will replace it and look it over. We have been constantly tweaking the material and settings and so have much better cold resistance that earlier PMags. Current versions being tested right now will survive a drop onto the feedlips at -40. |
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dropped mine (a new one by the way ) from 3 ft
It split about 2.5 inches Needless to say, it is now worthless. was this on the feed lips? or the baseplate? Feedlips I need to get a new memory card reader so I can post pics It starts in the top back corner and runs down the back of the mag diagonally This is a more common stress failure but in most cases the rounds will feed just fine in the rifle. Send it back and we will replace it and look it over for anything that we need to address. |
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Pretty ironic that these Pmags are currently hard as heck to get, and folks in Alaska are intentionally dropping (and breaking!) them on concrete in sub-zero temperatures.
It's cold here in PA, maybe someone could send me one (or more!) to "drop test".  We want to know what will take the cold. Cold breaks everything.
Gotta know what to trust in the cold. |
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Something that is recommended for plastics in cold weather is to boil them in will make them less likely to break. This recommendation came from a non gun related industry (RC Car) and everybody seems to think it helps keep the plastic from becoming as brittle in the extreme cold.
I have not tried it as I live in an area where it rarely gets below 20 degrees but it may be something to look at. Dolomite RC company quote: One cold weather tip to help limit breakage and increase the durability of nylon parts (chassis, suspension arms, bulkheads, etc.) is to disassemble the vehicle and boil only the nylon parts for 2 hours. This will cause the nylon parts to be more flexible than usual. Please wait for the nylon parts to cool completely before reassembly. This will not solve all problems in cold weather running.
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dropped mine (a new one by the way ) from 3 ft
It split about 2.5 inches Needless to say, it is now worthless. was this on the feed lips? or the baseplate? Feedlips I need to get a new memory card reader so I can post pics It starts in the top back corner and runs down the back of the mag diagonally This is a more common stress failure but in most cases the rounds will feed just fine in the rifle. Send it back and we will replace it and look it over for anything that we need to address. what date/ I have some newer ones and will try them. |
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Stop breaking perfectly good mags! If you don't want them, send them to me......... They be not perfectly good. Grad proved that.
On a side note. I am amused at how many read our home town forum. BTW Grad's test was used as a reference in another thread about P-Mags. |
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How did those dust covers survive the drops in the 'mythbusters' thread? I've broken two of the caps dropping mags from the height of a folding chair(taking them out of the bag). Same thing both times. No problems with the mags tho.
ETA: how the hell did this get in the AK/HI section? Well I guess it keeps the PMAG search in AR com down to only 224 threads this way... |
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Ok Back to tougher in Alaska
SO I finally got pics uploaded Here is where it set for a period of about 18 hours. This was the "hi" temp for the period 
The mag was fully loaded and dropped from a height of 36" directly onto the feedlips (as previously requested) striking bare concrete. Once it hit the ground, all but 6 of the rounds exited the magazine on to the ground. Here is the aftermath. The exten of the crack is marked with the redline. 
My take on things..... Although I hoped that the Chuck Norris Tears would bring super powers to the mag, as with all things made, it is breakable. I wasnt too surprised that it broke. Mag will be going back to Magpul for them to look at and hopefully the are able to find something that could prevent this problem in the future. The reality of it is that this test was designed to force faliure with the mag. It is a fairly unrealistic situation (though mags in Alaska are commonly exposed to these temperatures for extended periods). FWIW, I have a ton of PMags and even placed a large order after this happened. Im still convienced that this is the best mag on the market. |
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Good thread.
Next time we get some -20 weather here in MN I will take a couple Pmags and test them for function. I am especially interested to see how they hold up to being slammed into the mag well with a full 30 rounds loaded and doing the "push pull". I did some cold weather testing last year on a couple guns and some of my .223 reloads. Everything ran fine, although.....no drop testing was done. Here is a pic of testing last year. 
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Good thread. Next time we get some -20 weather here in MN I will take a couple Pmags and test them for function. I am especially interested to see how they hold up to being slammed into the mag well with a full 30 rounds loaded and doing the "push pull". I did some cold weather testing last year on a couple guns and some of my .223 reloads. Everything ran fine, although.....no drop testing was done. Here is a pic of testing last year. http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n275/Rsng5/IMG_0355.jpg When its that cold there is a significant effect on bullet velocity We did testing on different 45ACP loads one year and some of them were down into the 750fps range at 20 below. Ammo was left at 20 below for several hours |
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Ok I posted some high speed video we did on cold weather testing about a two weeks ago. This PMag was taken down to below -40 F and dropped from 5 feet, fully loaded onto concrete, feedlips down.
The video is marked -30 because that is the temperature the mag was at the time of the impact to due of the lights required by the high speed video. PMag -30 F Drop Test Onto Concrete |
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Ok I posted some high speed video we did on cold weather testing about a two weeks ago. This PMag was taken down to below -40 F and dropped from 5 feet, fully loaded onto concrete, feedlips down. The video is marked -30 because that is the temperature the mag was at the time of the impact to due of the lights required by the high speed video. PMag -30 F Drop Test Onto Concrete Please dont think that my portion (and I believe any portion) of this post was to slam magpul. To be honest I was surprised that the mag survived the first portion of my test with only scuff marks. I have a large lot of PMags (literally a case) and will likely add more so that my grandkids will have a lifteime access of them. You guys make good stuff. My only complaint was that you dropped the M93b. Im getting used to the CTRs though and hopefully one day will be able to get my hands on a UBR. |
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Can I just say that MAGPUL is solidifying themselves in my mind as one of the greatest companies on the planet. What other industry can you find guys that are involved at this level in improving their products. .I'm very impressed that they busted into a forum thread with interest in product improvement and quality control.
They helped me fix a grip that was my fault it broke a few months ago. As an alaskan it means alot to me that they are constantly trying to improve their gear for the cold weather. As a side note, Draeger SCBA started using the Anchorage Fire Dept as a test site because the guys up in AK were constantly breaking the gear. They have made significant cold weather improvements from AK born ideas. |
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Can I just say that MAGPUL is solidifying themselves in my mind as one of the greatest companies on the plane. Sure you can and I'll agree with you. Magpul has some things I want. I'd feel 100% confidant doing business with them and with what they offer. |
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Good thread. Next time we get some -20 weather here in MN I will take a couple Pmags and test them for function. I am especially interested to see how they hold up to being slammed into the mag well with a full 30 rounds loaded and doing the "push pull". I did some cold weather testing last year on a couple guns and some of my .223 reloads. Everything ran fine, although.....no drop testing was done. Here is a pic of testing last year. http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n275/Rsng5/IMG_0355.jpg When its that cold there is a significant effect on bullet velocity We did testing on different 45ACP loads one year and some of them were down into the 750fps range at 20 below. Ammo was left at 20 below for several hours Off topic––- In the artillery world we take this into account by checking the powder temp. The standard temp that the firing tables used was 70. If the real powder temp is below 70, you'll have a loss of a specific amount of muzzle velocity, which will cause the round to fall short(long if the powder temp is higher than standard). You'll take this into account by raising the elevation on the tube an appropriate amount of mils. Interestingly enough the temp range is -40 to 130. I wonder what the guys at Wainwright use, or if the store the ammo in heated tents/trucks? Back on topic––- Let me echo AKFF's praise of Magpul and their interest in improving an already good product. |
[ARCHIVED THREAD] - pmag will break since its finally cold ETA mine broke at -15-shattered update another dead at -12 (Page 1 of 2)
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