Edited:

I sent the mags in January, did anyone get to take a look. Did you find anything worth noting.?





Not a bitch fest just a report so take it for what its worth.

I asked about the cold weather testing Magpul had done in one of the old threads last year and got the "its been tested" with no other specifics . I'm assuming it was done in CO where it cold, but not that cold IMO. There was never a mention of the temps involved. This was not good enough for me as temp plays a larger role in people's lives up here (AK) and wanted to know what I'm dealing with.

I know AlaskanCajan had a thread in general last year and they ran well at -30 or so (cant't remeber) so I know they work.

So I took a few windowed foliage green and 4 non-windowed FDE. All ran fine. Dropped free on the snow pack with no ill effect (what I expected). Temp was only -15. There is a thread in the AK forum and some of the fairbanks boys are dropping them at -50 if your intrested.

So to the drop test. I wanted to see what they could do in the cold. I dropped it from the same table (3' high) I have dropped metal mags from on the range. If you drop a metal mag on concrete from the same height it will damage the feed lips as to be unuseable-but you can bend them back. I was planning on dropping them on all sides but it broke before I could try it. From the table, fully loaded, no cover, both feed lips shattered when they hit the concrete. I expected it to break/crack but these things shot off and rounds went everywhere. I stopped the test right there as didn't want to try it with any others on the other sides. You can see in the AK HTF that if empty they do fine in the cold.

So what does this mean.

IF you drop ANY mag loaded on the feed lips it will be useless. The Pmags might survive during the summer but all metal mags will bent hot/or cold. The metal mags can be bent back.

The plastic shatters when cold (duh) it doesn't just crack.

I finally got a answer as to what these can do.

This test was dropping on concrete in cold weather. I had to clean off a spot to get down to the concrete. If the mags are dropped in the snow vs just concrete they do just fine. So the possibility of hitting on the feed lips in cold weather on a hard surface-very unlikely

The covers are great to keep out the snow - huge plus.

Overall they do just fine. I was surprised at the complete breaking vs. cracking buts that's what cold can do.

Overall i like them but wold like to do more testing.







UPDATE

its only -12 but a sage green 08/08 just broke at 3 feet. butt drop fine, drop on cover-cover shattered- side of feed lip-=shattered. I don't see how they could drop fine at -40 and be fine. o well I think I'm done testing- it seems they will still shatter in the cold no matter- maybe will get a black to test.

Interesting.
Sorry/Thanks for your sacrifice!

So...should PMags have a plastic body with metal feed lips?
or would that defeat their original purpose.

OR, are we just dealing with the failure threshold that all things have?

OMG!!! I thought pmags were made with Chuck Norris's tears and couldn't break?!?!

Oh well... so much for that myth.

Approximately how long had they been in the cold prior to the test?

Market is important. Sports shooter, no issue.

If it shatters under it's own weight when cold, what happens when 250 pounds of joe flops down on it, and squishes it between ESAPI and rock?

FWIW, I love my only PMAG.

Uh oh

TaylorWSO, thanks for the info. I think any product has a certain point at which it will fail.

I heard that Chuck Norris gave Magpul 1 tear to used for Pmag production(so it may be really be diluted at this point), in exchange Chuck received 1 million dollars, and 3 ACRs (one for each hand), not that Chuck needs a high reliability weapon, as all weapons he uses always work.

I guess a better question would be how they function in a rifle at those temperatures

My mags don't tend to drop feedlips first on to concrete in any scenario I've ever done to date. Not once, ever.

While an interesting test for material durability, I'm not sure it's useful beyond that....

Has anyone else seen mags drop on the deck feedlips first more then 1 time in their whole life? Please spare me weird stories of the one mag, that you had do it one time while at band camp too.

about 2 hours

and to the other replys, I've had aluminum mags break the welds when hit on the top corner, not directly on the feed lips when cold-everything breaks when it gets cold enough.

This test demonstrates that the pmags and metal mags fair the same when cold when hit on the feed lips-none will work, I believe Pmags out-do metal mags when warmer, as the billion "torture" test were done in warm weather have shown.

yes

Singular? One time in how many mag changes? I do believe it's good for material durability observations, but not so much for realistic failure analysis, since most mags (999,999,999,000 out of 1,000,000,000,000) will drop on the endplate.

It was worthwhile to see that the material would fail at extremely low temps, but would the mag be inoperable in a normal freefall to the concrete as from a "speed reload".

All my mags hit with the endplate...FWIW....

See UAFGRAD's test. Should be his 3rd response here: http://www.weaponforums.com/forums/topic.html?b=8&f=43&t=338530