I decided to pick up a few for my 458 SOCOM project.  They will load a full mag without any modifications, unlike a PMAG.

They work 100% every time for me. No complaints except the cost to fill them.

Lancer advertises a way to make them reload much easier. There is a small plastic tab on the bottom of the follower. It is a certain length to keep them within military spec (for holding 30 rounds and no more) if you trim this tab you gain extra room and they are easier to seat.

i just bought received some off the EE.  I will be shooting them this weekend and you will probably not ever hear back from me on them unless i have a problem.  But from what I can tell, these are superior to pmags.  The ability to be able to see all your rounds is going to outweigh pretty much every aspect for me..assuming they run as reliably as pmags.  I have no issues seating a 30 round mag pull to 30 rounds with these either.  Floor plates are easy to remove as well and it looks like a sold design.  Another member did testing on a bunch of mags here and the lancers came out on top....one thing to note is the metal feed lips stayed strong, while all the other manufacturers were experiencing craps, magpul included.

I have some and like them more than my Troy battle mags and my pmags!

I've only got one and I love it. They're in stock (translucent 20&30's) at primary arms right now for 19.99

I bought 6 total now. 5 are in the package still. The one is in my test rotation working like a champ. With these available, honestly I don't have a super heavy need to get PMags.


BUT just like PMags I want my OD green!!!

Like some of the others said, the Lancer if my favorite and my go to magazine.

1) Lancer
2) Pmag
3) Elander
4) Troy
5) USGI Tan follower

I have tried very hard to like these magazines, but keep getting failures with them. The failure is always the same, and has happened with multiple mags (purchased near the end of '12).

-Bolt locks to the rear (good)
-New mag with 30 rounds (checked, good) is inserted and seated (good...)
-Bolt release is depressed and BCG flies forward only to jam with a round 2/3 stripped from the mag. (Bad). A slam on the butt of the gun is required to jar/bounce the BCG against the round and then it completes its journey from mag to chamber, finally stripped free of the mag. It is not a feeding issue where the tip is catching something.

Now I made a YouTube a while back detailing these issues when hand-cycling (lack of control of the rounds, difficulty of them stripping from the mag, etc.) and people called me a 'tard and said my observations were moot and all that jazz because I was hand-cycling the weapon. Well and good, but things can indeed be learned from that, too. Proof is in the pudding. PMAG's allowed me to release the bolt from barely half an inch off of a fully loaded mag and get complete chambering of the round. AWM's required much more distance for the bolt to gather the inertia to strip a round.

Well, during my VTAC Streetfighter course I had multiple failures like the above this past week-end. The rifle was my Noveske N4, with about 4,000 rounds through it now. It was lubed generously. The issues occurred on day 1. On day 2, without cleaning or lubing the rifle, I stowed my AWM's and ran PMAG's. I did not have any further issues for the duration of the course, although after day 2 concluded, I cleaned and lubed my rifle.

-H buffer from Noveske
-USGI Buffer spring from BCM, 200-ish rounds old at the start of Day 1.

Everyone is now saying "It's your rifle" or it's this, or its that. Well swapping to PMAG's fixed whatever the hell the issue was. You know how much of a bitch it is to run dry, slam a new mag in, depress the bolt release, and still be dry? Sucks. I don't have the patience for that crap. /rant off.

Don't know what to tell you about your problem... Hope you get it figured out.
Since starting this thread a while back, I purchased a total of 15 Lancer AWMs (black, opaque)... All have worked flawlessly for me.
I also have about 20 PMAGS...all of which ALSO work flawlessly, however some of them will not drop free from a few of my lowers.

I did. PMAGs work. I'll slowly trade the Lancer L5 AWM black/opaques off as I go. They do make good training mags, but I'd never use them off the range.

The Lancer AWF mags that I had an opportunity to test delivered  mixed results
We had a couple of issues:
1   During the chambering process of a fully loaded magazine (translucent)  the top round would not strip off and feed into the chamber. This happened to multiple shooters on the line.  The mags where mixed in to our training cycle.
2   The translucent mags when fully loaded where drop tested onto concrete.  The mag was dropped from waist height onto all sides of the mag. Once dropped on the spine this caused a crack to develop down the spine. The mag still worked but it was cracked. I was able to duplicate this test numerous times and the translucent mags didnot hold up to this test. The same test was done to solid color mags and they did not  crack.

Lancer admitted to a manufacturing defect with the feed lips and that has since been corrected. I sent back all the translucent mags . I have been testing OD and Black solid color mags with good results. The solid color mags are working well.
I would not recommend the translucent for street duty . I would use them for training or with simms only .

I've seen your video.
cletussd 5 months ago

So what is the point of this video?

Reshoot it and drop the bolt,the Lancer will load just fine.

And no one in the comments called you a retard.

It was on another forum. Also, no, it will NOT "load just fine". The bolt carrier group fails to strip a round from the mag every now and then. Happened twice during day 1 of Streetfighter. Screw that. Run PMAG's, shit works. The point of my video was not to show failure, but to show what I viewed as a potential source of failure. Everyone told me the same thing you did "works fine in the real world." Bullshit. Got the gun/mags a little dirty and there it was. Fail fail fail. PMAG's didn't care. All day on day 2 with no cleaning performed after day 1, and they ran fine.

Go cycle a weapon with a Lancer, and with a PMAG. Lancer has a TON! more friction. Before you ask, since you didn't read my above post all the way/thoroughly (otherwise why would you tell me to use the bolt release and it will work fine as I already stated it doesn't?), yes, the buffer spring was only 200 rounds old and came from BCM. Should have been quality gear. I had a little of this issue a while back using a Sprinco White spring, as well, but since then transitioned to mil-spec springs. If it won't run on a mil-spec buffer spring, I don't want it.

I don't care what the gun does in the livingroom. I care what it does when I'm actually using it. The video in the livingroom was, as I said, just a footnote observing something that I figured might just be an issue in the real world. I was right, unfortunately. But hey, even Lancers are worth something today, and I have 15-20 of them that I'm slowly trading for PMAG's as people want to try AWM's. Some people like them, so I facilitate that and get some good mags/ammo/whatever in the process.

I read all of your post.
And I didn't say anything about using the bolt release,I said drop the bolt.

Sir,
I emailed you  in regaurds to this last year in April. I will search fror my pics . I stand by the test. The mags where dropped not thrown . You are the person that told me the mags had a defect at one time and had a burr on the feed lips. That has since been corrected.  I returned  the mags to SPA simrad.  The OD / black mags are performing well and I would recomend them in a minute.

Sir,
I emailed you in regaurds to this last year in April. I will search fror my pics . I stand by the test. The mags where dropped not thrown . You are the person that told me the mags had a defect at one time and had a burr on the feed lips. That has since been corrected. I returned the mags to SPA simrad. The OD / black mags are performing well and I would recomend them in a minute.

You mean use the charging handle? That is very slow compared to the bolt release, and it is not the proper manual of arms. I refuse to use magazines that force me to do inefficient things.

I have not tried the AWMs yet, but I have run the original 20 and 30 round L5s and L5As hard, dusty, and hot, as well as having shot a cold, wet, dirty Appleseed weekend using a dozen 20 round L5s. I have never  had any failures with any of them in multiple brands of DI and GP guns. YMMV of course...

There are a bunch of Listings for both MagPuls and AWMs at $20 and up each on GunBroker.com right now, for anyone who is looking.

http://www.gunbroker.com/All/BI.aspx?Keywords=lancer

http://www.gunbroker.com/All/BI.aspx?Keywords=pmag

Pulling back the charging handle very slowly is proper manual of arms
Drop the bolt,after you're done pulling it back very slowly.

You're confusing my video with real life. The video was made to expose what I felt was an issue. I can't follow myself around with a camera filming all the time, so I illustrated the issue in the livingroom as best I could. Then, in the real world, the mags shat the bed on multiple reloads. I never use the charging handle except to clear malfunctions. I use the bolt release. Mag runs dry, bolt locks back, drop the mag, insert a new mag, depress lever, back to shooting---except not with the AWM's all the time. Sometimes it was "slam the butt/FA as hard as you can and jar the thing enough to strip the round, THEN start shooting again."

Let me illustrate how I reload (not me, but same manual of arms I use, except he grabs his mags differently, but aside that...) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRGl4-5zCrw
Now why in the world would I want to run an inferior product that randomly forces me to mess with the CH about 5% of the time? Literally the only non-user induced malfunctions (had a few stovepipes shooting support-side out of an auto window when my arm blocked the ejection port, that sort of thing) I have had in over 4,000 rounds with this rifle have been caused by various Lancer AWM's (not the same one, I smashed the first one that did this and called it a fluke).

I have had issues with D&H with Magpul followers when using steel cased ammo. Often the first round will get hung up when I hit the bolt release on a freshly inserted mag.
What im getting at is that the metal feed lips may take a quick swipe with sandpaper to smooth them out.

Metal feed-lips certainly have more friction than polymer imo.

Pmags have been great to me, and D&H have been perfect too except for the steel cased getting hung up a couple times. (I just hit the forward assist, and it chambers every-time)

I just receiver some 20rd Translucent AWM's from WilsonCombat that im eager to try out.

Are the translucent mags weaker than the solid color mags?  I have heard that clear polymer is not quite as durable, and some of those user experiences seem to support that.

So stronger than polymers used by other companies, how does it compare to the solid color L5 mags in strength?

Yes and no. Conversely if you have a magazine that does not work in a number of rifles out there that run with all other mags maybe its the mag. It could also be how the tolerances stack up.
Pat

I must be lucky.  Every AR I own drops every mag I've ever tried free, and functions with them all.....from USGI to every gen/size of magpul, and the newest lancer 20's and 30's.

I guess thats what I get for buying quality gear.  Funny how that works.

I like Lancer mags but I have seen them not work in a few rifles at matches. Not fully sure why but they are not as univerally reliable as P mags from my observations in my microcosm.
Pat

Well I've been thrashing the Lancer mag pretty good and it's still working great.

I bought 4 black L5’s. Shot them, worked great and thought they were good. I read this post and start getting a little paranoid so I start to try to replicate the problems mentioned here…they worked great and in fact I cant get them to fail, steel case,55 gr reloads,soft points,hollow points,77 gr reloads …..I am a huge Lancer fan boy now lol

Here is my 2 cents:
I like the Lancer AWM mags - have about 15 along with about 60 USGI, E-Lander and PMags combined.  I have tried them in all sorts of platforms from 1974 Colts up to the Sig 556, TAVOR, SCAR 16S and AUG A3. The only rifle that they just click into is the old Colt SP1. All others require a slap - regardless if they are loaded or not. And it does not matter if I have a forged or billet upper or lower, USGI or Norgon mag catch or something like the SCAR or Sig mag catch.
The Lancers all need a slap - just like my 12/12 dated E-Landers. This tells me the distance from the top of the feed lips to the top of the catch is slightly off compared to USGI. You can see the subtle difference visually and it can be measured with some effort (due the geometry of the feed lips).
I am not a machinist so look at the picture with that in mind. We are talking just a few thousands of an inch maybe but it is enough to need a slap. Once I figure out how to remove this small amount I will give it a go.
I like the mags.


As I did with my E-Landers - I used a dremel cuttoff wheel as a sanding disk and removed a paper thickness worth of material. It made a difference in my finiky Colt and TAVOR - no more hard slapping of loaded mags. Sticking with them.