I have 8x E-Lander 24rnd mags that worked maybe a year ago. They were working flawlessly when I got them, and I believe that something happened in storage. I left them in storage loaded with Wolf, and only 4x of them worked today when I function tested them. The malfunctions I was getting seemed to be friction related, where the top round was not presenting due to insufficient spring force. Typically the round would nosedive into the magazine body, but sometimes the magazine would lose hold of the round because the top couple of rounds were not receiving spring force - this resulted nose diving or the round getting jammed above the barrel.

I was able to fire one mag successfully many times by not loading past 15 rounds. The ones that didn't work seemed to have the follower getting hung up. I numbered all of the magazines and marked the ones that malfunctioned. I cleaned the problem magazines and found a lot of lacquer came off on my patches. Some of the springs seem stronger than others, and I wonder if a stronger spring would overcome the friction of the wolf lacquer. After cleaning, I tested one magazine successfully by manually cycling the action.

I also bought an ASC 24rnd magazine that seems to function better, but I've only had that one loaded for 6 months. I'm really surprised because it's very rough inside, and has much thinner steel. Maybe the E-lander is just too tight for lacquer ammo.

- Do E-Lander mags work well with brass cased ammo?
- Has anyone tried a stronger spring to see if that solves the issue?
- Should I go to 15 round magazines? Any other advice?

CPD

I have 2 elander 17 rounders that work fine (I load them to 15).

CPD 26 round mags have been perfect (usually load 20, sometimes 26).  CPD 20 round mags also perfect (usually loaded to 15).
I guess they no longer offer the 20s for some odd reason since I believe they're the perfect size for this caliber.  I ordered more of the longer mags and switched the blue followers to 20rd 7.62x39 mags.  The longer mags (with the exact profile of my 7.62 28rd) have been perfect with black followers loaded to 25 of 7.62x39.

I just switched followers to help prevent confusion.  They both work fine in either caliber.

That’s weird, never heard of laquer coming off any steel cased round. 7.62x39, 5.45x39 or Grendel.

If cleaning didn’t fix em, I’d either try some Hornady One Shot dry lube, replace the springs if std. AR springs will work, or buy some CPDs. No idea where you could find replacement followers if that’s your issue.

I’ve run e-landers for 5.56, .300bo and 6.5 Grendel without issue. CPDs in 7.62x39 & 5.45x39 also flawless.

I only have experience with ASC grendel mags, but they have been perfect over about 500 rounds.  I have 2 15's and 2 25's.  i cleaned them out with parts cleaner, then sprayed the inside and follower with dry lube.  Smoothed them out quite a bit.

I'm not a fan of e lander mags.

ASC mags have been perfect.

Maybe I will try more ASC mags.

I did spray some rem oil into the mags, and they seem to function now - but I think they just barely function.

I have 3 17 round Elanders that work perfectly. I have another three that are newer and are kind of shit. The first few rounds work fine, then the following rounds nosedive when cycling. I’m going to buy some C-Products next.

I suggest you remove the floor plate and clean the inside of the magazine.  In my experience E-Lander mags have stiff springs.  I have several 24 round, 17 round and two ten round E-L mags and mine have been gtg once worn in.   If I used any lube in a mag it would be dry lubricant like one shot.  Liquid lube has a tendency to hold a lot of debris IMHO.   I have shot quite a bit of steel cased ammo and it hasn’t caused any problems.

I'll clean them after the next range trip. I'll probably give one shot a try.

ASC's work great for me.

I too have had issues with the bigger Elander magazine

Have some 5 and 10 round ASC for bench shooting that work great. Bought a larger one for hog hunting, just haven't been able to use it yet

I made it to the range today. The mags are working again. It seems that the rem oil solved the issue. I'm thinking it was friction related.

You shouldn't have to run lube in your mags for them to be reliable.  In fact, it's detrimental to do so.

I've had a bunch of issues with E-Lander mags lately.  I've had some for about 2 years and others were brand new.  I don't know if it was the spring or the follower but I am looking at some other options.

The E-Lander mags have the shortest inside dimension of any 6.5 Grendel mags.  It looks like the tip of the cartridges are dragging on the inside of the mag.   If these were my mags I’d remove the cartridges and check their overall length.  You should be able to run cartridges 2.260” long or it is possible the body of the E-Lander mags are out of spec.   E-Lander mags have been shipped where the mag body was not aligned properly when welded.

I’d also unload the mags, remove the floor plate, clean and inspect the mag body for anything the follower could snag.  I’d ensure the mag spring is installed in the correct orientation and reassemble.   If the mag bodies are out of spec I’d contact the vendor to see about getting replacements.

Be sure to let the forum know if you sort out the problem with the E-Lander mags.   There are currently only two other brands of 6.5 Grendel mags, ASC and C Products Defense/Duramag.   I’ve read D&H manufactures a ten round 6.5 Grendel mag but I’ve never seen one in person.

https://dh-tactical.com/mag-65-Grendel.html

Has anyone had good luck with the ASC 15 round mags?

These ones:
Mags

Alexander Arms refused to accept the 14 round capacity mag which is advertised as 15 round since it counts the chambered cartridge.  C Products introduced this mag even though AA wanted a curved mag in similar profile to the seventeen round E-Lander.  C Products never released a curved body shorter mag and AA never sold the 14/15 round mag.

I have four or five of the C Products which were taken over by ACS.  ASC are basically the same mags as the original C Products and they still produce the fifteen round mag which is very close to the dimensions of a 20 round 5.56/223 AR-15 mag.   I rarely load my 14 round mags past ten rounds but they function.   In my experience it is luck of the draw with ASC mags, you may get good mags or you might get a lemon.

Generally there are fewer problems with ten and twenty four round ASC 6.5/Grendel mags compared to the 15 round mags.   Your choice is limited as only ASC (or rebranded AR Stoner) 15 round or 17 round E-Lander are available in mid size.   C Products Defense/Duramag has not reintroduced a twenty round size 6.5 Grendel  mag and D&H only sell a ten round 6.5 Grendel mag.

There are forum members who had very good luck with the ASC 15 round mag but there are others that have had issues.   Unfortunately there are no guaranteed 100% reliable AR-15 6.5 Grendel mags as all manufacturers seem to have a few lemon slip out.  I suggest you buy 6.5 Grendel mags from reputable vendors with good CS in case you get a bad 6.5 Grendel mag.   I’ve been lucky, I’ve only had one faulty ASC mag which was fixed by tweaking a feed lip.   I currently have 28 AR-15 6.5 Grendel mags.

They've been flawless for me to date. 500 rounds or so through 4 of them.

I have one 24 round Elander mag (yeah, I know, it's sad that I only have one mag for my Grendel but I'll get more someday when I can afford it).  It works perfectly with brass cased ammo but it's a 100% failure-fest with Wolf steel cased.  It will not work at all.  The rounds bind up and go nose down just like you described.  The steel case just will not slide against the inside of the magazine.  It just won't work in this Elander.  The same steel case Wolf ammo works fine in my sister's C-Products Grendel mag.

Not a huge deal since that ammo is so inaccurate it causes me to swear too much so I just stopped shooting it.  It'll have to just sit in its boxes and think about how bad it behaved.  Definitely will not be getting more of that.  I still need to try the Wolf brass case stuff.

Thank you

It's all been hornady black. I'm gearing up to start reloading for the grendel soon.  Their 25 round mags have been good too, but I haven't put many rounds through them.

I've run maybe a couple thousand rounds through Elander 17's and 24, and did a 3-gun match with them - been running great.

That said, they do have a lot of friction stripping out a round.  Good to know if they set up for a while, they might lose some of the smoothness of use.

I don't if I'd buy them again since so many people complain about them.  But so far mine have worked well.

Does the Grendel magazine have the same internal width dimension as a 5.56 magazine?

I picked up a few of the D&H 10 round 6.5G mags for my Ruger bolt action, only used em a few times but they run great.
For anyone who hasn’t seen them, they look like their 7.62x39 AR mags, smooth sided with a ‘V’ stamped on the sides. The pic on PSA’s site is wrong.

Heavy steel bodies, have only used them once in one of my ARs and the fit was snug but did not bind or drag. If D&H does a 17 or 20 I’d try one.

No