I seem to get one nose down situation for every three mags or so I run. Dies it with different ammo. Does it with different 15-22 mags.

Do Black Dog mags do this?

Wondering if it is worth giving up last round bolt hold open to get reliability. Want to make sure they are more reliable first.

The only issue I've had with BD mags is with the polymer feed lips, with the metal feed lips they've been very reliable for me.

Never had a problem with BD mags, but I only use them with my Beretta ARX100, and that rifle will digest just about any cartridge.

I’ve never had a problem with the 15-22 mags.  It’s all in how you load them.  You have to pull down the thumb stud, removing pressure every 3-4 rounds shaking the bullets down and towards the rear of the magazine.

How sure are you that this is a nose down malfunction?  If the bolt is travelling forward a short distance before stopping, look for a groove being worn into the rear of the feedlips on the inside.  That's a wear indicator.

100% sure. The bullet is literally nose down and when it tries to strip the round it just hits the front of the magazine and jams up.

These magazines are brand new.

I have a Lightnin' Grip loader. If I can't load with that, well then I suppose I need to revisit the mags anyways.

I have shot many thousands of rounds through 4 different AR-22s I've built, all using BD mags.  On the steel lipped 32 round mags, none of them would fit my lowers without some sanding to the back edges of the magazine with some 200-400-600 grit wet/dry.  Also, none of the 25 and 15 round sonic weld mags would fit either but they needed to thinned on the back sides edges of the magazine, again with 200/400/600 grit wet dry.  It takes about 15 minutes or so each mag and after the 600 grit, a little CLP and you couldn't tell they had ever been worked on.  Other than them being sticky to insert and extract and no way they'd drop free from any of my lowers, there has never been a feed or extraction problem.  Two of my barrels, 4.5 and 9 inch, were RTB, one was a Paladin reworked 16 inch DPMS (reworked to use the CMMG/RTB BCG), and one was a custom made 21 inch on a GM blank done by Paladin (tp555(at)vfemail.net).  All BCG are CMMG/RTB.  After fitting, they drop free and feed and eject 100% no matter what I feed them, from many different brands of standard velocity to CCI Stingers and SGBs, Aguila SuperMax, and IIRC, even the RWS Subsonic HPs fed and ejected like greased butter.  FYI, the Aguila SM are crap in my guns, accuracy is terrible-over 5 inches at 50 yards for a 10 shot group, ES was over 200 fps, and they fell about 400 fps short of the advertised velocity in both the 16 and 21 inch barrels, but they fed and ejected just fine.

What I don't get is nobody ever mentions the tight mag well problem.  Am I the only one?  I bought the mags from three different vendors (RTB, Midway, BDM) and I cannot believe that I am so unlucky that none of my BDM mags would fit any of my lowers.    Maybe that's why I have never won so much as $2 on any of my lottery tickets.

That said though, they are my go to mag and I have a bunch of them.  So they take a little fitting to drop free, so what?  They function perfectly and that makes them a winner in my book.

Thanks for the info. I have one of their mags, I'm not sure if round count but it is a pre-sonic weld example. I've never used it as I went 15-22 from the outset but at the same time wanted others' experiences before I go investing in new mags.

Is there a better loader for the black dog mags? I've seen a nice rotary loader where you crank a handle but don't recall the name of it. Even this black dog fails to load more than 15-20 rounds before it jams up in either of my Lightnin' Grip loaders.

Didn't BD come out with a mag with a slide on the side for loading like the S&W mags?  Thought I saw a pic somewhere

My Black Dog X-Form mags have been very reliable. I bought a bunch with the steel feed lips when they were discontinuing them. McFadden loader works pretty well with them.

ETA: you have a McFadden Lightning Grip and it doesn't work well with it? Weird.

ETA2: My AR22 uppers are old Tactical Solutions so ymmv. I recently ran a few of my BDM mags through someone else's RTB .22 upper with 100% reliability.

Since you're looking at .22 mags:  

The steel lips were VERY good mags.

I've had malfunctions, but never a nose down malfunction with 15-22 magazines.  The magazine spring is stout and the follower doesn't permit much tilt.

What are you using as a magazine shim?  Could it stand to be thicker?


I did have a Ruger 22/45 with a chronic nose down malfunction caused by the magazine rotating slightly forward and the magazine lips being slightly out of position.  I'm wondering if there is something out of dimension in your lower that will allow this condition with any other magazine too.

No shim. Using the Redi-Mag adapter.

I'll have to get a pic to show you guys. Y'all aren't believing me.

I believe you; I'm just wondering what the cause is.  BMAs are great.

I've never used a McFadden loader, but I understand them to load rounds individually in a way that should not set you up for rimlock.

Even with extra power action springs and clipped magazine springs, I've never had a bolt produce enough force to make a bullet pivot downward.

Maybe it's related to something else in the system?  I have used the S&W/BMA system on 3 different 22LR AR's and haven't experienced what you describe.

I’ve never had that problem. They seem to be reliable for me.

I have a ar22.  
I have about 10 Blackdog sonicweld 25rd mags.
Metal feed lips for most of them.  
All of them are reliable.
All of them fit fine in the 2 SBR lowers I use.

I also have a mcfadden speed load and it works great.
I wish it was built stronger as mine is finally failing after multiple repairs.
I will buy another.
I use it for my tx22 mags as well.

I’ve never seen an M&P mag do that, not even once. Might be a result of your loader.

I want to say I have 30 BD mags from the originals to metal lipped. They've all been very reliable in my ARs with 22 kits.