What is the difference between these two magazines, other than the appearance?
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Hi.  I was referring to the difference between the two generations of L5 magazines.  Please note the difference in the shape shown in the photo.  Thanks.

I cannot say a whole lot relating to the use of 5.56 ammo, but in 2022 Lancer did something to the feed lips, regardless of what they say, which affects feeding of the .458 SOCOM round.  In pre 2022 magazines, no mods were needed on their 30 round mags whatsoever regardless of what bullet was used.  If one wanted to make unloading unfired rounds easier, a half moon cut in the front solved that problem but other than that, the mags were perfect for the .458 SOCOM.  Then, something changed and they put less angle on the feed lip spread and the .458 SOCOM started giving feeding problems in the Lancer 30R magazine with FNHP or other wide meplat bullets.  The solution was to bend the front of the feed lips out about .015 to .020 inch but because of the Lancer metal/polymer construction, you must take extra care when spreading the feed lips or you'll crack the polymer body of the magazine.  You need to support the INSIDE of the magazine with something that is a tight fit between the metal feed lip housing as well as supporting the outside of the magazine feed lip housing.  The outside is easy, put it in a vise.  Inside, a little more difficult.  I found using blue painters tape around several stacked tongue depressors for a very tight fit, shoved into the magazine from the bottom to support the inside of the feed lip housing around the front half of the feed lips seems to work very well.  Then clamp it in a vise, and regardless of what the feed lip spread measures, spread the front half of the feed lips about .015 to .020 inch with a feed lip tool or smooth jawed pliers.  That increases the angle of feed for the .458 SOCOM and the mag will now feed as reliable as their pre-2022 magazines.

So, while none of this may apply to the 5.56, Lancer most certainly did change something about the feed lips in 2022.  What and why, not a clue, but I assume it had something to do with the angle of attack of the rounds to improve feeding, not that I ever had any trouble at all out of feeding anything regardless of caliber (5.56, .223, or any of the SOCOM rounds)  out of pre-2022 magazines.  In the .458 SOCOM case, they "fixed" something that was not broken by breaking it so the end user needs to fix it before using them, at least with wide meplat or FNHP bullets.

As to the OP's question about shape, I don't see a lick of difference in the shape between the two mags other than the front side rib of the magazine being a solid slot in the left and a broken slot in the right.  If that's it, I fail to see a concern but if it is something else, please highlight what you are talking about.

Thanks.  I do not have a "concern."  I'm simply curious about the change in appearance and what the reason is for it.  Why would Lancer add the reinforcements to the slot as seen in the right side of the photo?

I have both examples as shown in the picture and I believe the finish on the feed lips changed as well between the two.

The one on the left has phosphate finished feed lips and the one on the right has more of a glossy appearance to their feed lips. I assume they might be nitride finished, but it could very well be some other type of finish.

I also noted that in my examples (which are smoke translucent polymer) that the newer type Lancer mag on the right is a darker shade than the older type Lancer mag on the left.

I misunderstood your original question, my bad.

Other than the horizontal webs in the vertical channel they appear otherwise identical. I could not tell you why they differ.


Reach out to Lancer, see what they say.

I just sent them an email with a link to this discussion.

I received this from Lancer.  

"I see what you are referring to now. The mag on the left is from 2012 so it’s a bit older, and since then there was a simple change in the tooling used to mold the mags. Functionally, there is no difference between the two."

I noticed that difference years ago because I bought a single translucent smoke Lancer sometime around 2010, and then didn’t buy any more for probably 5 or 6 years. From an engineering standpoint, it looks like they added the horizontal ribs in the groove to stiffen that part of the magazine body. I would guess that they noticed a slight weakness in that area, maybe causing it to bulge when fully loaded. I could see that causing the mag to stick in the magwell a little (if it bulges on the sides) and not drop free. I’m completely confident that it wouldn’t affect the function of the magazine at all, but they probably identified it as an incremental improvement to the design.

One other difference that I noticed between the generations is that (on the other side the mags, I think) the rectangular spot where the Lancer logo and some other text appears was in a different location. Totally cosmetic, just another thing I noticed when comparing the two.