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Posted: 10/29/2025 4:30:58 PM EDT
[Last Edit: banzai70][Edited]
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Originally Posted By Eric_T_Cartman: Both run 100%, have lots of both, prefer Lancer due to them being closer in thickness/size to USGI aluminum mags and so fit better in some surplus kit and I like the translucent so that I can more easily verify correct stacking / loading / ammo type. Same here. I have both. I use the Pmags in AK47s and ptr32. They seem pretty good. I like the Lancers for the reasons posted above and I prefer metal feedlips. Plus, they look cool as hell (the Lancers)! |
| Own both. Prefer Gen2 PMAGs for value. Have dozens and dozens. Not one feedlip failure from Gen2 or Gen3 mags. Lancers are fine. I use them loaded with a different ammo so easy to identify what is where. |
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Yesterday I had a few mags loaded with 6rd I intended for FRT use, and a few mags loaded with 5rd I intended for slow fire semi auto grouping use. Because they were transparent Lancers, I could could count the bullet tips to distinguish between them. As such I find transparent mags very desirable. ... That said my Lancer Gen 1's were crazy hard to lock in on a closed bolt until they broke in. For any Gen 1 mags I get again, I will load w/ Lula and unload by hand 5-10x before use to speed up the break in. I do not have Gen 2 mags, but they were apparently tweaked to be much easier to seat on 30rd closed bolt. |
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I don't own any Lancers. I only own one Pmag M3 and lots of the M2 and GIs. The M2s have been pretty much the ones I use for a long time. When I first bought the window mags I tossed an empty one many times in the air and let them hit the pavement. I stomped the heck out of the mag on the window and nothing but some scratches. I didn't buy more M3s because of being flush with M2. They were cheap enough, tuff, and reliable. I've read a few have experienced cracked / spreading feed lips and seam splits, but I think that's far and few between. I don't know if the is a single best AR15 magazine. I think there are a several brands that are equally good. With that said I've been looking at Lancers the last few days. I think I'm going to buy five of the ten rounders and a few of the thirty rounders. |
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I have and use a both PMag m3s and lancers a lot. Both are good choices. The lancers plastic is like softer it seems like though and don’t do as well without cleaning when shooting something with a lot of blowback . I’ve got some M3s with a lot of miles on them and some long storage and they haven’t split yet. Older gens do I buy lancers or pmags |
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Originally Posted By spydercomonkey: That said my Lancer Gen 1's were crazy hard to lock in on a closed bolt until they broke in. For any Gen 1 mags I get again, I will load w/ Lula and unload by hand 5-10x before use to speed up the break in. I do not have Gen 2 mags, but they were apparently tweaked to be much easier to seat on 30rd closed bolt. This is the bottom locking plate from an early Gen 1 (right) vs. a later Gen 1 (left). That post serves as a stop for the follower when it's fully compressed by loading 30 rounds in the magazine. In the early magazines, the follower would bottom out on the post, leaving very little room for the rounds to compress any more when you loaded the full magazine on a closed bolt. That made them very difficult to seat (and was the reason I stayed away from Lancers initially after that experience with my first one). At some point - I'm not sure exactly when - Lancer shortened that post, allowing the follower and spring to compress a little more so it was easier to seat the mag on a closed bolt. That change happened in the middle of Gen 1 mag production, years before the Gen 2 was introduced. Some people used to file down that post themselves on the early magazines. It definitely helps. Attached File |
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Own and use both… if I had to pick gen3 Pmags are bulletproof I’ve been running the same 30 mags for years in training every week. Attached File |
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Originally Posted By Redman556: Lancers. No plastic feed lips to crack, and they don't crack down the spine. With the clear one's, or any that translucent, it's easier to keep track of your rounds if there's any light in the room or outside. Both work, but the Lancer is a sturdier magazine. Thats interesting because I've read enough accounts pf the feed lips actually breaking off the lancers that I'm only investing in pmags. Lots of pmags went though GWOT and proved themselves. |
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Originally Posted By -OdieGreen-: a bunch of liberal New York investors who bought a gun company for government money. Is that what happened at Magpul? How do you know the investors are liberal? I know plenty of bankers who are solid pro-2a conservatives. The guys designing things at Magpul are awesome. |
 I bought some Lancers from Botach and at first was like meh...... but I'm staring to like them. Haven't been able to try them yet. I got this alien green mag because I just like the green. I tossed it about on the pavement and it's sitting some where in the back yard. I'll tune in next year and what it looks like then. It might make my put together a zombie gun. |
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Originally Posted By FlyLeaf: Have both. ...pmags ... Smoother loading ammo ... I have also found this to be the case. With Pmags, (I have mostly Gen2) I just keep snapping them in and if a round is far enough forward so that the bullet overlaps the mag body a little, which is a pretty common occurrence, they just align themselves back and keep going in. With the Lancers, I have to intentionally push the rounds in and back or they get hung up on the front of the mag body. If I keep pushing, they want to snap back out. This doesn't happen for me with Pmags. Not the biggest deal, but a bit of an irritation. |
| I have both and they never failed me, but prefer to use Lancers because Magpul has a history of cracking and feed lips spreading. None of my Magpuls have broke but use them only for the range. Lancers stay in my mag pouches. I also dislike the Magpul base plates. They make them difficult to stack in mag pouches. And the notch on the Mapgul M3 spine annoys me as well, I really find that unnecessary. |
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Originally Posted By DeluxeSupreme: I have both and they never failed me, but prefer to use Lancers because Magpul has a history of cracking and feed lips spreading. None of my Magpuls have broke but use them only for the range. Lancers stay in my mag pouches. I also dislike the Magpul base plates. They make them difficult to stack in mag pouches. And the notch on the Mapgul M3 spine annoys me as well, I really find that unnecessary. The notch on the gen 3 is an overinsertion lock tab. So when you do overinsert, it'll wedge nicely in the magwell and lock everything up for you 
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| I have both and prefer the Lancers. I have seen the Pmags split at the seam and seen the lips spread after storage. I have found the dust covers actually relieve the tension on the lips like having one inserted in the weapon. So, I have "dust " covers on all my Pmags 7.62 and 5.56. Also keep slip on covers on my Lancers and metal mags just to keep pasture dirt out of them. Those covers are almost impossible to find anymore. Tapco made the best but no more. I have never had feed issues with either mag even with FA. |
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USGI are my primary go to mags, but really like the clear/smoked Lancers. If anybody would make a quality aftermarket Ruger Mini-14 30rd mag, I think Lancer's metal feed lip would be ideal to modify for the Mini. Not a fan of the 3d gen Pmags; that over insertion tab just gets in the way. One day I'm going to hit it with a Dremel. My only gripe is silly; the esthetics of the horizontal rib /20rd mark doesn't follow the lines of a USGI profile lower receiver magwell opening; seems it would match billet/H&K lowers better. With that, I'm really liking the Magpul T-mags and am collecting a basic loads worth, but I don't think they'll stand up to hard use given experiences of others stated here. |
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| Lancers are more durable, and they feed better. Lancers are clear, or like the one I use, OD tinted, and have been for nearly 20 years. Steyr has been good with theirs since the late 1970s. And still, to this day, the Magpul clear mags are not as sturdy as either of the two that have been out for 20 years, and one for 49 years. Come on. I just lost all faith in Magpul. They make some good stuff, but it's all old. They've been surpassed. I don't use anything Magpul now. I can remember back in the 2008-2012 era, I ran almost all Magpul. |
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Originally Posted By Redman556: Lancers are more durable, and they feed better. Lancers are clear, or like the one I use, OD tinted, and have been for nearly 20 years. Steyr has been good with theirs since the late 1970s. And still, to this day, the Magpul clear mags are not as sturdy as either of the two that have been out for 20 years, and one for 49 years. Come on. I just lost all faith in Magpul. They make some good stuff, but it's all old. They've been surpassed. I don't use anything Magpul now. I can remember back in the 2008-2012 era, I ran almost all Magpul. Magpul Larue Dillon IMHO, are all coasting. There, I said it. |
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Cracked gen 1 and gen 2 Magpuls, but not Gen 3. Gen 3 are the toughest and most reliable magazines available. Lancer is lighter. For translucent 5.56 I prefer Lancer. My opaque Lancers are tougher than the translucent ones. I hate .308 Lancer mags. Stupid floorplate shape makes me want to load em backwards. |
| I prefer Lancer mags and prob have around 30 total. Mostly gen 2 but I wanna say 4 or 5 308 mags. That being said, I remember when 10 pmags were $70-80/shipped. I forget which "scare" it was after but over time I prob got arpund 200 of them. Most are still in the USPS box they came in. I have a few plastic 50 cal cans with loaded pmags and a handful in a range bag. |
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Attached File Coupon PRESDAY26 at Botach. $10.64 each when buying a six pack. I assume these are gen 1. |
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| Lancer by leaps and bounds. I have a lot of cats and the front rib in the Pmags screws the pooch with any full length cat based on the .458 SOCOM case. With the Lancer mags, I can use any mag I pick up for either 5.56 or 5.56 based cat or any .458 SOCOM or .458 based cat. That puts Lancers the clear mag of choice for my uses. When it comes to 6.8 based cats, either PRI 6.8 mag for rounds with a shoulder or the .400 Legend Duramag for my straight walled 6.8 based cat. |
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Lancer and Gen 3 Pmags have both been 100% trouble free for me. Gen 2 Pmag? Not so much. Had a black one insert, feed, and fire all rounds perfect. Wouldn't eject afterward. Basically turned the rifle into a club. I had to take the upper off and push the mag out by driving a chunk of wood downward in the magwell. Somehow the mag body swelled up. Hadn't seen that before or since. Had two more crack along the spine at the top. They still worked though. Both of those were the colored ones if that makes a difference. Mags are consumables, so no worries. I still buy them. Gen 2s have statistically been more reliable than used aluminum mags for me. |
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I’m a Magpul fan… but my only Gen3 PMAGs are 10s, 20s and 40s. All my 30s are Gen2. Just prefer it. If I could get the others in Gen2, I would. I do have a few of the original 30s, and a handful of straight 20s. But I have recently pulled them out of rotation and moved to Gen2 30s and Gen3 20s. |
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Originally Posted By VaultTec: Lancer and Gen 3 Pmags have both been 100% trouble free for me. Gen 2 Pmag? Not so much. Had a black one insert, feed, and fire all rounds perfect. Wouldn't eject afterward. Basically turned the rifle into a club. I had to take the upper off and push the mag out by driving a chunk of wood downward in the magwell. Somehow the mag body swelled up. Hadn't seen that before or since. Had two more crack along the spine at the top. They still worked though. Both of those were the colored ones if that makes a difference. Mags are consumables, so no worries. I still buy them. Gen 2s have statistically been more reliable than used aluminum mags for me. Never seen or heard of polymer mags swelling. I could see a gen 2 pmag getting slammed into the gun with retard strength and overinserting far enough to get it stuck, but it shouldn’t function if it got that deep. (That’s what she said, hur, hur) I could see that happening easier on a lower with a nonstandard magwell, I guess. |
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Something to note about "Standard M3 30s" not dropping free in some lowers. Standard (non windowed) M3 Pmag "30s" have a much thicker ramped area around the mag catch cutout, causing a tighter fit in the magwell and this can cause issues with dropping free in some lowers. Oddly enough, Standard M3 40s, M3 "Windowed" 30s, nor M2s have that area ramped up as thick and all drop free just fine in almost all lowers, even unloaded... Years back I researched this and if I recall correctly, It had something to do with the standard M3s and the USGI contract, but I can't remember the WHY of it all... In summary, try any Pmag except for a standard (non window) M3 30 and I bet they'll drop free just fine. |
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I like both, have both along with Duramags but still have all my pmags from Afghanistan 2010-2011. I beat the hell out of them in that year and never had an issue. I fired plenty of rounds through them on both semi and full auto, climbed and crawled lots of rocky, dusty terrain, landed on them jumping into prone and rolled around on them. Since then I’ve put an additional 16460 rounds through them according to my spread sheet. I trust them because of that. For context my brand new M4 that I was issued before deployment had lots of wear to the receivers anodizing, down to shiny aluminum even though I painted it a few times on deployment. Lancers function fine on the flat range but I don’t know that they would take that much abuse. Maybe. |
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I had a lancer mag. Translucent red. Fall off the top of my truck cab at 75mph. A few rounds popped out. It’s got some road rash. And it still works. Can’t say I have damaged a pmag like that. However. Until Lancer makes a 40rd mag. I’ll be sticking with mostly 40 rd pmags. |
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Originally Posted By bigfatOTMs: One passed military testing with the best numbers ever on nearly every test. One didn't. This was all bad info. Lancers only failed with one ammunition type. Results were pretty much equal otherwise. It’s easy to believe since Magpul claimed it was a shut out, but the results were eventually released and Lancer only did bad with Mk318 for some reason. Both M3’s and AWM’s went 2400 rounds without failure using M855A1 in a M4A1, meaning both had two misfeeds. Neither had any misfeeds and performed flawlessly in the M27. It’s also important to note that testing attributed any and all failures to the magazine without any other consideration. |
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