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Posted: 3/26/2025 7:05:17 PM EDT
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C-Products/Duramag makes stainless steel magazines with .020" thick metal. The aluminum mags out there typically .040" thick metal. C-Products claims their stainless steel mags are much stronger than aluminum mags while weighing just a little more. Is a mag made with .020" thick stainless steel stronger than aluminum mags with .040" thick aluminum? Assume the quality among the stainless and aluminum mags are the same. |
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In general. You used to hear "pound for pound, as strong/stronger than steel" when things made of Aluminum were advertised. That's true, but it doesn't account for volume and stiffness of the material 20lbs of aluminum is physically bigger than 20lbs of steel. If you have a part made using the full 20lbs of each, the aluminum one will be bigger/thicker, and because of the physics of being bigger, may be able to handle more pressure. It's perfectly reasonable to encounter a plate of .020 steel that is as strong or stronger (and maybe heavier) than a plate of .040 aluminum. There are a lot of material science calculations I'm not qualified to quess at, but that's the ELI5 explanation. |
Disclaimer - OP is bad at knowing things, and might catch on fire.
Vet - Op MMAMA
Every other species kills off their stupid......we cater to them. -- spin-drift
Nobody ever called 911&said I just did something smart. -- TheFlynDutchman
Vet - Op MMAMA
Every other species kills off their stupid......we cater to them. -- spin-drift
Nobody ever called 911&said I just did something smart. -- TheFlynDutchman
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Originally Posted By M4BlackRifle: Let's go with more durable. Magazines are disposable. Today they are cheap, buy more than you think you need. Originally Posted By M4BlackRifle: Originally Posted By peacematu: Less likely to deform from regular use or if it is banged around? Let's go with more durable. Magazines are disposable. Today they are cheap, buy more than you think you need. Yes, cheap. Not to mention legal right now. |
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That's a good question, that defies an easy answer. What kind of stainless is it? I think the primary reason they chose to make it thinner is because stainless is roughly 3x as dense as aluminum, so making it half the thickness knocks the weight down to roughly 1.5x that of a normal mag. |
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Originally Posted By brownbomber: That's a good question, that defies an easy answer. What kind of stainless is it? I think the primary reason they chose to make it thinner is because stainless is roughly 3x as dense as aluminum, so making it half the thickness knocks the weight down to roughly 1.5x that of a normal mag. I don't know. |
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Lessons learned from real usage. I’m not sure what kind of steel HK mags are made from though it’s not aluminum. They are either steel or stainless steel. From hard usage such as crawling around in the prone falling to the ground quickly, etc as soldiers are known to do. The HK mags dent and bend. Often they will load until the follower in counters the damaged area and stops feeding the rounds up. Aluminum magazines do not have this type of issue are are more durable in field usage. I have personally had HK mags that had been damaged from hard usage and now avoid anything but aluminum or plastic pmags. This dented HK mag issue became known to big Army and their usage stopped. Lessons learned from many years ago take it for what it’s worth. |
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Steel mags are not hardened adequately to hold up as well as a PMAG to general use. Aluminum mags are even more fragile. To me, an HK mag feels like a loaded aluminum mag when the HK mag is empty. And even then it is not tough enough. Aluminum USGI mags weigh even less than PMAGs. I find Gen3 PMAGs to hit the sweet spot for me for toughness and weight. |
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Originally Posted By shootsenmeister: Lessons learned from real usage. I’m not sure what kind of steel HK mags are made from though it’s not aluminum. They are either steel or stainless steel. From hard usage such as crawling around in the prone falling to the ground quickly, etc as soldiers are known to do. The HK mags dent and bend. Often they will load until the follower in counters the damaged area and stops feeding the rounds up. Aluminum magazines do not have this type of issue are are more durable in field usage. I have personally had HK mags that had been damaged from hard usage and now avoid anything but aluminum or plastic pmags. This dented HK mag issue became known to big Army and their usage stopped. Lessons learned from many years ago take it for what it’s worth. Took me a year end of 03' to end of 04' to decide not to use HK mags anymore. |
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