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The Unscientific Plastic Magazine Test - Videos pg15 - Part 2 pg16 -(mobile users/56k do not click) (Page 11 of 13)
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Found my way to this thread on Christmas evening .. Once i got started it was like kickin back on the couch and seeing the beginning of a movie, and you can't get up till you see what happens so you gotta stay and watch the whole thing .. I made it about half way through .. Got up Wednesday morning and had to come back and see what happened .. .. Interesting .. Instructional .. Educational .. I'm certain i would never subject my mags to all those chemicals, drive over them, nor would i be able to get permission to put them in her dishwasher .. However , i very much enjoyed and appreciated that ongoing documentary .. As well as the input from others along the way..
I've signed on as a member here just to say Great Job, and Thanks WI57 .. Patiently waiting on "part 2" .. RR |
about $750 worth of mags at today's value  Originally Posted By Stangfan94: You destroyed about $350 worth of mags   |
Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out.
General education should not be mere training of the hands to work, but training of the mind to properly reason. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/classed.php
General education should not be mere training of the hands to work, but training of the mind to properly reason. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/classed.php
Knows if you and Fiona have been doin it
Joined:
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Posts:
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EE: 100% (6)
IL, USA
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. . . Wow. 21 pages later and about 1 1/2 hours of reading has got me to the end. What I've come away with is that Pmags just aren't worlds better than all the others. Pmags are good, but all the mags honestly did just fine. I think many members have created their own paradigms about magazines, and even though the evidence is clear in front of you, you refuse to believe. I have always been a fan of TangoDown mags as far as polymer mags come, but after watching this Lancer mags are quite impressive and I would rate them #1. I also own Pmags, and kind of like having an assortment.
I really grew tired of Magpul chiming in though. Let the normal human beings unassociated with lab testing, sales, and marketing please just enjoy this thread. I was also kind of sad to see the first test end so quickly. I was really enjoying the slow death of them all with different chemicals, etc. Back on the paradigm subject to prove what I am getting at. The OP was contacted by (3) of the companies, yet some people only commented on Magpul being a stand up company, and it was good on them to go above and beyond. So go ahead and think whatever makes you feel better about previous purchases to make you feel you bought "the best". There is no best. I'm sure the guy sitting next to me at the shooting bench sees my TangoDown mag and laughs on the inside while he is using Pmags because they are better. As I said before, they all seem pretty good to me. Hell, TangoDown rebuilt his original mag ! How cool is that ! Paradigm - describes distinct concepts or thought patterns. |
Don't tell me how rough the waters are, just bring the ship into port !
If something goes wrong, blame the guy who can’t speak English.
If something goes wrong, blame the guy who can’t speak English.
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Originally Posted By Magpul: Originally Posted By 3030ai: First, that was absolutely outstanding. I was very impressed with how all of the magazines fared. I wouldn’t feel too concerned about using any of them quite honestly. The GI magazines did much better than I expected and lasted longer than expected. The Lancer magazine appears to be very impressive, but I caveat that with the fact that this test was a sample of one, and very unscientific. Of the synthetic magazines, I think the PMAG is still a very solid bet regardless of what you see there. No it’s not invincible, but it’s pretty darned tough; especially when you consider the cost. Add to that the fact that there are oodles of them being used in war zones every day, so we have a good idea of how well they fare in the real world. No, they won’t last forever, but they’ll serve you well and won’t break the bank when you have to replace them. (just need to figure a way to get them into Afghanistan convenience stores so soldiers can just run to the Afghan equivalent of a 7-11 if he needs a replacement) At the end of the day though, I have to say I’ve yet to see ANY mag out-perform a Bulgarian synthetic circle 10 waffle AK magazine; to me, that remains the gold standard. Not a fair comparison, because the design of an AR mag well precludes the thickness afforded to the AK mags, since original steel AK mags had reinforced feed lips. Still, the Bugarian mag and perhaps some anecdotal evidence from this test show to me at least that a combining of steel and synthetics seems to be the best bet. While my Bulgarian synthetic mags may last a LONG time, they’re nowhere near as inexpensive for replacement as a PMAG; which remains a damn decent magazine. MESSAGE TO MAGPUL 1 – I’m still a fan, given the BIG picture which includes cost; you make a VERY good product. 2 – There’s always room for improvement. Perhaps a model incorporating a steel reinforced feed lip similar to the Lancer is worth looking at. Maybe even Tenifer coat said steel part for ultimate corrosion. View windows are always nice...would be cool to find a clear synthetic that can really take the rough stuff. And of course, in light of recent announcements, make it more M249 friendly. 3 – Did I mention I’m a fan of MAGPUL? Keep doing what you’re doing. When designing the current M3 magazine we looked at all design variations during our R&D to include metal inserts. In our evaluation the benefits of adding material as support were far outweighed by the negatives across the whole gamut of requirements. PMag M3 test videos Nice videos, and excited for the OP's winter test results. |
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Thanks for all the kind words guys, and thank you to everyone with the generous offers to give their mags up to be sacrificed.
After I did Part 1 of the test, I ended up losing my job and had to move to the other side of the state for new employment. So unfortunately it's going to be a while until I can continue the magazine test. I am looking forward to doing Part 2, but it might be a little while. The best advice I can give anyone is to go out and do some tests on your own magazines with your own scenarios if you want to see what they can do. You'll be surprised to see how well the different mags can hold up. 
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Its not the guy that walks in with a gun and says he is going to start shooting that you have to worry about.
Its the guy that just walks in and just starts shooting.
Its the guy that just walks in and just starts shooting.
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Originally Posted By WI57: Thanks for all the kind words guys, and thank you to everyone with the generous offers to give their mags up to be sacrificed. After I did Part 1 of the test, I ended up losing my job and had to move to the other side of the state for new employment. So unfortunately it's going to be a while until I can continue the magazine test. I am looking forward to doing Part 2, but it might be a little while. The best advice I can give anyone is to go out and do some tests on your own magazines with your own scenarios if you want to see what they can do. You'll be surprised to see how well the different mags can hold up. Good luck OP. |
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Originally Posted By WI57:
Thanks for all the kind words guys, and thank you to everyone with the generous offers to give their mags up to be sacrificed. After I did Part 1 of the test, I ended up losing my job and had to move to the other side of the state for new employment. So unfortunately it's going to be a while until I can continue the magazine test. I am looking forward to doing Part 2, but it might be a little while. The best advice I can give anyone is to go out and do some tests on your own magazines with your own scenarios if you want to see what they can do. You'll be surprised to see how well the different mags can hold up. I look forward to it. Good luck! |
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Excellent thread OP and best of luck with the new job!
With the mags being harder to get today and costing more when you do find them, I especially appreciate having your first hand experience to draw from. One wish though, I know tha a lot of folks say the Pro-Mag is trash, but would appreciate your throwing on into your testing! Again, Thank You! |
| tag..... wow!! surprised on the mags... as alot of us are... i guess pmags have branded themselves..... but i still love pmags and troy...... i also have the USGI mags ... having a variety is a good thing.... i see now.... thanks OP... and good luck...... great testing.... each of the vendors shouldve paid ya.. haha.. |
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Originally Posted By TxRabbitBane:
What the hell is left? Immersion in lava? Originally Posted By TxRabbitBane:
Originally Posted By RebelAR-15:
Originally Posted By Spart:
Part three coming soon? I hope so. What the hell is left? Immersion in lava? He could repeat the entire test. I suspect the results would be about the same and people would scream "the sample size is too small" |
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I asked a question on the board what magazines should I be looking at after being gone for so long from AR's. I was then given this link and you have sold me on all of these magazines. I have always been a USGI type of mag guy. I didn't trust the polymer style mags and I'm not sure why I wouldn't think they would hold up. I do carry a GLOCK G19 and it's polymer but for some reason it never dawned on me that I can trust my life to a GLOCK but not a polymer mag and you have opened my eyes up and made me re-think things.
I was also shocked that the Pmag and Tapco both cracked almost in the same spot and hearing how Tapco get's bashed a lot in their mag department I say your test has won me over enough to buy a few and try them out myself. I will be buying some polymer mags as I do my new builds. My list to buy in are as follows after reading your test review and going by current pricing on mags. 1- Lancer, PMag, Troy. (These are the mags I have looked at from the start but due to the prices I kept looking and not buying. I'm now seeing them from 9.99-12.99 a mag) 2- USGI & Tapco. The last one is one that you didn't test but it is a polymer mag and I'm seeing them for 9.99 so it might be worth a try to see how they do. 3 IMI Defense Polymer mags. (I have been seeing these around and on sale so I might give them a shot.) With all that said on my next parts buy it will be a buy of Lancer, Pmag and Troy and if I find sales on USGI and Tapco mags I will buy them and not worry to much. Great review and very eye opening. Good luck with the new job and keep us posted on the testing. |
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Originally Posted By OlympicArmsFan:
I asked a question on the board what magazines should I be looking at after being gone for so long from AR's. I was then given this link and you have sold me on all of these magazines. I have always been a USGI type of mag guy. I didn't trust the polymer style mags and I'm not sure why I wouldn't think they would hold up. I do carry a GLOCK G19 and it's polymer but for some reason it never dawned on me that I can trust my life to a GLOCK but not a polymer mag and you have opened my eyes up and made me re-think things. I was also shocked that the Pmag and Tapco both cracked almost in the same spot and hearing how Tapco get's bashed a lot in their mag department I say your test has won me over enough to buy a few and try them out myself. I will be buying some polymer mags as I do my new builds. My list to buy in are as follows after reading your test review and going by current pricing on mags. 1- Lancer, PMag, Troy. (These are the mags I have looked at from the start but due to the prices I kept looking and not buying. I'm now seeing them from 9.99-12.99 a mag) 2- USGI & Tapco. The last one is one that you didn't test but it is a polymer mag and I'm seeing them for 9.99 so it might be worth a try to see how they do. 3 IMI Defense Polymer mags. (I have been seeing these around and on sale so I might give them a shot.) With all that said on my next parts buy it will be a buy of Lancer, Pmag and Troy and if I find sales on USGI and Tapco mags I will buy them and not worry to much. Great review and very eye opening. Good luck with the new job and keep us posted on the testing. I have no idea why people bash tapco mags. They're my range mags and were the first mags I ever bought. I love them. |
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Originally Posted By WI57:
Who knew mags floated?  Originally Posted By WI57:
Who knew mags floated? This may seem like a silly question, but where did you get a glass jar big enough to place all the mags? Originally Posted By OlympicArmsFan:
I asked a question on the board what magazines should I be looking at after being gone for so long from AR's. I was then given this link and you have sold me on all of these magazines. I have always been a USGI type of mag guy. I didn't trust the polymer style mags and I'm not sure why I wouldn't think they would hold up. I do carry a GLOCK G19 and it's polymer but for some reason it never dawned on me that I can trust my life to a GLOCK but not a polymer mag and you have opened my eyes up and made me re-think things. I was also shocked that the Pmag and Tapco both cracked almost in the same spot and hearing how Tapco get's bashed a lot in their mag department I say your test has won me over enough to buy a few and try them out myself. I'm not surprised where these two mags failed. The rounded cut out for the bolt was meant to control stress risers, I'm a bit surprised more of the samples didn't fail. If any of the uncracked mags fail in that area in his next round of testing and the Pmag and Tapco don't, I would not be surprised either. Both of those mags could have been hit "just right" and started cracking. If you were to do this test with 100 mags each, then you would get a better idea whose might be a little better. Polymer technology and understanding it's behavior has improved so much in the last few years, I'd not a bit surprised they all pretty much survived the torture tests. I wanna know how they hold up in heat, cold and artificially aging them. Originally Posted By TxRabbitBane:
Originally Posted By RebelAR-15:
Originally Posted By Spart:
Part three coming soon? I hope so. What the hell is left? Immersion in lava? So many other thing you could do .................... 1.) Some have asked about simulating dropping down on the ground while wearing a vest....... I figured out how to simulate that. 2.) Feeding lips durability, long term storage of fully loaded magazines...... working on that, how to artificially age the lips and measuring the effects 3.) Same test in the dead of winter up north of the middle of summer in Death Valley. 4.) artificially weakening the spring - will effect the loading timing of the bolt 5.) adding more mags - Gen3, Command Arms, 20 rounders, another brand or 2 of the USGI |
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Cool thread WI57!!!
A few comments are in order:
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Loved it, couldnt tell you how many times i laughed "loved the bandaids" Loved this and thanks for doing it
I have to say i was surprised to see how well they all held up being a disposable product. Shocked to see so many focus on the magpul crack but ignore other drawbacks I find much more of an issue. I for one want my mags to drain from the bottom, while attached to the gun. I can throw away a cracked $10 mag, having my gun go kaboom is another issue. Ok ok it might not go kaboom with a mag full of water but it cant be good. Oh and i wont be testing that scientifically or not. Of all those mags the Tapco is the only one i would have given me any hesitation before buying prior to reading this. While Tapco still wont be my first choice i might have to give them a try. In the end $10 beats $12, $12 beats $15 and $15 beats $20 and any of you that were buying them for over $50 8 months ago ROFLMAO |
| The tapco mags held up a lot better than I thought they would. I have two of their T6 AR stocks and they are solid enough for a collapsible stock, I always figured their mags would be complete shit. Learned something new. |
The rusty wire, that holds the cork, that keeps the anger in gives way.....
Came across this thread where someone shared it in another thread. Just read all 22 pages. Subscribed for sure. 
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"...Man fights with his mind. The weapons are incidental." -Jeff Cooper
"We have reached the point in this country where no one under 40 should play with anything sharper than a banana." -Rabon
"We have reached the point in this country where no one under 40 should play with anything sharper than a banana." -Rabon
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Originally Posted By concretepanda: This may seem like a silly question, but where did you get a glass jar big enough to place all the mags? . Originally Posted By concretepanda: Originally Posted By WI57: Who knew mags floated? http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg76/gi57/MagTest/P8102227.jpg This may seem like a silly question, but where did you get a glass jar big enough to place all the mags? . <Comment removed............dpmmn> |
The Unscientific Plastic Magazine Test - Videos pg15 - Part 2 pg16 -(mobile users/56k do not click) (Page 11 of 13)
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