I live in west Texas and sand storms are a normal occurance here, much like in the persian gulf.

In the Gulf the USGI mags fouled quik in sand and they caused hell with keeping my M-16 reliable.

I know the Orlites have no holes in the mag since there is now rain the the arid conditions of Isreal and they designed it so that the M-16 would work in sandy conditions.  I heard they crack in the cold though. Is that -20 F cold or normal 20 F. cold?  It never gets below 15 F. here on the worst winters.

Now I heard the Thermolds work great and are made for the cold (Canada :) )  How well do they work in warm climates with lotsa sand?  Are they better than the Orlites?

Now I need to know from ppl that have served in Ft. Bliss, 29Palms, Ft. Irwin... ect.  if possible that have used these 2 mag makers. Hell or even Soldiers that toured in the Sinia pinninsula.

All recomendations will do though :)

Love me trusty R6600 and will be beried witrh it when I die :)


Oh the reason i need to know is in case of the chance of the SHTF senerio.

Thanks all!

Eightyduece, well I have served in the infantry and own AR15s as a civilian. I have have used GI magazines of various manufacturers, Orlites, and Thermolds. All have worked well for me. The GI magazines have a hole in the base plates and a hole where the magazine catch holds magazine in the lower.Orlites and Thermolds don't have this complete hole where magazine catch holds magazine.This hole can allow dirt and other debris in if dropped or like you mentioned in a sandstorm if not covered. Once in the rifle this hole is of little concern. I would say put together a LBE harness of some sort. This will have pouches that will keep most sand and other unwanted stuff from getting in magazines. You can put a piece of tape over baseplate hole and buy dust covers that go over the feed lips. Most of my experience with getting crap in magazines is during a firefight you are just dropping mags and replacing them as fast as possible. You don't and can't take the extra care of placing the mags in a nice patch of grass or back into mag pouch.So they hit the ground and get stuff in them. This is my big beef with new 10rnd mags that you can not take off baseplate to clean magazines.You can than those spineless jellyfish in the ATF for that one. I can not help you out with Thermolds and Orlites ability to withstand cold temperatures.

NO SLACK!

I've got an LBE and again I served in the gulf war and the pouches will not stop dust.

Inserted mags wont work either if they are USGI due to the holes.

Ive been there when I need my weapon to work and i can assure you that the USGI dont do worth a shit in the sand.

Im set to buy the orlite or Thermold mag since they dont have holes and they come with dust covers that slip on easy.

I need to know which mag works better in that environment, orlite or Thermold?

Im not hassling you at all :)

P.S. in the gulf i had a nice sony 35mm camera that cost $500.00 to take pictures with that was supposed to be water resistant, and all parts got filled with fine dust which made it unservicable and ruined.  That was water resist, so it was no suprise that my AR mags malfunctioned even in the ziplock bags they issued us to keep them clean.

Thanks for the reply :)