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Posted: 8/28/2007 9:06:21 AM EDT
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First of all, I’d like to thank Kevin for sending me this magazine to play with. My first impression when I handled the magazine is that is has a nice solid feel and had some weight behind it. I never did like the slender feel of the original body or Ciener’s.   The first time I tried to load it, I was only able to get 23 rounds. The 24th and 25th round would make the follower stick. I took it apart and noticed the follower had a rough surface on both side so I took some 400 grit sandpaper to it. I was now able to get 26 round in it now but the last one took some effort. It’s about 1” shorter than the original mag. Here’s a photo with it sitting on the original mag.  Here it is next to a HK 30 rounder and a Sterling 40 rounder.  When inserted, it sticks out around ½” more than the USGI 30 rounder. The mag went in easy and dropped freely on my Colt SP1 conversion and Mega lower.   I tested it out with a couple of uppers on my SP1 conversion. The M4 is a dedicated 22lr upper with a Kuehl barrel. The other one is a 20” 223 upper. I don’t usually use this upper with the 22 kit but I had it sitting in my car so I decided to test it out. The uppers were cleaned before the test.   I used various ammo (Remington value pack, Remington subsonic, CCI standard velocity and Federal high velocity).  I loaded it up to 26 rounds a couple of times but it had a hard time feeding the first round so all my test was loaded to 25 rounds. I ran a total of 6 full mags with each of the 4 different types of ammo for a total of 600 rounds and 24 full mags. I ran 3 full mags with each type of ammo through each upper – 1 in semi and 2 full auto dumps. I had some problems with failure to ignite and extract with the value pack in full auto. In semi, there were a few failures to ignite but no failure to extract. This might have been from light hits or bad rounds. All the other ammo I used worked without any problems – both in semi and full auto. I was having such a blast with full auto, I loaded the mag maybe another 6 times with Federal and Remington subsonic and did more full auto dumps without any problems. I’ll definitely need a magazine loader for this thing. Conclusion: The magazine worked with my uppers when combined with the right ammo. I like the solid feel over the originals. I wish it could hold 30 rounds or more. Maybe make the body a little longer. It is 1” shorter than the original so this is probably where the 5 rounds are lost. I noticed there was more upward force compared to the original. When I compared the springs, they were the same length but the full body is 1” shorter. I’m sure cutting down the spring might bring it to the stated 27 round capacity but I don’t know what it will do to reliability. I’d rather have 2 less rounds and a reliable magazine. Overall, 2 thumbs up. I would definitely buy some when they go into production. |
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