Greetings All,

 I bought a 30 round Aluminum GI 30 rounder from Bushmaster in 1994.   It has BFI stamped into the floorplate.  From other information on this site, I understand that these may have been made by Labelle.   The mag has a black follower.   Although this follower is not green, my question is whether or not this mag has an anti-tilt type of follower since I have heard that the anti-tilt followers should have been commonplace in USGI production contract mags from this time period.  

KK    

Welcome to the forums KalashnikovKid.

If it's a black follower it is not anti-tilt.

Labelle, a military contractor, made the magazine for BFI. But, unless it was supplied to the military- it *technically* is not "USGI".  As this magazine was made for a commercial contract, it's a commercial mag however- built to Mil-Specs.

Not sure when the Mil standardized on the green anti-tilt followers.

The black will work, but if it eases your mind a replacement green or specialty anti-tilt follower is ~$1-2.

HTH

Sly

Thanks I-M-A-WMD

 This one seems to work fine so far, but due to past experience,  I am scared about non anti-tilt followers.  Just before the AWB,  I bought about 6 or so Cooper and Sanchez (maybe a Parsons in there too)  GI mags that would not feed the last two or three rounds due to the front tilting upwards.  The bolt would slam into the top of the round.  At the time, I was very new to the AR-15 and I took the mags to my friend who had 3 AR-15s.  None of the mags would feed in any of the guns (as you would expect with the last couple of  bullets nosed up in the air).   This was all before the internet was commonplace and not understanding there was anti-tilt followers, I gave them mags away like a fool even though they cost quite a bit at the time.  That is why forums like these are so helpful and awesome.  We can all learn from experts and each other.   I wish I had those mags now as I could have installed some green followers.   However, one thing is very puzzling to me, those jam mags I had were 100% consistent in jamming or in other words, the last few rounds always (I mean 100% of the time, not 99%) tilted up and cuase a FTF.  Why do many magazines with black followers seem to work without tilting all or even most of the time when mine were 100% tilt failures?  That does not make sense to me.

Also, woould you guys recommend that I change out this black Bushmaster follower to an anti-tilt variety even though it seems to be OK thus far?

KK

Personally I have nearly changed out all of my followers to the anti-tilt type.  (There's still a couple in the mix which will soon be replaced)  Like I mentioned, it's cheap to do... So why not?

The net is a hell of a tool when it comes to sharing info.  Luckily it's never too late to learn new tricks or to ensure one doesn't get burned again in the future.

The mags you had that failed can be a complicated issue.  Just a note, Cooper is the only military contractor to have their contract pulled due to out of spec mags.  IIRC, the military never had any large quantity contracts w/ Sanchez and there have been reports that the Sanchez w/ a black follower would have feeding issues.  

W/ the Cooper mags, it's a crap-shoot.  You could have replaced the followers w/ ATs but I'd imagine it would take more than a simple follower swap for them to be deemed out of spec and lose their contract.  (Perhaps the follower change would correct the problem, perhaps not) Sanchez mags IIRC are deemed reliable after upgrading to the green AT followers.  I've personally had some Coopers & a couple of Sanchez mags.  The Coopers ranged from slightly used to NIW while the Sanchez were fairly well used.  All had the black followers.  Due to the information I've stumbled across- they were let go in favor of Colt, Circle Kay or H&K magazines. Beyond my "Fav 3" I'd also trust Labelle, D&H, BFI, Parson and Center Industries above the Coopers and Sanchez.

Sly

there are black anti tilt followers, the England mags have them, they are made exactly like the green but in black