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Posted: 4/11/2008 1:05:38 PM EDT
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I got a quantity of new M16/AR15 Okay industries magazines from New Britain Ct. They are 30 rounders and have the green followers. I've never heard of these and wonder how good they are. I also have some of the first magazines put out by Brownells that we got several years ago but most stayed in the box because of too many problems. They are also 30 rounders and I'm fixing to send them back. Are the NEW Brownells magazines better? |
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Okay magazines are current US contract magazines and they work first-rate. Yes, the early Brownell's were from a different vendor  . They claim to be making their product "in-house" currently, and they too have a US contract. Either way, Brownell's offers an extremely fair lifetime guarantee and a very liberal return policy, so go for it on the early mags.You did real good in picking up OKAY product. |
| They came with a batch of new Colt M4s so I'm hoping we got the good stuff. I noticed that the Brownells followers are pretty rough in the molding with lots of flash. I cleaned up some followers with a file to smooth the rough edges just to see if thats the problem. In any event I'll try them during training and at the first sign of trouble I'm sending them back. I'm not sending out my guys with bad mags! |
Okay |
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I found 2 Okay mags at a gun shop one time, new in wrapper, in the bargin bin for $4 each, needless to say I dug out the entire box to make sure I did not miss any.... Magpul followers and SS springs followed and they are great...I have purchased more over the past few years and these are put away in my "rainy day" box |
I've seen OKAY Industries with the bodies marked Colt and others with the bodies marked Okay Industries. The Colt marked OKAY's were dated 2004, IIRC. |
Of course they did (came with new Colt M4's). OKay has made Colt's mags for many years. You will see the 33710 CAGE Code on the bodies of Colt mags... which is Okay's CAGE Code. I have OKays going back to the 80's. They've been around quite a while, and are as good as anyone else's USGI mags... and apparently satisfy Colt, too. |
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First, read the Mag FAQ. I have personally used: OKay, which are also Colt, which are aka NHMTG (New Hampshire Marketing Group). DO NOT pay a premium for mags just for the Colt name. Not when you can get exactly the same mag with Okay or NHMTG markings. Labelle, which became General Stamping, which became D&H. Labelle made mags with gray moly dry lube finish (the milspec finish) as well as both gray and black teflon finishes (far superior!). Labelle made mags for Bushmaster with floorplates marked Bushmaster, BFI, and Quality Parts. Labelle made mags for DPMS, also marked Panther Arms and Defense Procurement Manufacturing Services on the floorplates. They make mags for other companies with their floorplates, and I even have some Labelle mags with blank floorplates, still new in the bag with the government part numbers and such, and the bag is marked Labelle. Parsons, which became Adventureline which became Center Industries. I have all three in my stash of mags. Like Labelle and Okay, good mags. D. L. Sanchez. This is almost a problem... D.L. Sanchez mags originally came with the same black followers as everyone else used at that time. There were a few reported cases of malfunctions. The green "antitilt" follower was developed, and no more problems with Sanchez mags. Go back just a little earlier... Cooper. Coopers are the only USGI mag I would really advise to avoid. Cooper was the only mag manufacturer to lose their govt contract due to quality issues. Though I never saw any, there were some Coopers with only 3 spot welds on each of the front and back seams. There should be at least 6 on each seam, and you will often see 9 spot welds. Even with the Cooper mags having 6 spot welds per seam, EVERY Cooper 30 rnd mag I saw would not feed more than 22-23 rounds. About 1987-88, just after Cooper lost their contract, a gazillion Cooper mags were dumped on the civilian market. I remember ordering mags from three different suppliers, and all sent me Coopers. (Yes, about 20 years ago... I've been doing this for awhile.) What I finally determined was that the springs were weak. I could get 100% feeding if I put a plywood spacer between the spring and floorplate, of course, reducing the capacity to only 20 rounds, but the spring tension was increased. The mags would feed 100%. No doubt... weak springs. (NOBODY sold aftermarket springs or followers back then. Why? You could buy a whole NEW USGI mag for $7-$8 any day of the week. And you could buy perfectly good used USGI mags at gun shows for $3 or less.) I am convinced that if Sanchez had problems it was with some weak springs possibly from whoever supplied Cooper, too. I am also convinced that the green follower is a band-aid fix for what was really a weak spring problem. I've shot many mags with black followers and no problems... and they had good springs. The Cooper springs were so weak that if you could get a last round to feed, the follower did not have enough spring tension to trip the bolt catch on the last round. That's what we call "a clue". So, just to be safe, with older mags, check springs first... and by comparing to new, known good mags, you will quickly develop a feel for how much resistance you should feel when you depress the follower. If you have black followers, it won't hurt to replace with the newer green followers. If you want to spend more on other aftermarket followers, be my guest. But I would rather have old black followers with good springs, than the latest and best follower with weak springs. I have a number of D. L. Sanchez mags now, all with green followers and good (mostly new) springs. And they work just fine. Back to the beginning... Okay, by whatever name, D&H, by whatever name, (edited to add) and Center, by whatever name, are all good, "top drawer", mags. |
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