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Posted: 9/12/2009 11:24:05 PM EDT
| I have one and I never had issues with it. I'm thinking about getting more soon. I hear a lot complaints about them. Most of simple fix I heard for a common problem is filing down the lip that is supposed to seal around the mag well and on some AR's they don't fit right. I like them, they are light and most of the time I can get them at the same price as a GI mag. Are they really that bad? |
| I have never owned one of those Orlites, but I made the same mistake by buying a bunch of the Charter Industries Singapore mags. About 1 in 5 gave me problems. I could usually fix them and I did get good at diagnosing magazine problems. But for only a little more money, I could have just bought Magpuls. All of my Magpul have worked right out of the wrapper. |
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I have one and I never had issues with it. I'm thinking about getting more soon. I hear a lot complaints about them. Most of simple fix I heard for a common problem is filing down the lip that is supposed to seal around the mag well and on some AR's they don't fit right. I like them, they are light and most of the time I can get them at the same price as a GI mag. Are they really that bad? With all of the excellent magazine designs out there, WHY would you seek out Orlites? Especially now, with mag prices falling like a rock. |
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To each his own......
Put a WTB ad in the Equipment Exchange and I'm sure you'll have several people willing to unload theirs http://www.ar15.com/forums/forum.html?b=7&f=129 |
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To each his own...... Put a WTB ad in the Equipment Exchange and I'm sure you'll have several people willing to unload theirs http://www.ar15.com/forums/forum.html?b=7&f=129 Orlites are usually pretty tough to get rid of. Put a WTB in the EE and I'm sure it won't take long for your inbox to fill. Olycar15 |
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Well I guess I'll have to try it out during training. It works fine in my Oly. My unit just recieved brand new M4's with ACOGs (sorry had to rub it in) so I'll see how well it holds up to military abuse. The mags aren't bad but the Israeli's quit using them for good reason. Buy some good old USGI mags with your money or one of the good polymer mags. Olycar15 |
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I have four old beat up orlites I have had for ten years. Mine are the early kind without the metal mesh reinforcement molded in. They always functioned 100% in my Colt. Only problem was if I left it loaded full of rounds for ten minutes I could not insert the mag into the magwell due to the magazine swelling. I do not know if the later metal mesh reinforcements helped or not. And yes there were widespread problems with other brands of AR's where the rib needed to be filed down
As the poster above said, and I concur, go find yourself some NIB Okays and go all out hog wild buying them- thank me later! GoGo |
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Well I guess I'll have to try it out during training. It works fine in my Oly. My unit just recieved brand new M4's with ACOGs (sorry had to rub it in) so I'll see how well it holds up to military abuse. The mags aren't bad but the Israeli's quit using them for good reason. Buy some good old USGI mags with your money or one of the good polymer mags. Olycar15 Actually I got quite a bit of those. I recently sold about 44 of them, I still have about 20 left. |
| I bought four of these 2 months ago when I first got my bushmaster and didn't know about the EE exchange on here. 3 out of the 4 worked pretty well for me but I would get a double feed every now and then. However a month ago through the EE exchange I bought 15 new in wrapper USGI pre ban 30 rounders and have shot about 300 rounds with them with out one single problem so I won't be using the Orlite's anymore. I have nothing against them but for my particular gun the metal USGI seem to be more consistant. |
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What mags do they use now? Mainly any of the current and former USGI contract manufacturers. I had heard the rumor that D&H had a big contract to fill for them awhile back. IMI is also building a STANAG standard steel mag for their TAVOR rifle that I would imagine could supplement any issue for their M16's. Israel receives massive amounts of U.S. military aid and what is not gifted out right in material, Israel is required to spend that money back on U.S. made military material. Occasionally, Israel for political reason on their home front, grant a contract to for a local company to manufacturer various items previously supplied by the U.S.. Orlite manufacturing was one of these instances and was a failure for the most part. The Orlite mags had a very low service life and reliability percentage. That is why they were surplus quite quickly. Anybody that has dealt with the Israeli military can tell you that they hardly ever surplus anything unless it is broke or worn out. |
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What mags do they use now? Mainly any of the current and former USGI contract manufacturers. I had heard the rumor that D&H had a big contract to fill for them awhile back. IMI is also building a STANAG standard steel mag for their TAVOR rifle that I would imagine could supplement any issue for their M16's. Israel receives massive amounts of U.S. military aid and what is not gifted out right in material, Israel is required to spend that money back on U.S. made military material. Occasionally, Israel for political reason on their home front, grant a contract to for a local company to manufacturer various items previously supplied by the U.S.. Orlite manufacturing was one of these instances and was a failure for the most part. The Orlite mags had a very low service life and reliability percentage. That is why they were surplus quite quickly. Anybody that has dealt with the Israeli military can tell you that they hardly ever surplus anything unless it is broke or worn out. So USGI magazines are good enough for the Israeli military???.......MMMM, very interesting |
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What mags do they use now? Mainly any of the current and former USGI contract manufacturers. I had heard the rumor that D&H had a big contract to fill for them awhile back. IMI is also building a STANAG standard steel mag for their TAVOR rifle that I would imagine could supplement any issue for their M16's. Israel receives massive amounts of U.S. military aid and what is not gifted out right in material, Israel is required to spend that money back on U.S. made military material. Occasionally, Israel for political reason on their home front, grant a contract to for a local company to manufacturer various items previously supplied by the U.S.. Orlite manufacturing was one of these instances and was a failure for the most part. The Orlite mags had a very low service life and reliability percentage. That is why they were surplus quite quickly. Anybody that has dealt with the Israeli military can tell you that they hardly ever surplus anything unless it is broke or worn out. So USGI magazines are good enough for the Israeli military???.......MMMM, very interesting Why not magazines? Just about all of their military equipment is from us. Fighters, Humvees, magazines, Cobras, who knows what else. They used our F14's in combat before we even did. Olycar15 |
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Why not magazines? Just about all of their military equipment is from us. Fighters, Humvees, magazines, Cobras, who knows what else. They used our F14's in combat before we even did. Olycar15 The ARF.com mantra is that USGI magazines are bad. I guess they can't be that bad if the Israeli's use them too. |
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Why not magazines? Just about all of their military equipment is from us. Fighters, Humvees, magazines, Cobras, who knows what else. They used our F14's in combat before we even did. Olycar15 The ARF.com mantra is that USGI magazines are bad. I guess they can't be that bad if the Israeli's use them too. I don't think the general consensus here is that USGI mags are bad. The AR15 mag has evolved since the inception of said rifle. Some people just prefer the poly mags over them now. That doesn't make USGI mags bad. I like PMAGS and Lancer mags but I think that the USGI 20 is the most reliable mag ever made. Olycar15 |
| I like the GI magazines, then again I use them all the time. The only times I've really had jams with them was in OSUT and thats because everyone and there dog uses those magazines. The other time was I got a really old and worn out magazine. The ones where you can tell by looking at it, that its not going to perform well. But I've used some magazines that had rounds crammed into them for almost a year and never were removed and perform just fine. Not every magazine is going to perfect no matter if you get a PMAG or a USGI. |
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I like the GI magazines, then again I use them all the time. The only times I've really had jams with them was in OSUT and thats because everyone and there dog uses those magazines. The other time was I got a really old and worn out magazine. The ones where you can tell by looking at it, that its not going to perform well. But I've used some magazines that had rounds crammed into them for almost a year and never were removed and perform just fine. Not every magazine is going to perfect no matter if you get a PMAG or a USGI. What is OSUT?? I've heard of OIF and OEF but not OSUT. Maybe Operation Save University of Texas?? Most magazines in military service are loaded and remain loaded for an entire deployment without issues. |
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I have used Orlites alot, many thousands of rounds through what started as about 15 mags. Some Orlites are better than others. Every mag with solid rear flange (feed lip wraps around the rear of the mag body) developed feed lip cracks with use. When double feeds result its garbage time.
Bodies develop cracks that can interfere with follower motion. Garbage time. I have not had one feed lip crack/spread to date on the Orlites lacking the rear flange. I'm still using these as range mags. Sam |
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I like the GI magazines, then again I use them all the time. The only times I've really had jams with them was in OSUT and thats because everyone and there dog uses those magazines. The other time was I got a really old and worn out magazine. The ones where you can tell by looking at it, that its not going to perform well. But I've used some magazines that had rounds crammed into them for almost a year and never were removed and perform just fine. Not every magazine is going to perfect no matter if you get a PMAG or a USGI. What is OSUT?? I've heard of OIF and OEF but not OSUT. Maybe Operation Save University of Texas?? Most magazines in military service are loaded and remain loaded for an entire deployment without issues. One Station Unit Training, all combat arms go through it in the Army. Its BCT and AIT combined into one. So instead of doing nine weeks in basic then going to AIT for however long it is, its combined for Armor/Cavalry, Infantry, and I believe Combat Engineers. I'll be damned if a unit deployed me with used up magazines. When I deployed last time I got brand new magazines, and when I got to Ft. Carson, my unit gave me new magazines. |
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Bought about a dozen of them during the ban. Thinking they were like the Thermold mags (which I LOVE). I still have most of them and use them as emergency range mags when I want to practice mag release problems, double feeds or insert mag but the top rounds doesn't chamber. Most are POS. Problems: Mag swell, back of mag top cracks. I even had one split in half from top to bottom. I would trade the Orlites for USA mags any day of the week and that in itself should say it all.
Steve |
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I like the GI magazines, then again I use them all the time. The only times I've really had jams with them was in OSUT and thats because everyone and there dog uses those magazines. The other time was I got a really old and worn out magazine. The ones where you can tell by looking at it, that its not going to perform well. But I've used some magazines that had rounds crammed into them for almost a year and never were removed and perform just fine. Not every magazine is going to perfect no matter if you get a PMAG or a USGI. What is OSUT?? I've heard of OIF and OEF but not OSUT. Maybe Operation Save University of Texas?? Most magazines in military service are loaded and remain loaded for an entire deployment without issues. One Station Unit Training, all combat arms go through it in the Army. Its BCT and AIT combined into one. So instead of doing nine weeks in basic then going to AIT for however long it is, its combined for Armor/Cavalry, Infantry, and I believe Combat Engineers. I'll be damned if a unit deployed me with used up magazines. When I deployed last time I got brand new magazines, and when I got to Ft. Carson, my unit gave me new magazines. Is there a testing procedure for magazines??? I havn't been able to find such a procedure in any field manual. I have seen new mags go from the wrapper to the mag pouch with zero testing. |
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I like the GI magazines, then again I use them all the time. The only times I've really had jams with them was in OSUT and thats because everyone and there dog uses those magazines. The other time was I got a really old and worn out magazine. The ones where you can tell by looking at it, that its not going to perform well. But I've used some magazines that had rounds crammed into them for almost a year and never were removed and perform just fine. Not every magazine is going to perfect no matter if you get a PMAG or a USGI. What is OSUT?? I've heard of OIF and OEF but not OSUT. Maybe Operation Save University of Texas?? Most magazines in military service are loaded and remain loaded for an entire deployment without issues. One Station Unit Training, all combat arms go through it in the Army. Its BCT and AIT combined into one. So instead of doing nine weeks in basic then going to AIT for however long it is, its combined for Armor/Cavalry, Infantry, and I believe Combat Engineers. I'll be damned if a unit deployed me with used up magazines. When I deployed last time I got brand new magazines, and when I got to Ft. Carson, my unit gave me new magazines. Is there a testing procedure for magazines??? I havn't been able to find such a procedure in any field manual. I have seen new mags go from the wrapper to the mag pouch with zero testing. Not that I know of, thats why I keep an extra 7 magazines around because I rotate the ammo in and out of them that way the springs aren't constantly being depressed for a month. Generally makes their life longer. The most testing that I do is just depress spring and see how resistant it is. |
| I've had good luck with mine as range mags, but most of them were bought when they were really cheap. They functioned well for me, even with select fire weapons, but I found them to be fragile (broken feed lips.) Now that there are plenty of GI and good aftermarket mags available at decent prices, I wouldn't go the Orlite route. |
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i had several during the ban years. they were cheap and easy to find.
out of 30 or so i have 2 left and they are only used with my 22lr conversion. EVERY one of the them eventually failed. for the price of cp or dh usgi mags orlites simply aren't worth it. You looking at 10yr old mag bodies at a minimum that were designed to be disposable in the first place. |
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