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Posted: 4/27/2010 3:30:30 PM EDT
| I'm about to purchase some mag couplers. Some look cheap and i'm wondering which ones are the best? |
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I run the Arredondo coupler for 3-gun. Initially I used two couplers on each mag, which felt very secure but I found that the top round of the spare mag would walk forwards. By reverting to only one coupler low down on the mags, the walking problem has been eliminated.
If you want cheap, how about a piece of target stick and some 100mph tape - seriously. |
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Here's a review I posted on another board of the Safariland Mag Coupler last year.
Last Memorial Day a very generous member of the BE forum (hk_mtbr) offered up a brand new Safariland mag doubler to the first active duty military member to respond, here's the thread. LINK HERE. So I was lucky enough to get a new piece of gear to play with, thanks Joel. :cheers: :cheers: After playing with this thing for a while now, I got a bit curious so started searching around the board to see what other folks thought of it. I was suprised to only find one mention of it, but I did find a list of complaints about mag couplers in general which prompted me to wright this review as I feel the Safariland doubler addresses a great many of them. Let's just go down the list. Staggered mags vs same height mags. It seems that most who use a mag doubler of some kind prefer to mount them together at the same height in order to have a solid base to rest on whatever. This may work, but is not ideal as when the left hand mag is in use, the right hand mag can obstruct the ejection port or cover. The Safariland doubler addresses this by mounting the mags staggered so that the right hand mag is 1" lower than the left, but the doubler itself is flat on the bottom so it gains the best of both worlds. The only downfall to this is when using the left mag, the rifle will sit 1" higher than when using the right hand mag if it is resting on something. I guess this could be considered a tradeoff, or it could be considered a bonus since a mag change can get you in a better position for long shots. Movement between magazines. Most of the mag couplers on the market that I've seen consist of 1 or 2 metal/plastic/nylon bands that hold the mags together and can allow movement or slippage between the mags. The Safariland unit is plastic and completely surrounds the base of each mag to a height of 3 1/2" and uses 3 tension screws to secure the mags together. Holding one mag in each hand and trying to twist them apart will show a small degree of flex, but they are held rigidly together, and having the bottom of each mag completely covered, impacts should not affect their positions. The only way the mags can move is if you hold the base in one hand and try to pull one of them straight up out of the doubler, and it takes a bit of effort to move them this way. Top round of unused magazine shifting due to movement, rough handling, or recoil. How they solved this one is pretty slick. Included with the doubler is what they refer to as a "top round protector (TRP)", this is a plastic piece that fits under the feedlips of the magazine and locks into place with the magazines spring tension. It does require downloading the mag by 1 round. Pushing forward parallel to the magazine feed lips on the TRP will not move it. Removing it for a reload is simple, and pretty durn quick, just a downward swipe the the meaty part of the support hand thumb while positioning you hand for the reload ejects the TRP rather forcefully out of the mag. Slight downward and forward pressure gets it out of there pretty quickly, even with an empty mag just to experiment with. The TRP is held to the doubler with a rubber band so it is not lost after you eject it in the course of fire. Mine actually came with 2 of the TRP's, so I put both of them on and keep the tops of both mags covered in the range bag so no dust/grit gets in there. Distance between mags to allow use of a magwell. Unfortunatly I do not have a magwell for my rifle, so I can't say wether it will work or not, sorry. Just looking at how close the mags are together, I doubt it would work with a magwell, but that is speculation on my part so don't take it as gospel. Biggest downfall of the Safariland doubler is it only works with GI style mags. It is a pretty tight fit slipping the mags in, so the larger baseplate of the P-mags doesn't clear. Small issue as it made the GI style mags in my safe more important as they hadn't had much use since I started using P-mags. Now, on to some pics, everybody likes pics when reading about some piece of gungear on the web. Here you can see the extra TRP hanging in front of the mag, and the other in place on the spare mag. 
Clearance for the bolt release and a view of the extra backbone (for lack of a better term) which adds rigidity while acting as part of the clamp that holds it all together. 
Height of spare mag on the rifle, overall, it hangs no lower than a standard 30 round mag at this point. 
Just a shot with ole George in there for scale to show the mag offset and height of the doubler on the mag body. 
Ejection port clearance with left hand mag in the well. 
So, there ya have it, my lil review. Hopefully this opens up an option for someone looking to run more than one mag or needing more capacity without going the route of extended mags. If any questions come up I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability. Keep in mind though that I don't shoot 3 gun yet, missing one boomstick to play that game, so I shoot for fun and enjoyment with my rifle. That being said, I havn't run the doubler through the ringer like a 3 gunner would so reliability during a match is something someone else will have to comment on as it is beyond my experience at this point. Thanks for readinig, I look forward to any feedback you may have. |
Since then I have recieved another mag coupler to test out and review. Made by Dark Territory and called the Warlock mag coupler. While I haven't finished writing the review yet, here's a couple teaser pics.
The Warlock coupler, while lacking some of the bells and whistles of the Safariland coupler is a rock solid piece made of extruded aluminum and strong as all git out. Full review to follow as soon as I finish it, as long as I can get work to leave me in town, leaving again this weekend for a couple weeks. |
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As a follow up on the Safariland coupler, I had to stop using the top round protector since quick release levers for scope mounts tend to slow things down and interfere with my thumb having a straight shot at stripping it off of there in a hurry.
Finally, for the best option of all, look into getting a Redi-mag, it allows for a lot more flexability such as replacing your spare mag without ditching two mags at once. 
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