I just found USGI Center mags,30 rnds, at my local surplus store for 14.99.  They are new.  At this price is it worth picking up a few?  I have plenty of other mags but was surprised when I found the tan follower unless they are becomming common?   They had about 10 mags left.  Opinions? I don't frequent this mag forum so forgive me if I missed something.

I would not pay $15 for one of those magazines. I routinely see them at shows, new in the wrapper, for $10. They've been in use by the Army for a good 6+ years (now being replaced by the brown Enhanced Performance Magazine - EPM).

I personally prefer the Magpul follower over the tan follower (it works perfectly and doesn't move the top round to the opposite side from where it's been for the past 40+ years). You can get Okay Surefeed mags that come with the Magpul follower from 44Mag.com for $9.99 shipped (gray dry lube finish or black Teflon), or from Botach (I know some people don't like them) for the same price if you buy six or more, with the addition of the tan Teflon color option.

Okay magazines have always been a little bit better quality than Center, which sometimes have sloppy welds and/or rough seams.

Fuck no.  Theoretically I wouldn't pay more than $7 or $8.    In reality I'd buy Gen M3 Pmags.  Why waste money on that shit?

Thought they may be rare or something since I had never seen them before.    I think I'm going to grab one just to have(I have no tan follower mags). Thanks for the info.

Certainly nothing wrong with wanting to test things out. I bought a Brownells mag with the tan follower at a show a few years ago. It functions fine, but I ended up switching it out for a Magpul follower last year just for uniformity with my other GI mags. Just for your awareness, if you wanted to do the same, the introduction of the tan follower included a change to the magazine spring, so the spring it not backwards compatible with the older green follower or Magpul's. I used a spare spring I had to swap it out.

Tan followers are garbage in my experience and I refuse to use them nor pay for them. I choose Gen PMAG and Lancer AWMs over USGI everytime but I do have a large stash of USGI mags from Okay (incuding Colt & NHMTG) all retrofitted with Magpul followers. With the Magpul followers, my USGI mags are very reliable, top round position is consistent with older GI followers and with PMAGs and Lancers and best of all I can easily seat a full 30rd mag on a closed bolt.

Okay Industries should be called Outstanding Industries lol. I've also seen better quality from Okay than Center, sad to see Okay lose the gov contract.

If you want some, hang around on the EE Here and you'll find 'em for a much better price.  I sold a bunch awhile back for like $7 shipped.  

I've never had a lick of trouble with a tan follower mag that could be attributed to the follower.

ETA:  Here's some for $7 on the EE.

Center Ind tan follower mags

Tan follower mags are being replaced by the new tan magazine with blue follower.

And they're junk too.  The smartest thing the Corps and the AF has done lately is ditch the junk mags and buy Gen M3 Pmags.

How much time do you have on the new mags?

I have enough time on g.i. mags to know how fragile they are under rough use.  The new ones aren't any tougher, just different.   I've been using Pmags since 2011 or so and they are a LOT tougher than a g.i. mag.

The spring in a tan follower USGI mag is different. Its wider than the green spring and fits the whole body width.
I left both styles loaded outside in a semi/salt air and no corrosion.



Didn't chris costa drop a Pmag from a helicopter and it survived?


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This.
15 is way too much.  Should be half that.
Go find some okay/surefeeds instead.

So none...gotcha.

It's a Center Industries G.I. mag with tan paint and blue follower, no?  

I've handled literally THOUSANDS of g.i. mags, most of them Centers.  There is nothing groundbreaking, interesting, or even worth discussing about the new Center mags.  They're .gov lowest bidder junk that they built try to mimic a Pmag.

It's got a number of geometry changes with the mag body and feed lips.

Also what makes them lowest bidder junk? Because the Army uses them?

Lowest bidder...
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I'm not saying the EPM mags are better than Pmags, just better than you give them credit.

Center Industries were the lowest bidder.  Time after time.  Now they're the sole contract holder for the EPM.

I don't understand what you like so much about Center mags, or the EPM.  It's like the tan follower.  The mil basically made a follower and spring different enough to no be a patent infringement liability from Magpul's anti-tilt follower.  Then they wanted a better mag so they tried to get their cheapest mag manufacturer to knock off the Magpul's feed geometry with an aluminum mag.  But they couldn't do a constant curve with it and it turned out to not be as hot as they had hoped and now the Corps and AF are buying Pmags.  Which have already been vetted for the better part of a decade of war.  

Center mags are fine.  I like that they have two spot welds at the top and bottom of the spine and the concave floorplate is, IMO, better than the flat.  I've never seen a Center, or any other legit g.i. mag, not function when new.  I just don't like how easy it is to dent and/or bend them a little and now you have a bad mag.  The way the gov't tried to knock off Magpul, and wasting the time and resources 'developing' what they did, when an already a better COTS solution was stupid.

How exactly are they garbage?  Henderson Defense, as well as my own personal experience, shows the tan follow Bronwells mags to be the best AR15 mags you can buy.
What Henderson Defense has to say.

My own magazine torture testing showed the tan follower brownell mags to be the best by far.
https://www.ar15.com/forums/ar-15/-ARCHIVED-THREAD-Magpul-s-New-Polymer-Formula-is-Sub-par-Worse-than-the-old-Gen-/17-610837/?page=1

Other independent tests show the brownells to be superior magazines.
https://www.ar15.com/forums/ar-15/Best-of-the-big-mags-eg-PMAG60-ect-/17-718611/

All of my 30s are either USGI mags with Magpul followers or USGI mags with tan followers. Other than the bullet mold on the follower being on a different side, they both function the same, flawlessly.