- Yes
- I *strongly* recommend that you buy ONLY USGI mags, as nothing else is as reliable.
- For the price you describe, you're surely getting used, abused mags that may not work at all.
- Israel switched to USGI mags and dumped their Orlites on the US civilian market.
- Buy ONLY USGI mags.
From the FAQ (first post in this forum):
3-2-1] Orlite
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Orlite magazines were developed for the Israeli Armed Forces. The bodies are made from high-melt-temp black nylon with a steel reinforement mesh imbedded in the top 1.5 inches to strengthen the feed lips. New Orlites come with a rubber cap to help keep sand out of the mag.
Orlites have a rib around the middle of the mag which helps to seal the bottom of the mag well and also prevents the magazine from being over-inserted and the feed lips damaged. The location of the rib was based on the deep mag well beveling on Colt M16s, and in ARs that aren't beveled as deeply, early Orlites won't seat completely. This is easily correctable by trimming a bit of material from the top surface of the over-insertion rib; just enough to allow the mag to seat. This problem only occurs with early Orlites with mold numbers from 0/1 to 0/19. Starting with batch 0/20, the rib was moved about 1/32" further down the mag body, and these later mags work in all ARs with no modification. Used Orlites are often found at gun shows with their over-insertion ribs completely ground off. Avoid these mags, as it's too easy for these mags to be over-inserted, banging the feedlips against the bolt or getting stuck.
-Troy