Just scored six of the SA-80 mags.  They seem to work great at this time.  Do these mags need the black followers changed out to the green?

Hoppy

Hoppy, I have 25 of the phosphated British mags and have not changed the dark blue followers in any of them.  They are the same style as that of the green followers, and although more pliable (less rigid) than the green ones, they have not failed once in function testing.  I would not waste the money if yours function fine.

Noah

I second noah, all five of mine had the black or dark blue followers of the same style as the green folower. Only one has a follower related issue, which is the tab at the rear of the follower that pushes the bolt catch up on running dry, is chipped off. My bolt catch does not engage the chipped off lip, and the carrier ends up handing on the follower instead of bolt catch. The mag body is fine however, and has no issues getting stuck while feeding or any other issues. Just one screwed up follower out of 5...

So if your followers in those SA80 mags work, I'd just keep em and save the money for another mag or put it toward some more ammo.

Sounds good guys.  Thanks for the info.

Hoppy

I have 5 of the light gray phosphate mags and I did change over to greens,  None of the original blue followers would lock the bolt back after the last shot.  Changed them out and they work great.

I have six of the Imperial Defense mags from CMMG.  They are blued, not parkerized.  

No need to change followers.  They already had green followers installed, and CMMG tossed 6 of their chrome-silicon springs in the box, too.  

I pulled the springs that were in the  mags, and installed the stronger springs.

Just got my Midway flyer today and they now have these in stock ($19.49 on sale).  To quote the ad: "Parkerized steel body with the "green follower design" (followers are actually black in color)".

I haven't pulled one apart to look yet.

Hoppy

Has anyone else seen those "next generation chrome-silicone" mag springs? I am curious to see if they aren't just cheap springs with fancy names because they are pretty cheap in Shotgun News.

Yes, these are what CMMG supplied as an extra with the SA-80 mags I got with them.  The SA-80 mags had USGI green followers already installed.  The chrome-silicon springs were tossed in the box, not installed in the mags.

The SA-80's springs felt to be about the same strength as regular USGI springs.  The chrome-silicon springs were somewhat stronger.

What more could I tell you just by looking?  Dunno, they look fine to me.

Thanks, I'm getting ready to revitalize some of my USGIs so that information will be taken into consideration.