To those of you that have used, or are using Brownells aluminum 20 round mags with chrome silicon spring, how do they stack up against std. USGI 20 round mags?

I realize that the USGI doesn't (or didn't used to ) use chrome silicon springs.

I recently bought 10 of the Brownells, so I'm hoping they hold up well.  Got a lifetime warranty, so seems to me it's hard to go wrong.

So what say those of you that are using, or have used the Brownells?

Bang-Flop

I have had nothing but good luck while using Brownells 20 and 30 round mags. I have mostly stainless springs but do have a few chrome silicon. Both have been 100%. They are a current military supplier for mags,.

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The current 30 rounders from Brownells ARE USGI mags, so no comparison necessary....
And since they're a current supplier/contractor to the military, I'd imagine they have a good handle on how to make a good magazine.
I haven't used any of their 20's, but I have a bunch of their 30's with the green followers
and chrome silicon springs, and I have nothing but good words for them.
And I'd expect nothing less from the 20's.

My Brownells straight 20-rounders have stainless steel springs. They are good to go.




 

Thanks for the replies.  I didn't know they were contracted to supply any mags to the .mil.

That just makes the "juice a little more worth the squeeze" IMO.  I've traditionally overlooked Brownells as a supplier, and I don't know why.  But with their selection, good prices, quality and service, I won't be making that mistake anymore.

Bang-Flop

Brownells test fires magazines from each batch and if there is a single misfire they reject the whole batch.  This was on one of their ads.  I was told on this forum that this is a requirement for having a military contract.  It would be nice if Brownells posted here with all the bashing and hate there sometimes is here for USGI magazines but I suspect they are too busy making 100,000s of magazines for the military.

There seems to be a ass load of them here along with Center Industries ones; both with tan followers.

Perhaps this is how the new brown follower mags. can be sold on the open market, rejects?

I keep a bunch of 20 rounders in my range bag and 2 of them are the CS Brownells mags. Worked perfectly for many trips out. I like them. Just make sure the price is right, which I do believe has come down, because at one point they were more expensive than the NHMTG mags from 44mag.com... and I would choose those in that case hands down.

Gents,
   Any tan follower mags that you see for sale fell off the proverbial truck.  We are not permitted to offer them for sale under the terms of the contract, and neither is anyone else that produces that magazine.  We are aware that there are some out there, as is the Army CID.  

   The very first test lot had one magazine that wasn't to spec, and that entire lot is still here, but will probably be destroyed at some point.  There have been zero failures in testing since then, and no reject mags.  Soo...no rejects have ever left here.  Our commercial magazines use exactly the same bodies as the new M4 improvement mags, and in fact, we provided green follower mags under contract at one point prior to the tan follower mag contract.  The green follower magazines have the same testing performance.  Zero failures.  Current purchasing under the contract has wrapped up for now, but we are still making the same mag bodies to the same specs, and they will pass the same tests.

   There is a lot of QC that goes into these mags, and they are not re-branded from another magazine company.  Made right here in Iowa.

    CS may offer you longer spring life, and should, based on metallurgy, and SS should offer more corrosion resistance, but I've never seen either spring wear out.

    The other thing is the guarantee.  If, at any point, forever, you are unhappy with anything you purchase from us, for any reason, send it back, and we'll send you a new one or a refund.

In case anyone missed that part.

Thank you for posting that!

Hey, Brownells is here! You should keep posting on this forum.....It would be a nice change to what we usually hear on this forum.......

P.S. So where do those mags for sale actually come from?  That would be a pretty big truck if they all fell off the back

Would like to know myself, since I've seen them all over the place.

Man, isn't that the truth.
Like a breath of fresh air.

Magazines are what is classified as a Class IX durable item.

This means that they're expendendable/disposable and are not required to be turned in to the supply system.  They often include items that are repair parts or subassemblies.  Things that are generally expected to be lost or destroyed through use.  

A lot of times deploying units will get drop shipped boxes and boxes of new magazines to distribute to soldiers, and "supply accountability" consists of checking guys off "the list" that they've received their magazines.  Basically, they want to make sure you got them, they could care less what you do with them.  A lot of times, they hand them out like candy.  If your unit supply is strict, you may hand receipt for them, but there's no requirement for unit supply to be 100% accountable for the magazines.  

Given this, it's not surprising that sometimes a box or two might get "liberated" from unit stores, and there's not a really good way to maintain accountability for them.  

~Augee

I don't think we are talking about a few boxes.  They are out there by the thousands.

Ongoing investigation, but I can assure you that no tan follower magazine has ever left here except in a govt contracted truck headed for military distribution.  None of the very few rejected mags from that one early batch have ever left Montezuma.  If it has our name and cage code stamped into the mag body, it's a Brownells mag, but if there's a tan follower, it shouldn't be for sale.  I can't speak to what anyone else does with their magazines.

You may have seen these magazines at gun shows for somewhere around $7 each.  You can't make a proper tan follower mag for that much, so....somebody must be getting a screaming deal. :-)

I just sat down with the category management for magazines to see if we could restructure the pricing of our mag bodies with the MagPul gen 3 followers already installed.  Sounds like we should have that adjusted very soon so that it is a more appealing option.

OK...done.

If you want the best metal mag out there with a great anti-tilt follower at a better price than we had before, we now offer our 30rd mag body with CS spring and Magpul Gen 3 self-leveling follower for $11.99 each, retail.  Dealer and MIL/LE price is lower, log in to see the savings.  That's about exactly what you would pay for the mag and the follower separately, but we put them in for you so they're ready to go out of the bag.  

That is a fantastic deal Brownells. I happen to thing the Magpul Gen 3 is better than the GI tan follower anyway.

What is the coating used on the Brownell's SOCOM tan magazine? I have looked in the catalog and didn't see an Alumahyde color called that. I would like to coat some other things in that color.

Thank you sir!!!! You just made me a  very happy camper

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That's absolutely awesome. I've been retrofitting my Brownells 30 round GI style mags with the Magpul followers, and to get them with the follower installed for that low, well, I'll be ordering some more goodies soon.

The first time I ran into Brownells mags was in 2008 at Parris Island. They had green USGI followers and were not any different from any other USGI mag I ever saw.



 

I believe the tan coating was done at the anodizing house...I'll have to do some checking.

The difference in the Brownells magazines is that every single magazine is tested for 100% dimensional accuracy at several points during manufacturing, passes follower fit, passes a plunger test after final assembly,  and the normal smart procedures like cutting feed lips after hardening, etc.  Every mag is tested...not a sample, not one from a lot...every single one.  If something doesn't pass, it's never "bent to fit"....it gets smashed and goes in the trash.  

"A few boxes" here and there at a mobilization station or big supply area would be that.  Think about how many magazines a deploying unit alone would have to get:

A battalion of 500 soldiers would be allotted 7 magazines a piece - that's 3,500 magazines.  Say you order a 15% overage to cover loss, destruction, ect. and that's over 4,000 magazines for one battalion.  Consider that a lot of these guys have already been issued magazines, the unit probably already has large stores of old green and black follower magazines - an unscrupulous unit supply section at a battalion level could continue to issue from old stores, not the new ones - assuming most soldiers will never notice - they just want their seven.  Say the battalion gets drop shipped 4,000 magazines to replace all the old ones - instead, they just issue the old ones to anyone that doesn't already have them, and keep 1,000 "on hand" just in case the old stores run low.  That's 3,000 magazines that can go in someone's or several someone's trunks.  That's a single battalion.  

That would be an extreme case - but as you can see, "a couple" of liberated boxes from each unit that comes through a mobilization station or is getting ready to deploy could easily add up to "thousands" quickly.  

~Augee

"SOCOM" tan coating is the exact same teflon finish that comes on USGI mags, just tinted tan instead of gray.

I guess the decision was made before my time to stop producing the tan mags, but we could turn it back on by just submitting a PO, if there's enough interest.

Do you trash just  the body or all four parts of the magazine????

That would be stealing.  Doesn't happen in the military.  All those surplus stores at the gates of military bases get all their stuff through legitamate sources.

All USGI magazines (real USGI which means United States Government Issue)  are basically the same.  You don't have to test them for fit and function because they just work.

That's pretty funny.  Not even the US Government thinks all USGI mags are the same.

Interesting.  Tell more.  People on this forum think any magazine with an aluminum body is "USGI".

Well, I don't have to tell anyone here that "Mil-Spec" doesn't mean you are in full TDP compliance.  You can also build something completely "to spec", but the error rate of occurences outside tolerance coupled with testing samples less than 100% can result in some things slipping through.  Other steps in the manufacturing process during welding, feed lip forming, dimensional testing, etc., can be done differently as long as the end result is "the same"––but results may actually vary.  A magazine made to design specs, but not made with proper methods and tested appropriately, at the proper times, may look the same at first glance...but...looks can be deceiving.

Our top magazine guy is an encyclopedia of every little nitnoid process that goes into stamping, forming, welding, finishing, spring rates, follower travel––truly enlightening to talk to about that little piece of aluminum, steel, and polymer that makes the AR/M4/M16 more than a single shot. The folks that actually make this thing are some great Americans, and have come up with some outstanding QC.

Even our non-contract mags are purchased by military and law enforcement entities in significant numbers, so we build every magazine as if someone's life will be on the line when using it, no matter if it's headed to A'Stan for a year tour or if it's going to be tossed in the back of a gun safe and brought out once a year for plinking.

No device made by man is 100% perfect. We can't guarantee the specifications to which various entities build an AR/M4/or M16. I'm also not saying there are not other quality magazine manufacturers out there, because there are. But, if you want to line up our mags against anyone else's and run them both through the test firing fixtures with in-spec rifles....

.........I hear 'ya.
My significant other just happens to be a QC leader and trainer at an ordnance plant.
No magazines, but 40mm, APOBS, etc.
I kinda understand what goes into meeting all the testing requirements and making the government inspectors happy.
It's not only that everything meets spec, it's also how did you make it meet spec that they want to know.
You really have to prove your methods and practices, all while meeting theirs.
But the system works, so let's not mess with it I suppose.

I would like to order some. But, I don't see them on the website yet......

John!

Brownells mag with Magpul followers

Regular with green followers

Thanks ! Ordering some now !

John!

Arg if only I could afford a 10 pack of 20 rounders.  

Its almost like the ancient magazine wars stuck around.  Damn good deal.

I got interested in these mags mainly from this thread.  I just received 5 of these mags today, the pkg. reads Magpul Gen 2 followers, not Gen 3 as listed.  It looks like I have the Gen 3 follower just wrong labeling from Brownells.