Has anyone tried the $4.97 steel G3 mags that Cheaper Than Dirt has on sale?
I got some of the $2.97 Aluminum G3 mags from them and they are in great shape and function perfectly but need some steel mags.
Raymond

Yep. I ordered a dozen a got an even and wide variety from 'finish worn off, lots of wear all around, and rusted' to 'freshly refinished, hardly used, and well cleaned and oiled'.

I was about to upload photos until I realized this board doesnt host files, and I dont either.

Overall I'd say its a very fair deal, just dont order one mag, and expect to get one that would pass for NIW. Of my dozen, the worst four might critically be rated as 'poor' due to mag lip wear, and rusted/worn finish. The best ones being 'excellent' as they only show minor insertion marks (since being refinished, and cleaned I guess). The other four showing a variety of wear and marks might be called VG-Good.

Quoted: Overall I'd say its a very fair deal, just dont order one mag, and expect to get one that would pass for NIW. Of my dozen, the worst four might critically be rated as 'poor' due to mag lip wear, and rusted/worn finish. The best ones being 'excellent' as they only show minor insertion marks (since being refinished, and cleaned I guess). The other four showing a variety of wear and marks might be called VG-Good.

Well, I would buy a multiples mags, take to them to the range and blast away. Those the don't work, could be sent back for replacements. If the mag has finish wear, it should affect the functioning of the mag. But I'm not sure it is worth the cost of the shipping at that price. Maybe CHD would take your word that you have a problem with their mags and just send you new ones with you send the old ones back. You could ask, doesn't hurt, all they says is no.

The steel ones I bought a year ago were in great shape, but didn't work for crap.

The ALLOY ones rock! Spend the extra $2, and alleviate future headaches.

I got the steel mags from CTD.I ordered five to see what I would get.
All are in excellent shape and look like new with two having light rust on the followers.Go figure.
Three out of five function perfectly.The other two will not feed most of the time.Allowing the catridge to ride low below the lips and the bolt rides over the top or they feed halfway out of the mag and jam against the bottom of the bolt on the trunnion.
I tried swapping followers/springs around and it did not fix the problem
Still a good buy being that I got three that function for not much at all.
Raymond

I got some surplus G3/91 20 Rd steel mags from several vendors.  Some were NIW, some not, but all the ones that did not work 100% were returned  and the vendors made good on 'em. Some returns were not pretty, but they all worked.

The aluminum mags are good too, and a little matte Krylon makes even the worn magazines look good.