So...what's the deal with GI 30 rd AR mags?

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  • AliasNeo07

    Ultimate Member
    Feb 12, 2009
    6,548
    MD
    I'm going to the gunshow tomorrow in York, PA, and am going to pick up some mags. Definitely getting some PMAGS, so no need to say "don't buy GIs, buy pmags."

    I do want to get SOME GI mags just cause they'll probably be a little bit cheaper.

    Question is, what should I look for? Are there many different manufacturers? Which follower should I be looking for? Are they NIB are surplus? Etc.

    Totally new to aluminum GI mags.

    Thx.
     

    rj1974

    Ultimate Member
    Jan 31, 2011
    11,207
    Edgemere , md.
    colt , parsons , adventure line Ill have to get out the book I cant remember all the manufacturers ......... I use mostly GI mags

    brownells makes great metal mags too
     

    rob

    DINO Extraordinaire
    Oct 11, 2010
    3,099
    Augusta, GA
    I mostly use cheap C-Products steel & aluminum mags.

    I have a few AR Stoner mags that are really nice.

    Rob.
     

    wilcam47

    Ultimate Member
    Apr 4, 2008
    25,976
    Changed zip code
    I'm going to the gunshow tomorrow in York, PA, and am going to pick up some mags. Definitely getting some PMAGS, so no need to say "don't buy GIs, buy pmags."

    I do want to get SOME GI mags just cause they'll probably be a little bit cheaper.

    Question is, what should I look for? Are there many different manufacturers? Which follower should I be looking for? Are they NIB are surplus? Etc.

    Totally new to aluminum GI mags.

    Thx.

    get mags with anti-tilt followers...the green ones and black followers are typically junk IMO...unless they are anti-tilt...most ive seen are brown or orange followers. around $10 a mag is good average price.
     

    zombiehunter

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 8, 2008
    6,505
    I have a bunch of GI spec 20/30 mags by c-products and D&H they work fine in ARs, not so fine in my PLR.
     

    JCB003

    Ultimate Member
    Sep 10, 2007
    1,212
    O-Kay Industries, should be able to get them new for $8-$10 each, sometimes there is a guy there who will sell "buy 10 get one free". I probably have 100 O-Kay mags still in their cardboard boxes. I really need ammo to load them up.
     

    erwos

    The Hebrew Hammer
    MDS Supporter
    Mar 25, 2009
    13,866
    Rockville, MD
    Personal opinion? I think pmags handle better and feel stronger than the GI aluminum magazines I have. There's also the maglevel/window feature, which is nice to have.
     

    Rockerspsl

    Active Member
    Apr 10, 2011
    230
    Glen Burnie, MD
    I can't say which is stronger, I've seen many army mags dent and crack and I've seen a Pmag split apart right down the seam, I guess the difference is that the pmags don't dent.
     

    Indiana Jones

    Wolverine
    Mar 18, 2011
    19,480
    CCN
    All but 3 of my GI mags are made by Center Industries. Those are great surplus mags, and my other 3 are brownells, Colt, and Bushmaster. All of em work great! I think PMAGS are very good too. I prefer GI however for the look. I haven't found a bad GI mag yet, but I've only used those 4 brands. Good hunting!
     

    Bootknife

    Ultimate Member
    D&H,C prod,what the others have said.I usually order new from .44MAG.com because I have a place in Jax Florida so i have them sent there,I have both Alum and SS all work well.And heed the advice on Anti Tilt Followers!!
     

    QuebecoisWolf

    Ultimate Member
    May 14, 2008
    3,767
    Anne Arundel
    Uh-oh. You've done it now... you've unleashed my GI mag rant!!!1!!

    I HATE GI mags with a vengeance that can only be understood by someone who has used them in the field. First off, they're probably made out of recycled coke cans. They dent if touched by a feather or q-tip. They deform like butter in the microwave. No two GI mags seem to fit quite the same. Some are tighter than *obscene words deleted due to forum terms of service*. Others are looser than *obscene words deleted due to forum terms of service*. That's not all. What the part of the magazine that your fingers touch the most? The feed lips, right? So why don't AR-15 series rifles have a single pointed corner or sharp edge but the standard-issue magazine has razor-sharp feed lips that will rip you fingers to pieces plus four sharp corners on the bottom that can break skin if you have to slap on the magazine to get it seated - which you will almost always have to do because the f---ing thing never fits into the mag well properly? Who comes up with these ideas? Not Eugene Stoner, oh no. He was smart enough to put reasonably thick feed lips on the magazine he built to go with his new rifle. Too bad Stoner didn't make a 30 round magazine. Except the "30-rounder" doesn't really hold 30 rounds. I was trained to never load more than 28 because the mags don't function properly when fully loaded. Why, you ask? Because the USGI 30 rounder has the worst spring and follower ever put into a military magazine. Full stop. Do you like follower tilt? If so, the green follower tilts more than a cheater playing pinball and a carnival ride combined. The magazine spring is so weak and so flimsy that you can probably make a better one yourself out of paper clips. That's nice. Take a rifle that is known to run dirty and combine it with a horrible, horrible magazine that was hurriedly invented in the late 1960s because the big brass morons on the US Army General Staff needed an intoxicated Soviet ex-sergeant to tell them that "30 bullets is better than 20."
     

    dneidFIST

    Active Member
    Mar 14, 2011
    151
    Columbia
    The only time I've ever had the original mags fail on me was when I was using blanks during training exercises. That's the only time when I had the follow tilt on me. When using real rounds, I've never had a problem with them. I never liked to use them when I was deployed though - I went with PMAGs, some HK mags we had (which are noticeably heavier and a little longer), and the USGI mags that had the upgraded follower and spring (as state before, the brownish/orange-ish follower). I never had a mag failure with any of those magazines.

    I have a couple of USGI mags with the old followers. I'm planning on getting the upgraded followers and springs for them and I heard they cost about $2 to buy, so that might be something to look into.
     

    QuebecoisWolf

    Ultimate Member
    May 14, 2008
    3,767
    Anne Arundel
    Hey Q maybe Decalf would help LOL

    Can decaf remove minor scars? I've suffered some sort of bloody finger injury every time that I do ammo detail. There's no sane reason why any military magazine should have feed lips that thin. You can probably bend them just by stepping on the magazine.

    In all honesty, USGI AR mags are among the worst to be issued with a service rifle since WWII. About the only nice things that I can say about them is that they're cheap, easy to find, and very light. Thanks to the cheap price, I have about 20 or so of them myself. About a quarter of them have new followers and springs. The rest are for range use only. I really don't understand why anyone would go out and buy HK steel mags to go shoot at paper, but whatever floats your boat. For serious field use, however, milsurp GI mags are a poor choice.
     

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