AR magazines

H Richard

H Richard

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I'm a new AR owner. After nearly 40 years of shooting, mostly handgun and trap/skeet, I broke down and purchased an AR. I have several questions as I am just not familiar with them.

Looking for a 10 round mag or two as I envision being able to shoot from a sandbag for sighting in would not be possible with the 30 rd. mag. Is there any particular brand you would recommend? I have heard Magpul work very reliably.

For practical use, distances under 400 yards (most probably under 200 yds), do you find much difference between the 55 gr FMJ and 62 gr. (or heavier). I'm not sure if I will be loading for this or using factory bulk ammo.

This is a SHTF rifle, and once broke in and zeroed will probably just sit in the rack most of the time. Probably take out a couple times a year for practice.

Any particular brand or type of sling that should be considered?

Do you think a dozen mags should be sufficient for "just in case" utilization?
 
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I use Magpul 20rnds for the bench

My S&W AR shoots 62gr better on paper but will be accurate enough with 55gr for shtf, unless you imagine headshotting squirrels. Even though mine seems to do better with heavier bullets, my storage "stock" is Wolf Gold .223 55gr, brass cased stuff that is neck and primer sealed so good for storage.
Mags are cheap so it's easy to go overboard (if you believe such a thing is possible), I'd say a dozen is plenty. Dozen 30rounders is 360 rounds ready to go. I believe the standard loadout for soldiers was just 7 mags, and they have fun switches.
 
Beyond that matter, buy both plastic and aluminum mags. Don't just buy one style or brand. Have several types on hand. I was surprised at how easily a plastic mag could break when a full one hit concrete when accidently dropped. Many of them aren't as rugged as advertised.



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I use Magpul 10-rounders for hunting. The first one I bought had problems, but was rapidly and politely replaced by the company, no questions asked. The other two I have worked perfectly from the get-go.
 
Flattop5 said:
Beyond that matter, buy both plastic and aluminum mags. Don't just buy one style or brand. Have several types on hand. I was surprised at how easily a plastic mag could break when a full one hit concrete when accidently dropped. Many of them aren't as rugged as advertised.



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I'm curious how you imagine an aluminum mag would've handled the same drop
 
The 10 round mags are getting hard to find right now. I just went on a hunt for them for my Mossberg MPV and found most stores backordered. Found a few at a small local dealer. Paid retail ($13.95). Plenty of 30 round in stock.
 
I would use the magpul pmags in 10 or 20 round as previously mentioned. You can 30 and 40 rounders for fun if you would like.

Congrats and a very big welcome to the 'AR Club'.
 
Welcome to the AR owners family!

There are myriad of options for mags. If you're looking for a SHTF supply of mags, be sure you find out what your gun prefers! In my case, I have a few polymer mags that work well, and some that don't. However my gun has never had any issues running aluminum mags.

If you keep a look out you can find deals on aluminum mags for the same price or cheaper then the polymers. A few months ago, I found 20 round aluminum Bushmaster mags on sale for $4.99.

If you plan on shooting the gun from a bench, 20 round mags should work for you pretty well.

I'm not sure how much you might be carrying the AR, but I'm a fan of simple web sling; again there are a ton of options.

Cheaper then Dirt, Grabagun.com, Amazon, CDNN, and Midway are all pretty good sources to start your search for mags and accessories.
 
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McE said:
I'm curious how you imagine an aluminum mag would've handled the same drop
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I've never dropped a full aluminum mag. If it landed on the bottom of the mag, there would probably be little damage. Ditto on the side or back of the mag. If it landed on the feed lips, that's another story altogether - although with some luck maybe you could bend the lips back into place, but granted, it would be iffy...



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I used a magpul 20 as my walking around magazine in Afghanistan. Reliable, strong, low-profile.

Have had good luck with lancers as well. 10s won't give you much of a size advantage over 20s.
 
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I use a Bob Sled in my benchrest AR you just drop a round in and slam the bolt home. Nothing in the way as it does not stick below the receiver. Don
 
My magazine supply is pretty much a carry over from when I shot service rifle competitions with my Colt HBAR Match Target. I used surplus GI (mostly Colt) 20 round magazines that I placed 1/2 x 1 1/2" barstock that I got from my school's metal shop for a dual purpose: rapid dropping from the mag well in rapid fire stages and to reduce capacity to the NJ legal limits.

I have acquired a number of polymer 10 round magazines for my Long-Range AR and my space gun, and quite honestly, I hate them. I tend to find that they don't feed reliably. I think I have 4 different brands. I am at the point that I will put S.L.E.D.s in the polymer magazines for single loading matches.

What I have done for my all purpose ammo for fun and SHTF, I put my reloads on stripper clips. I find that I can get decent quantities of once used stripper clips on auction sites at a fair price.
 
You can make any sling work with the right swivels or adapter. I have a adapter under my handguard, and I am using a Limbsaver Kodiak sling. You can get a tactical sling.

The reason I got the adapter was actually to put a bipod on, but the bipod already has a sling mount. just had to get the right stud swivel to mount the sling.

I'd forget the sling and get a pistol grip for the handguard.

so many options.......

magpul makes cheap mags. my M&P came with a magpul 30 round. when I got a second mag, I went with a 40 round magpul. $16.

pro mag makes a 5 round magazine.

check out midwayusa for mags, huge selection. I buy a lot of stuff from MidwayUSA.

from what I've read, plastic mags do better than metal mags.

any magazine for a AR-15 will work.

I put .223 bullets in my magazines.
 
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Damn Yankee said:
Check these out. Lifetime Guarantee.
ETS Group - AR15 Magazines
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A Lifetime Guarantee is only good for the lifetime of the company and since I never heard of ETS until about 2 weeks ago I don't know how much it is worth in this case. I would stick with Magpul or Lancer for polymer mags and GI although Gen II Tangodown and Troy seem to work also.
 
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