I'm sure a lot of you have seen the new line of PMAG (polymer 30 round magazines) that Magpul is creating. I've had a chance to play around with these for several months, and I figured I would write a quick review based off first hand use over a bit of time.

When I first saw the PMAGs, they were in a preproduction stage. They had been rapid prototyped, and they were a bit rough. That wasn't a big deal to me as they were simply a prototype, and I really liked the concept. The magazine is pictured below, and was textured. It had ribs across the body, and a wide baseplate that tapered out for a positive grip even with wet hands, cold finger, or wearing gloves. You can see in the prototype that the "window" is uninstalled with this model

The design layout was outstanding, but it still begged the question, how would they function?

Moving ahead in time to the present, you can see from the below pictures that the design has changed a little, but not by much. The materials are different, and the windows are now installed. The wide baseplate continues to be present (thankyou), and the cover is still part of the package. The cover is designed to protect the feedlips of the magazine, which is the section that is most often damaged. The cover works with an empty magazine, as well as fully or partially loaded magazines.

I have been running the PMAGs through my duty and training weapons for awhile now, and have found them to be boring and even mundane in their function. They simply work, and work, and work.

I've thrown fully loaded magazines around in the snow, left them out overnight loaded and then thrown them onto concrete slabs 40 feet away. The mags seem less than impressed with my efforts. I've already seen much heavier people than myself jump up and down on them, so I haven't bothered trying to recreate that visual oddity. I've run hundreds and hundreds of reload drills, and the magazines have a great feel in handling. I attribute that good "feel" to the ribbing, and wide floorplate that really allow for a solid nonslip grasp under stres.

Overall, Magpul seems to have created a high reliability magazine that will be capable of mass production. I anticipate having a stock pile of them for myself, as well as having a dedicated training pile to let other officers, MIL friends, and trainers/ instructors use.

For people who believe there are colors other than black for the AR15 family, Magpul is also making the magazines in colors (FDE/tan, black, OD Green, and Foliage Green last I heard).

The magazines are to be available in both "windowed", and standard versions. The window styles are pictured in the above post, while standard ones are shown below in FDE/ tan.

Great pics and review! Wonder why Magpul felt the need to put LEO markings on it??

Great pics... Your photography is always excellent Stick!

If you shoot rifles even half as good as you shoot photos... look out. What kind of lighting setup do you use?

Quoted: Great pics and review! Wonder why Magpul felt the need to put LEO markings on it??

I'm not sure that the markings are part of the final product, all the pictures that I have are of prerelease variants.

Geez, Stick, do you think that if you guys sell enough of these that you will eventually be able to afford a decent camera?  

Seriously, thanks for these, and all of the other awesome pics you post for us at ARFCOM!

I guess I'd better send John an email and have him set some of these aside for me...

Stick,

Which do you prefer, the windowed or non-windowed variant?  Just trying to determine if there's a practical advantage to the former.

Justin

Quoted: Geez, Stick, do you think that if you guys sell enough of these that you will eventually be able to afford a decent camera?   Seriously, thanks for these, and all of the other awesome pics you post for us at ARFCOM! I guess I'd better send John an email and have him set some of these aside for me...

Always glad to be of help.  We will have plenty in stock.

Quoted: Stick, Which do you prefer, the windowed or non-windowed variant?  Just trying to determine if there's a practical advantage to the former. Justin

Its not really an issue in my book, I'll probably end up with a stockpile of both, but when it comes to shooting, I'll use either.  Right now I have a LOT more trigger and T&E time with the non-windowed variants.

Stick thank you for the review.

You need to start up a gallery web page cause you have so many pic's that need to be seen.

Looking for feedback from the Guy's that have gotten their PMAG's.  Link below...thanks.

www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=2&f=124&t=154176


I'll update my comments in that thread.  Military testing of the PMAGs is going very well right now.

just waiting on rainier to get a few in stock... you guys are very hard on my wallet.

They are in stock currently, unless someone just ordered a massive amount and cleaned us out.  

Holy crap sold out in 2 hours!!
Oh stickman thanks for the super fast shipping of my Eotech and trigger!!

Stick,
What about replacement springs?  Do these take standard 30rd mag springs or is Magpul using something a little longer?  Not really a concern for me, as I have yet to wearout an AR mag spring, just curious.
Thanks!

Quoted: Holy crap sold out in 2 hours!! Oh stickman thanks for the super fast shipping of my Eotech and trigger!!

We have a couple thousand on order, so whenever Magpul gets into full production, running out shouldn't be an issue.

Quoted: Stick, What about replacement springs?  Do these take standard 30rd mag springs or is Magpul using something a little longer?  Not really a concern for me, as I have yet to wearout an AR mag spring, just curious. Thanks!

They are still using standard size springs as far as I know.

Quoted: They are in stock currently, unless someone just ordered a massive amount and cleaned us out.

Don't blame me, I only ordered two 10 pks on the 16th....

Got 'em!

Very Sweet.

Gotta get out and give them a whirl!