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Posted: 1/8/2004 6:26:01 PM EDT
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Whats the deal with downloading magazines? 30rds to 28rds, etc. I had never heard of this till a few days ago. I just finished my first AR, and had purchased 5 30rd, SA80 mags from Eagle Firearms. At the range the two I had with me functioned 100% when fully loaded. Is this for reliability? Your info is appreciated. -Hershey |
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Some folks find their mags set more reliably -especially against a closed bolt- with a couple of rounds removed. This is due to the extra space the spring is allowed to compress, space that would otherwise be occupied by two cartridges. There's also some discussion regarding possible feed problems, if I recall correctly. Others find their rifles have no problem accepting a full 30 round mag, no do they have any issues with all 30 rounds feeding (I'm in this group). That's my read on the debate. Others will have a more in-depth description, I'm sure. |
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theres a few reasons for downloading, some from nam vets who where taught to download 20rnd mags to 18 rnds....the current reason on 30 rd mags to download is to better seat them in the magwell with a closed bolt (tactical reload) and the reason for 2 rnds is yes, one round is all thats needed to seat easily, but with 2 rnds the first round feeds from the left which some believe to feed better. -Brian- but if you dont have problems with tac reloads then 30 is ok. |
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I had never had any reliability problems loading and using 30 round mags with 30 cartridges and 20 round mags with 20 cartridges with any of my factory Colt rifles until about a year ago. That's when I put together my "retro" rifle. It's a Colt SP1 lower mated to a commercial "pre-ban" Colt upper with the old "tear drop" forward assist (it looks similar to the army's old XM16E1 but has no "go fast" switcth). For whatever reason, that rifle refuses to feed the first two rounds from any of my mil-spec mags (20 rounders or 30 rounders). It's proven 100% reliable when I download to 28 or 18 rounds, but it will not feed rounds from a full mag. I've tried various magazines and various springs and various followers with no luck. I don't worry too much about it. It's my "plinker", and I just chalk it's refusal to feed from full mags as part of its personality. |
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