Originally Posted by
CSA-North Sylva
Here's my experience when testing a small sample of magazines with the CSA AR-15 mag well adapter:
- good mil spec quality USGI 30 round magazines drop freely and easily (my Colt, Adventure Line, and Labelle magazines work perfectly). They function perfectly. These are my preferred magazines I use with my M16 and AR-15s.
- Two LAR-15 10 round magazines work as well as my good USGI 30 round mags (shooting, activating the bolt catch, and dropping freely). Yes, the LAR magazine protrudes from the magazine well. I don't have the rifle in front of me, but going from memory the magazine protrudes approximately an inch from the adapter.
- my out of spec USGI 30 round magazines did not drop freely (Okay Industries and Sanchez - some of these contract runs by these manufacturers are known to be problem magazines and won't drop freely in my M16 or AR-15s). They were reliable during shooting, but must be pulled from the adapter.
- P-mag will not fit/function without without taking a few minutes with a file and removing plastic in areas that rub. Once I took a file to them, they work perfectly. I do not recommend doing this to P-mags as you may shorten their lifespan? The P-Mags will not fit in my M16. I haven't tried the P-mags in my AR-15s - never thought about trying them until writing this information.
- E-mag may fit and function, but I've not tried it yet. I've ordered some E-mags and will probably test next week.
- an old 20 round Vietnam era magazine does not fit nor function well. I only have one, so I don't know if all of them are like this? It also causes feeding issues in my M16. Even so, I think 20 round Vietnam era magazines may not work with the mag well adapter.
- Thermolds do not fit/function
- Norinco AR-15 manufactured magazines do not fit/function.
- Israeli Orlites do not fit/function
- A new production 30 round aluminum magazine from Brownells does not activate the bolt catch. Beautiful mag, but appears to be out of spec?
- The Korean Beta C Mag fits nicely, but a small amount of plastic on the magazine body must be filed to prevent rubbing/pushing up on the bolt catch. Haven't had a chance to shoot with the Beta C Mag, but it appears that it would cycle fine after the modification.
In my opinion, it was absolutely necessary for the mag well adapter to fit and function with USGI 30 round mags for the US market and 10 round LAR-15 mags for the Canadian market. CSA tried to achieve reliability with as many types of magazines as possible. But, there is only so much room in the 5.56x45 vz.58 magazine well for the adapter. As we had come to find during testing, there are quite a few dimensional differences among M16/AR-15 magazines.
Thanks,
Dan