WOW!! Check your Pmags boys

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TheArmyMan204

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Went shooting at the farm today. I own 13 or so Magpul Pmags all 5/30 gen2. I only brought 5 with me today to do a little sighting in with A few buddies.

So we get to the range (my farm) set up fresh paper targets and move back to the firing line. I keep my 5.56 ammo just loose in a metal ammo can so I loaded up all of my mags till they were full and I went first

Shot until the mag was empty and checked the target. I had 6 rounds on target, very weird (figured maybe I somehow had one in the chamber but that made no sense I'm very safe)

So I start loading mags again, this time counting instead of just going till the rivet stops me. And 3 out of 5 mags hold more than they should.

Mag 1 - 8 rounds
Mag 2 - 9 rounds
Mag 3 - 8 rounds
4 and 5 - 5 rounds

Very sketchy right? So immediately I check the rivets and they are all tight and in the exact same spot as each other. When I manually push down the followers they all stop at the rivet

I believe the followers are tilting forward when they hit the rivet and allowing extra room for extra rounds.

I'm not rough with my mags and they are only 2 years old and very lightly used. Gotta check the rest when I get home

For legal purposes these mags were "destroyed" and defiantly not used any further ;)

Edit - when these mags were first purchased they all only held 5 rounds, so somewhere along the line something has worn out or broke
 
We have two .308 Pmags for our XCR-M test rifle. Both were bought new from Wolverine. Without even having used one in live fire (just toying with it inserting/removing from the mag well) it wore down enough that it would not stay locked in the gun. The second one works fine and of course the steel mags have been flawless.

I'm not too sure what the big deal is with Pmags but I don't think we'll be using any more.
 
Crazy yeah, but CO's and LEO's check mags by pushing the ramp down until they feel the rivet/pin. Once the feel the rivet they move on to the next. They dont ask you to load it in front of them and count the rounds. My experience anyways...
 
I've noticed plastic followers can wear a little and get past the rivets. I've never had them function afterwards (usually the follower loses tension and loose rounds cause a stoppage), but I guess it could happen. It's made a little worse by the flex in the plastic mag body. Crappy thing is even USGI mags use plastic followers now...
 
On one of my PMAGS I noticed one day I could load up to 11 rounds (fingers were cold so I didnt keep at it but im sure it would have went to 30), then when I tried again it wouldnt take more then 5. So looks like the above about slipping past the rivet was at cause on the first time, and it settled out for the second failed attempt to load the same.
 
I assumed that eventually something like this would happen, just the nature of plastic, but not this early. You guys wouldn't believe how light these mags have been used.
 
TheArmyMan204 said:
I assumed that eventually something like this would happen, just the nature of plastic, but not this early. You guys wouldn't believe how light these mags have been used.
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I've seen it happen when they're brand new... Flex in the plastic body... The only plastics I'll use are Troy and Lancers as they are more solid.
 
TheArmyMan204 said:
Went shooting at the farm today. I own 13 or so Magpul Pmags all 5/30 gen2. I only brought 5 with me today to do a little sighting in with A few buddies.

So we get to the range (my farm) set up fresh paper targets and move back to the firing line. I keep my 5.56 ammo just loose in a metal ammo can so I loaded up all of my mags till they were full and I went first

Shot until the mag was empty and checked the target. I had 6 rounds on target, very weird (figured maybe I somehow had one in the chamber but that made no sense I'm very safe)

So I start loading mags again, this time counting instead of just going till the rivet stops me. And 3 out of 5 mags hold more than they should.

Mag 1 - 8 rounds
Mag 2 - 9 rounds
Mag 3 - 8 rounds
4 and 5 - 5 rounds

Very sketchy right? So immediately I check the rivets and they are all tight and in the exact same spot as each other. When I manually push down the followers they all stop at the rivet

I believe the followers are tilting forward when they hit the rivet and allowing extra room for extra rounds.

I'm not rough with my mags and they are only 2 years old and very lightly used. Gotta check the rest when I get home

For legal purposes these mags were "destroyed" and defiantly not used any further ;)

Edit - when these mags were first purchased they all only held 5 rounds, so somewhere along the line something has worn out or broke
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Why would you destroy them? Just remove the rivet and replace it with a new one that is a little longer.
You are allowed to repair them and re-rivet them to make them function correctly.
 
Last edited:
cr5 said:
Why would you destroy them? Just remove the rivet and replace it with one a new one that is a little longer.
You are allowed to repair them and re-rivet them to make them function correctly.
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Bingo. If the follower is worn, buy new ones..
 
Yes ;)

I'm just going to use my lar-15 mags till I get these fixed then I slowly replace all my mags with steel ones. Never had a problem with this in the army or otherwise . Just another black rifle fad that doesn't really improve anything
 
TheArmyMan204 said:
Yes ;)

I'm just going to use my lar-15 mags till I get these fixed then I slowly replace all my mags with steel ones. Never had a problem with this in the army or otherwise . Just another black rifle fad that doesn't really improve anything
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Pmags are better than steel mags...

The reason you didn't have that problem in the Army is because they're not forced to artificially limit their mag size with a rivet.
 
BigDerp said:
Pmags are better than steel mags...

The reason you didn't have that problem in the Army is because they're not forced to artificially limit their mag size with a rivet.
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Agreed, it's a fine line with the rivet. Too long and it binds up the spring, too short and the follower can tilt and get past it for a couple more rounds.
A huge pain in the arse for something that doesn't make anyone safer.
 
I also had this problem with 2 of my only gen2. Most of the time they will hold only 5 but sometime the rivet doesn't stop the follower, but when it happen usually it gets stuck going back up. I'm guessing it just needs bigger rivets.
 
Magpul QA is a bit questionable lately I bought several MAGPUL M3 mags from a local supplier only to find the rivets in two of the 6 fell out, as happy as I am for having a 30rnd mag I don't feel like being bubba's playmate in the pen so I returned them and exchanged for a pair of new ones. The retailer was actually not surprised as I'm not the first customer to return a mag with rivets falling out.
 
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