I was pretty excited to see that Marstar was going to start carrying 30/5 7.62x39 AR-15 magazines, so when they finally came in stock, I jumped on them and ordered them basically the day that they came out. Those of us with XCR rifles or AR-15s chambered in 7.62x39 have been somewhat left out of the look cool factor market with longer mags not really available.
The magazines came in last Friday. I haven't had a chance to hit the range yet, but here are my first impressions.
http://www.marstar.ca/ac-magazine/mag-lg%28a-l%29.shtm
The magazines are $35 each and are coming out of the ashes of C-Products LLC, probably through Ammunition Storage Components Inc. On initial inspection of the magazines, this was very apparent as the magazines still have C-Products LLC floor plates.
The magazines themselves were delivered in good shape, packed professionally as one would expect from Marstar. I can't tell what generation of C-products mags these are, or if they are new builds using old floor plates. Those who follow it know that the earlier generations were plagued with problems that C-products eventually solved in the later generations. Only function testing will prove this out, but given that the problems usually only appear nearing the magazines full designed capacity (30 rounds) we may never truly know without potentially breaking the law, which I won't do.
Now for the problems. These mags are not well pinned. Much like recent mags from Questar, these mags are pinned 'unfinished' - that is to say, riveted and not sanded down or painted in any way. Perfectly acceptable so long as said magazines are labelled as so before purchasing, but not acceptable given that Marstar gave no indication that the magazines would be pinned in such a manner.
I'm not here to start a war with Marstar on the matter. It doesn't take much to grind them down and paint them (sharpies work great), but a little warning would be nice.
Now for the real problems. One of the magazines received had two holes drilled in the side of the magazine body, clearly as the first hole was too high up to provide enough clearance for the legal capacity five rounds. This is a serious issue and the mag needs to be replaced by Marstar. No way should this have been shipped to a customer in the shape that it's in.
I did a quick test of the magazine capacity for the other magazines over the weekend and quickly discovered that one of the other magazines does not accept the full five rounds. Again, this will have to go back to Marstar for replacement.
So in summary, I've got about a 50% quality ratio on the magazines I ordered and all the magazines are delivered with rivets 'unfinished'.
Marstar is a FANTASTIC company, and I'm fully confident that Marstar will replace the damaged products. Should they have released those two mags to a consumer? Absolutely not. Will they fix it? I have no doubt.
When I get the two non-messed up mags to the range, I'll post a function review as well.
The magazines came in last Friday. I haven't had a chance to hit the range yet, but here are my first impressions.
http://www.marstar.ca/ac-magazine/mag-lg%28a-l%29.shtm
The magazines are $35 each and are coming out of the ashes of C-Products LLC, probably through Ammunition Storage Components Inc. On initial inspection of the magazines, this was very apparent as the magazines still have C-Products LLC floor plates.
The magazines themselves were delivered in good shape, packed professionally as one would expect from Marstar. I can't tell what generation of C-products mags these are, or if they are new builds using old floor plates. Those who follow it know that the earlier generations were plagued with problems that C-products eventually solved in the later generations. Only function testing will prove this out, but given that the problems usually only appear nearing the magazines full designed capacity (30 rounds) we may never truly know without potentially breaking the law, which I won't do.
Now for the problems. These mags are not well pinned. Much like recent mags from Questar, these mags are pinned 'unfinished' - that is to say, riveted and not sanded down or painted in any way. Perfectly acceptable so long as said magazines are labelled as so before purchasing, but not acceptable given that Marstar gave no indication that the magazines would be pinned in such a manner.
I'm not here to start a war with Marstar on the matter. It doesn't take much to grind them down and paint them (sharpies work great), but a little warning would be nice.
Now for the real problems. One of the magazines received had two holes drilled in the side of the magazine body, clearly as the first hole was too high up to provide enough clearance for the legal capacity five rounds. This is a serious issue and the mag needs to be replaced by Marstar. No way should this have been shipped to a customer in the shape that it's in.
I did a quick test of the magazine capacity for the other magazines over the weekend and quickly discovered that one of the other magazines does not accept the full five rounds. Again, this will have to go back to Marstar for replacement.
So in summary, I've got about a 50% quality ratio on the magazines I ordered and all the magazines are delivered with rivets 'unfinished'.
Marstar is a FANTASTIC company, and I'm fully confident that Marstar will replace the damaged products. Should they have released those two mags to a consumer? Absolutely not. Will they fix it? I have no doubt.
When I get the two non-messed up mags to the range, I'll post a function review as well.
