Ok, DILLI, smellypete, Cobra and I ran the mags for a bit. Due to the drills we were doing and the fact that we only had a mag each, we didn’t get to really abuse the mags. DILLI did drop his deliberately into muddy water.
Impressions:
Keep in mind these are BETA test mags and not final production ones.
The mags are very light. The design is definitely attractive. The coupler works well in some but others were quite tight to uncouple. Locking up is easy but taking apart is tougher. Good thing, I suppose, as you won’t want them uncoupling during a mag change. You do feel like you are going to break them as you twist though. There is some flex in the mag body during twisting but you are suppose to grab them at the base where they join anyways.
The followers stick initially when we first got them. We sprayed some G96 on them and they worked well after. Easy to load. Worry a bit about the longevity of feed lips. We banged the mags after loading full and the rounds did not eject, so that’s good.
The mags ran well as they are suppose to. They engage the mag catch and eject easily. No issues for any of us when they were clean.
Problems happened when we used the muddy mags. I had one that did not feed the last two rounds. Only noticed when we were picking up our mags after the drill. Thought I ran empty and did a mag change. I deliberately used the mag that failed for DILLI as I wanted to induce a malfunction and the same mag failed. DILLI marked it for Cross to check.
Other than that, I think Cross is very close to production. We, as a group, were very happy with their professionalism and generosity to let us test and post our findings here. Not too many companies will expose themselves this way so it goes to show how these guys think and how they want our honest opinions to improve on their product.
TAC rifle starts again in April. We hope Cross will see fit to send us some more to try when we will run them hard and fast!