Who makes the best AR15 Magazines ?

Rec1er

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Minuteman
Feb 8, 2019
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As per title , I`ve been having issues with my AR15 not lifting the bolt catch with P Mags and it seems to be a common problem , I`ve been told Colt make the best , your opinions please ..
 
Specs on lower and mags (round / generation)? Does it not lift 100% of the time or only sometimes? Can you snap a picture with the upper off the lower so we can see the bolt catch engagement?

To be honest I think PMAG's are the best. The Marines just but 20,400 rounds through a Gen 3 Pmag without a failure. So yeah. I would want to fix my bolt catch issue vs buying new set of mags.

Likely the dimensions are just out enough to either move the catch too far away or the finger is too short or both. Might be a good excuse to get a marine bolt catch.
 
Is the bolt catch not making contact with the magazine follower ?

Or is the contact being made, but not being allowed enough movement of the bolt catch to be meaningful ( sometimes grinding some of the back off of the long portion on the bolt catch will "fix" that. )

IMHO, I would purchase a Colt brand 9MM bolt catch.. and grind the "finger" shorter to the appropriate length.

If your bolt catch is having issues with magpuls... it could do the same with other brand mags.

Not the first time I have heard of this problem, and usually not the mags fault.. but something out of spec on the lower... or tolerance stacking.

It may be your OEM one is out of spec, and a normal Colt spec'd one would fix it.

https://www.brownells.com/rifle-par...t-catches/ar6951-bolt-catch-9mm-prod4884.aspx
 
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Is the bolt catch not making contact with the magazine follower ?

Or is the contact being made, but not being allowed enough movement of the bolt catch to be meaningful ( sometimes grinding some of the back off of the long portion on the bolt catch will "fix" that. )

IMHO, I would purchase a Colt brand 9MM bolt catch.. and grind the "finger" shorter to the appropriate length.

If your bolt catch is having issues with magpuls... it could do the same with other brand mags.

Not the first time I have heard of this problem, and usually not the mags fault.. but something out of spec on the lower... or tolerance stacking.

It may be your OEM one is out of spec, and a normal Colt spec'd one would fix it.

https://www.brownells.com/rifle-par...t-catches/ar6951-bolt-catch-9mm-prod4884.aspx
The PMAG followers do touch the catch finger but they dont lift the catch enough to hold the bolt , it`s currently a DPMS catch and I`ve ground some off it as it was hitting the side of the upper before it would hold the bolt , it will hold the bolt if I depress the catch by hand.
 
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I’ve only had 1 pmag break. It was a tan pmag, loaded, cold weather, dropped mag on the ground and broke the feed lip off. I think it was a gen 2 and apparently the tan mags in that generation used a slightly different polymer material that was weaker. Not sure on the validity of that, but all my other pmags have worked fine.
 
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The PMAG followers do touch the catch finger but they dont lift the catch enough to hold the bolt , it`s currently a DPMS catch and I`ve ground some off it as it was hitting the side of the upper before it would hold the bolt , it will hold the bolt if I depress the catch by hand.

Sounds like its out of spec in more ways than one. I would pick a new one up from brownells or whoever you normally buy parts from. Its easy enough to swap.
 
I’ve only had 1 pmag break. It was a tan pmag, loaded, cold weather, dropped mag on the ground and broke the feed lip off. I think it was a gen 2 and apparently the tan mags in that generation used a slightly different polymer material that was weaker. Not sure on the validity of that, but all my other pmags have worked fine.


I've heard first hand from very knowledgeable sources the same thing about the non-black PMAGS.
 
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