So I bought an ARC mag, totally dig the concept of having a shorter 10 round mag. Well it showed up today. Loaded it up with ten rounds of 6.5 cm annnnnddd now I have a stronge urge to return it. It will cycle throw the first five rounds somewhat ok, but then the spring bindes up, and the last five rounds just sit there. I’ve cycled fifty rounds now and there is no change. The mag is fresh out of the shipping package so it’s not dirty. Has anyone hand an ARC mag do this or does anyone have a solution to this problem?
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ARC Mags
- Thread starter Smith1175
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+1 on the LRI follower. Sucks you gotta spend more but the LRI follower fixes the issue.
This is a known issue... I started a thread back when they initially shipped with the same problem.
A lot of people has success shaving the front ears off the follower or using replacment followers.
A lot of people has success shaving the front ears off the follower or using replacment followers.
You and almost everyone else. In amazed they're still for sale with such a known issue
Pva followers run great in mine. Haven't had any issues running BR sized cases. Havent had any problems with dirt either.
Can't throw the baby out w/ the bath water. All mags can have issues or inherent draw backs with them. Most need to be tuned to your system. ARC needs to machine their own followers similar to LRIs, and they would have a great mag. The new MDT mags are nice, but the 10 round mag is still taller than the ARC 10 round mag. All this considered- I think I still prefer ARC mags over most other ones in an AICS cut action, but they aren't worth 90$ a pop. Especially when MDT blew them out for 30$ a pop on Black friday. I had to tune the MDT mags a bit but they as well for Impact and TL3 actions, but I would say MDT mags are the most plug and play I have used.
So I’m not bitching just to bitch, but holy hell does my ARC mag suck. Just got back from shooting trying to confirm data. And the mag failed every time, didn’t matter if I loaded 3, 5, or 10 rounds. Like everyone has been saying the follower randomly binds and all the rounds nose dive. Needless to say I just placed my order for the LRI follower. Hope it works.
As a side note I looked up the previous threads (hindesight is a bitch...) most of them where over a year old or so. Kinda blows me away that ARC hasn’t addressed this issue, which grinds my gears all the more that I didn’t do my research...
As a side note I looked up the previous threads (hindesight is a bitch...) most of them where over a year old or so. Kinda blows me away that ARC hasn’t addressed this issue, which grinds my gears all the more that I didn’t do my research...
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I have had 2 arc mags for a while that I couldn’t use in anything shame on me didn’t think I needed to research magazines that thouroughly just wanted the shorter footprint lesson learned but like others have said check out mdt mags working great for me arc makes some great stuff imo just not mags as of now
My mdt mags are working perfectly and what a ridiculously good deal on Black Friday. My arc mags work perfect as well although I bought them second hand with I think mk followers and unsure if anything else had been done to them.
My ARC mags have LRI followers and run great. As to ARC not addressing the issue; they are a small shop and have been slammed with manufacturing and releasing a near-flagship product; the Nucleus action.
To the best of my recollection, Ted/ARC has acknowledged the follower issue but nothing has been made available to the public yet.
To the best of my recollection, Ted/ARC has acknowledged the follower issue but nothing has been made available to the public yet.
It makes me wonder why he would continue with mags with such a known issue, especially after acknowledging it. As I recall, there was a lot of work making inconsequential details just right. The release was delayed by several months to get it perfect. They aren’t reliable, and are worse. They are reliably unreliable. Either they need to be fixed from ARC or the price needs to come down.
I was hoping that by this point that ARC would have released new followers... but at this point I think that it's a lost cause.
IT sucks to buy a $20 follower for a $80 mag.
IT sucks to buy a $20 follower for a $80 mag.
Two big issues with ARC mags...
Follower design is bad. You can file the "wings" off the follower and that will fix the nose down follower binding issue, or you can buy an aftermarket follower. Both will work similarly. However - neither fixes issue #2.
Mag feeding geometry (double stack converging into single stack) is highly susceptible to dust. Problem gets worse as the coating on the mag wears over time. Symptom is that rounds simply don't feed upwards in the mag. This is from rounds binding against mag wall, not from the follower, so you will eventually have this problem regardless of whether you buy the LRI follower or not.
I ran them for about a year, then they bit me and ruined a 2 day match, have since sold them all.
So what did you replace the ARC mags with ? And are you happy with your replacement?
I guess my ARC mags are defective, I haven’t had any issues at all even when they get dusty. I am running them in Tikka actions so I have plenty of clearance in front of the feed ramp. I know they don’t play well with the shorter Remington footprint actions. Two 6 Dashers and a .260 all feed with no mods. One thing that I think would have helped the issues with these mags is a full width spring. There’s just not much support twords the forward part of the follower where the bullet weight is.
I bought three of them to feed 6br and haven’t had a single misfeed in 6br with a bighorn Action or my 6.5 creedmoor with tikka action. Can’t say the same for aics
So my takeaway from this thread and others on this subject is you have a 50/50 shot they’ll feed perfect or not at all with any action/cartridge combo and I’m not saying anything is 100% reliable out of the box but I would have tried something else knowing what I know now
anyone else having issues with the ARC mags with Nucleus action? have a JH on order and will be looking at a few new mags and the ARC was on top of the list. Would seem they would work well with the action they developed...
I just got my Nucleus up and running, so low round count (40 rounds), however, I haven't had any issues with the ARC magazines with the Nucleus action. The feed lips pop the rounds up perfectly for controlled round feed with the Nucleus, even when feeding slowly it works great for me.
I've had the ARC mags since they were released and I haven't had any issues with them with my RPR either. However, I don't shoot in a dusty environment or anything. I'm still using the factory followers. I can see where things could get hung up with them, but I haven't had any issues.
I did order some MDT new double stack mags to compare, but they won't ship until late January. I really do like the magazine length a lot.
You'll know right from the get go if you have one that hangs up or not. How I found out that mine was going to be an issue was just by opening the package loading five rounds and pushing them out with my thumb and the follower bound up. A few hours later and 50 rounds of it not feeding at the range I ordered a LRI follower.
I have shot almost 1k rounds through my Nucleus, all with an ARC magazine. No issues but I do use the LRI follower
Update on the ARC mag, I installed the LRI follower and shot about 100 rounds with it. I had no binding at all but the rounds do slide forward to the point that the bolt will not strip the next round. So needless to say more tuning is required.
Dang... glad I found this thread. About to build up my Nucleus action and was planning to buy a couple ARC mags for it. Second guessing that now!
Would AI or MDT be a better bet? Stick with Magpul? Or take a chance that ARC will run fine in the Nucleus?
Would AI or MDT be a better bet? Stick with Magpul? Or take a chance that ARC will run fine in the Nucleus?
While arc mags were nothing but trouble in everything else they have been flawless in my nucleus through 300 or so rounds they do seem to work well with the actions from arc from what everyone I know is expierencing
Glad to hear the ARC mags seem to work great in the Nucleus action. That is the only action I would be using them in, so sounds like I will be happy if I get some.
I have yet to run ANY mag, that didn't need a little tweaking or TLC before they ran flawlessly. I've been running ARC mags exclusively this past 2018 PRS season and haven't had a single issue. However, I'm running MK Machining followers, tweaked the feed lips a bit and polished the inside of the mag and the sides of the springs where it would touch the inside of the mag with emery cloth. The Heatstroke was windy and dusty...not a single issue. The Finale (Day 1) was also windy and dusty...not a single issue. YMMV but with a little love the ARC mags are some of the best there is. IMO
Thanks BWB! Great to hear what others have successfully done to save time and frustration. I don't mind tinkering to get things to work... will definitely put some time into the things you mentioned on the ARC mags when I get them!
Feel free to PM me if you still run into any issues and I can walk you through what I did over the phone, if needed.
I sent my one defective mag back to ARC and they fixed it. Apparently the box itself was too narrow, so they replaced the box and everything works great. No need for an aftermarket follower, ARC was more than happy to help me fix it. Shout out to Justin at ARC for being great and providing a solution.
Glad to hear that ARC took your mag back and made it right.
Prefer to have it right when you get it, but comforting to see them take care of the issue.
Prefer to have it right when you get it, but comforting to see them take care of the issue.
Same here. I have 2 ARC mags that run great with my nucleus in a KRG Bravo. It’s just sad to hear that there are at least 2 ARC products that need new parts right out of the box.
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