Guns break.
Magazines are wear parts. Wear parts wear out and need to be inspected and replaced when they show signs of said wear.
In response to Grant Cunningham thinking I'm showing my inner Mall Ninja by buying P-Mags, I eagerly await Ed Foster's appearance in comments...
EDITED TO ADD: Although I realized that I do need to get up into the gun safe with a paint marker and number all my mags that I haven't yet numbered.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
Now you sound like that moron "El Tejon" on THR.
Pffft, like listending to him ever helped.
Shootin' Buddy
You wanted it Kiddo, you have it. Although I might disappoint you by my tepid response.
I think the folks at Pmag probably had a bad run. The pictures look rather convincing, and the gent writing it up seems quite professional.
Would they have been stoppage causing in the middle of some serious social intercourse? No, but they shouldn't have been there.
My guess would be a poor mix of resin with the chopped S-Glass used to stiffen the stuff. The area isn't a natural stress riser, so I think it was an injection problem due to low viscosity. I spent lots of time battling with the same problem on the Colt .22 Auto reciever back about 15,16 years ago.
The way PMag handled the problem is typical of those people, whom I respect more than almost anybody in the magazine business.
Eddie over at OKay mags and Barry Bergin at CProducts are the same way. The rest of the industry are primarily punch press operators with the attitude of "I'll get to it someday,but Jesus, do you know how much it costs to rework those dies?".
Bottom line, the best mag house in the business seems to have had an "Oh Shit" moment, almost certainly restricted to one lot of magazines. Dam Betcha' it won't happen again, and it certainly didn't happen with the three lots we tested at Smith & Wesson.
I could not freaking believe them. 6,000 rounds each, upside down, sideways, fired in weapons with oversized magwells and work latches. I did everything to them I could in a fair test, and could not get even one single stoppage attributable to the magazine.
And when the test was done, we gave away the mags to a couple of serious shooters over in the toolroom, and they're still running like Swiss watches last I heard.
So, yeah, one batch had the cracks, the gentleman's observation was a fair one, and the possibility of it's ever happening again with those people running the show are slim to none.
My guess is, they'll probably tighten up their mixing line Q.C., and do something about getting a wicking surface on the mold plug that forms that bolt clearance cut-out. And I'd be suprised if the problem isn't already addressed.
But if I'm ever in a SHTF situation, I want a Pmag in my rifle. Nothing on the planet feeds as well.
Now if they would only lift the forward faces of the lips about seventy thousanths, and go to that neat little scaled down Schmidt-Rubin type follower brand X is using, I could have PMags for my 6.8SPC when the barrel gets here.
Said barrel will have a twin, to be shipped somewhere out south of Mordor along with other agreed upon goodies as soon as it arrives.
Word verification is EXIMA, which I think is either an island near Naussau, or related to the heartbreak of soriasis.
"I think the folks at Pmag probably had a bad run."
Oh, I think that's a fairly safe read.
As I keep telling people, though, "Guns Break."
And they come back with "Oh, I'm using P-mags" or "I have a Glock" or "That's why I bought an AK!"
That's nice.
Guns break.
Everything breaks. What's important is
Maintain
Inspect
Test
Same goes for cars, bikes, can openers, chopsticks.
Some guns, like some cars, like some...anything, have a longer mean time between failure.
Anything I have to rely on, I rely on because I regularly inspect, maintain, and test it. I'd sure rather err on the side of caution.
I know the poster of the review. He's a SWAT officer and a hard trainer and a nut (in a good way). He's very professional and if you read his review he didn't put this out there to put down Magpul just to make people aware that you have to keep your head in the game and inspect your gear on a regular basis. I think Steve would be the first to say don't fall in love with your magazines, they are a consumable item.
Joe,
I didn't take his post that way at all. :)
"Although I realized that I do need to get up into the gun safe with a paint marker and number all my mags that I haven't yet numbered."
Harbor Freight sells little 110v engravers for 5 bux. Works on plastic too and that mark won't wear off like paint markers.
Keith
Tam,
I find the writing the model number of the gun that the magazine goes to helps as well.
Especially when you have magazines that don't go to a gun you own...
;)
The only magazines I have that don't live in guns are AR and 1911 mags. But I have a whole lotta those.
I can live with one magazine for my Webley Mk.I(N), but for working guns, the bare minimum is probably 20/gun if not more.
And now we know that there was at least ONE SCENE in "Last Man Standing" that Tam really dug on.
WV? shisdrip. Man, aside from noting that I thought it was spelled with a z, I don't even want to go there.
Post a Comment