Fuck the 30-40F, go anywhere just under lake michigan during the worst part of winter where the windchill can be as bad as -30F to -50F and see how long they survive if we want to do a torture test
@@honkhonk1555 Have you never purchased a mag for anything other than an AR? Even steel pistol mags can be 60 bucks a pop. Even at around 22 dollars that is an insanely reasonable price for a quality rifle mag.
I bought a couple for my buddy to run on the machine gun rentals at his range to see how long the springs hold up, this was a great video on external abuse
@matthewsartin7265 Yea, everybody's main concerns seemed to be the translucent polymer, so that's what we tested! But MG rental mags will for sure put those springs to work!
It really goes to show how 6 decades of experience refining a weapon platform can lead to excellent magazine performance...with the refinements to the mag follower probably being the most significant factor. After a while, the spring, feed lip geometry, and what surfaces require various levels of slick internals vs textured externals reaches consensus. It probably would have been useful to include a Magpul gen 3, an aluminum USGI and a steel USGI as additional reference points.
I like lancer mags, but Magpul's a little more GWAT tested and proven so I'm kinda excited for these. Though this test goes to show that the AR platform is significantly more durable than the M16A1's initial reception suggested, but the pattern has never lived down that first year of field use. Also, the lancer was never gonna survive the weight drop, you can feel the flex of the polymer when you grip it tight. They put the steel lips on it because at the time of design polymer wasn't strong enough clear to have a steel mag form factor and be translucent.
Love my PMAGs but they’re M3s. I believe the cracking down the spine was an issues with the M2s that was supposedly fixed with the M3s. So far I’m liking the TMAG. I like my 556 Lancer but I’ve had issues with the 7.62 Lancers.
I've had a couple M2s crack down the spine like that, but never knew it was an issue with that specific generation. I figured I was just too rough with them lol
@@damn_skippy IIRC the M3 was made specifically to fix that issue. That and make the baseplate more durable. I know that was a known issue with the M2s when dropped like in this video and even leaving the mags loaded for extremely long periods of time without the dust cover installed. I believe the M3s completely fixed the issue and they said that's why the dust cover isn't included anymore and not needed.
i'm interested in whatever madman designed the original Colt/Armalite pattern that was so perfect it could be adopted as THE standard, and adapted by so many brands in so many ways and still hold up to ridiculous levels of abuse like this. we should have that guy design airplanes.
I went from running standard GI mags, to Pmags, to lancer mags while in the military and never had a lancer or pmag fail on me while I had plenty of GI mags fail. mind you they were way more used than my lancer or Pmags but still. Did have issues though with Pmags lips breaking and splitting. It's why I moved to Lancer mags.
@PairedArc0500 never had the shearing issue, but don't doubt it. As for the over insertion, I had the same issue, but that was all mags. That just comes down to how hard you're slamming them into your rifle. I do know magpul remedied that with a tab on the back of the magazine. The issue I had with that is indexing a mag during a tac reload, and it would sometimes get caught on the pouch when pulling a mag. Unfortunately, pros and cons to most things in the firearms industry.
So I expect to see Magpul and Lancer at the top of the pile, so no great surprise there. This seems to suggest that Magpul did wait for their polymer formulation for transparency to be right before releasing see thru mags. Good on them. Again, this is what I have come to expect. No surprise. All of the others also held up fairly well. That was a bit of a surprise. The one that stood out to me while watching, was Amend2. My opinion of their mags just went up a bit. If I'm paying, it's still going to be a Magpul or Lancer, whichever I can get the best sale on that day, but..... Having watched the video, if someone is giving away some Amend2s or I see one forlorn and abandoned on the side of the road... I might just rescue it and take it home. The video was a bit of a slog, but for a good cause. Testing can't be done in 5 minutes. Good video and thank you!
Best assessment of the video so far and 100% right on the money. It wasn't a surprise that the Magpul and Lancer were on top. But it was, however, a surprise they held up to what I put them through. The others holding up as well as the major brands was an even bigger surprise, especially the Amend 2. KCI did very good as well. Overall I just wanted this to give some solidarity to why Magpul was claiming they waited to release them. And yes I agree kind of boring but I tried to speed up as much as I could whilst not leaving out the proof and data.
@@TylersGuns No worries! It was as long as it needed to be to serve the purpose of the content. Unless things are actively blowing up, testing usually is not a super exciting process. Recognizing that reality is in no way a criticism of your editorial choices. If I'm going to offer an over inflated opinion of someone else's work, I will say that I like it less when it seems like the editor of a video is more concerned with some arbitrary runtime than the content itself, just because some RU-vid stat said that people tune out after X number of minutes. If the content is good, I'll sit there like a stump and take it. Just my opinion, of course. Like I said, It was as long as it needed to be to serve the purpose of the content. Good job!
@@TylersGuns great video, good info and fun to watch! Not surprised Magpul seems to have gotten it right...at this point they have too much invested in their reputation to lose consumer and military confidence by releasing something of lesser quality
@MrBcj7 Thank you! Yea, I wasn't surprised to see they survived the initial testing, but I was surprised to see how well they did and still fed after all of it! And there was enough internet concern about the durability to warrant a full video on it I thought.
@@GRIZZLYGRIZZGGI’ve had a lot of feeding issues with my 7.62 lancers but my 556/300Blk lancer mags have been 100% so far. I’m still grabbing a PMAG if I need a serious use mag though. They’re just far more proven for me.
Everyone been telling me the Lancer mags were trash despite years of reliable use. It was like as soon as the Tmag released they were just plain garbage.
The gun community is full of assholes and forum fairies. I don’t think there’s any group that’s more opinionated and divisive, apart from maybe politics. That’s why tests like these are so valuable, it’s based on fact and not opinion.
Imagine not having metal feed lips. And being more expensive than Lancers to boot. I’m good :) Side note. I will not run any Amends. I bought some on sale years ago and just kept them loaded in one of the safes with all the others. Noticed about a month ago at the range that the feed lips were separating and it wouldn’t run. Checked all of them when I got home and they’re all separating. 28 in each mag btw. Won’t ever touch another mag without metal feed lips. Even though I’ve never had an issue with my pmags. Won’t take the chance.
Have you tried torture testing LANCER mags for the AR? The came out with a new gen. Edit: I posted this before watching thinking he was just doing the Tmag.
Any issues with the Tmag not seating on a closed bolt? Mine won’t, and I have to slap it in even if it’s not completely full. EDIT upon finishing the video I noticed you only ever inserted the Tmag when the bolt was locked to the rear. I don’t think it was intentional, I’m just curious if you noticed the same problem as me and others have.
So I just came across people having this issue last night. And I've tried to replicate it but all my TMAGs don't seem to do that. I can seat the magazine on a closed bolt even though that's not something I'd normally need to do I can do it and the magazine stays in the gun.
This was an issue I’ve had with the Lancers. The springs need to work in as they are tight. While I don’t have the issue with my new TMAG I did notice it’s a bit stiffer to insert on a closed bolt compared to my regular M3 PMAGS.
I think if you watch the weight drop test. Weight hits dofferent spots as mentioned. Weight hitting lips where follower is is def going to hurt it more than hitting body.
I can't wait to see the cope coming from the elitist picks on Reddit. Sincerely the T mags released they have been constantly shitting on Lancer. My Lancers have been working perfectly. They are also half the price, shorter, look better, have color options, and have been readily available for quite a while. The main reason to wait for T mags is if you want to be part of the circlejerk.
Why no ETS gen 2! I've never seen any mag live up to the torture testing that the ETS mags can withstand. It's weird that you guys didn't include that in your lineup considering it's the one that should be measured against
This was very entertaining and informative. However, with the additional testing possibility, I would stick with strictly realistic endurance testing. How about load each magazine and drop from a "rifle-height" as if it fell from a rifle. Then test fire the mag. Repeat with the exception of alternating between dropping the mag feed lips down and baseplate down. Keep track of how many rounds are dislodged. Dropping a heavy, fully loaded magazine is a realistic test. Repeat the test until 1 mag remains with no failures or a realization that several magazines are not going fail within the monetary confines of your testing constraints.
Because not all of us just only have ar15s that take stanag style mags, there are Galils Tavors Augs VHS-2s that may require the seating position of a pmag over the position of the lancers
Working at a gun store, i pulled a lot of ets mags broken straight out of the package. Our owners kept buying them because we got a better margin on them even though everyone specifically wanted pmags.
I used to have a bunch of ETS Glock mags, and ended up breaking them all eventually. They were super brittle, and absolutely the worst at retaining ammo
Magpul for decades has refused to make transparent mags because they couldn’t make them as strong and durable as opaque mags. Polymer tech has come a long way, but at the end of the day, I feel like it’s still just a gimmick to boost sales. Transparent mags are a range toy, not a serious use accessory. People have been shooting semiautomatic firearms for 145 years without ever needing to know exactly how many rounds are left. If the gun goes dry, you reload it. If you have enough time to look at your mag to see how many rounds are left, it’s faster to just do a tac-reload. You don’t have to look at your mag and wonder how many rounds are left, unless it’s your last mag, at which point, you are already screwed. 😂
I'm certainly not here to justify the practicality of a see through mag. I only bought them because I liked the look and knew they would feed under the most brutal circumstances. There are definitely other options and products out there with a more proven track record. I wouldn't suggest this to anyone as their only set of mags. But for those that are interested in them I wanted to put it through hell to either prove or disprove the concerns about the durability of the translucent material.
@@TylersGuns that’s my point. They’re a range toy, and only for looks and aura points/ swag/ tacticool factor/ whatever the kids are calling it nowadays. . If you wouldn’t suggest them to be someone’s only set of mags, then you don’t really recommend them for any kind of serious use. And that’s all I’m saying. Nobody has ever “needed” transparent mags. I like magpul. They make good shit, and I trust their products. I just don’t haven’t ever seen the appeal of transparent mags, except to “look cool.”
@@suitedandbooted6612 I wouldn't recommend them to someone as their only set of mags because there are mags out there that functionally perform the exact same at half, if not 1/3 the price. These are not just a range toy in my opinion. Regardless of why I purchased them I would use these in any serious scenario based on my experience with them and testing their durability. A range toy in my own definitely is something I wouldn't trust with my life, but is fun to shoot. I trust these mags will perform if and when I ask them to. I am not here to sell them to you I am simply here to address any concerns over the durability of the translucent material they are made of. The appeal is the looks of course. But they are a reliable, and well built magazine.
@@TylersGuns I get it. When I shop for mags, I want reliable mags and as many as possible. I don’t want to pay extra for cool looking magazines. Cool-looking mags are not a flex for me. Personally, I’d rather have more standard magpul mags, than newer but fewer, more expensive magpul clear mags. Just my opinion.
