The Issue of Magazines

Oh no...... not these magazines...... although I sure wish they haven't gotten up to today's common $8 to $10 price.....

No, I mean these "mags". Many of today's firearms feed from a "box-magazine". For my AR-15 clone, these are crucial. And in the world of ARs, there are a wide variety of them.

When the conversation is about to the Stoner designed AR, we of course start with the "GI" mags that were designed for the M-16 back in the '60s. Although originally designed to be disposable, it turned out that they pretty much last forever and are available all over in the new as well as used market at anywhere from $8-12 depending on capacity and condition.

However, the defacto standard today is the Magpul "PMag" of varying generations, colors and options such as side windows to show the number of remaining rounds. These guys typically sell for around $16-18 each at big box stores such as Academy and Bass Pro. They are so popular and reliable that they're commonly used by the military. 

Along with Magpul, there are now a wide range of mags of both metal and polymer construction. Regardless of material, they tend to run into the + or - $15 range new. Most "experts" seem to recommend having around 10 or so of the standard 30rd capacity. That would add up to somewhere around $180 after taxes. So, I started looking into other routes. 

That's just too much for me to spend at one time, so I decided to nickle and dime this problem. One thing that helped was that I just wanted something of quality regardless of brand. So, I started by bidding on and winning a set of three Troy BattleMags on GunBroker. They ended up being around $7ea after shipping brand new. 

Around that time, various local stores started running sales on Mission First Tactical mags between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I bought 2 for $12 from Bass Pro and 4 more for $10 when Academy put them on sale a week later. 

In the middle of this timeframe, I found a listing for some Hera (a German manufacturer not well know in the U.S.) H3 magazines on GunTrader for a really great price of $5 each. Unfortunately, when they arrived, the lips were bulged out enough so that they couldn't hold cartridges in and allowed the follower to pop out. The seller refunded the entire amount (8 mags) when I contacted him, but it wasn't a complete waste of time though. I decided that I'd let the manufacturer know what had happened. They responded immediately asking for details and a picture of the problem. Their second email related that they would be forwarding the information to their engineers in Germany as well as asking for my address so they could send me some of their new version magazine. 

A couple of weeks later, 2 of the Hera Arms H3t windowed 30 round magazines showed up in the mail. At this stage, I figured 11 mags (6 MFT, 3 Troy, 2 Hera) would be enough for me. Then I started thinking that I needed at least 1 of the smaller (10 or 20 round) mags would be a good idea.

You can probably see that when an AR is being shot from a bench, there's not a ton of room underneath it. therefore, having a smaller (less than 30 round) mag would be a good idea for that use. Unfortunately, I've found that they are generally more expensive than the typical 30 round versions, the most inexpensive I've been able to find being around $15 before tax or shipping. Yes, I get that $15 isn't a lot of money, but it sticks in my craw a little bit, so I kept putting it off (besides that they aren't typically stocked in stores). 

Then, this happened...... a 10 round Magpul Gen 3 PMag appeared. I was in a Pawn shop killing time because my son was at swim practice when I ran across some IMI (Isreal Military Industries) M855 "green tip" ammo in 30 round boxes when I saw this in the case marked for $10 as a ProMag (one of the brands that I don't usually buy). It's hard to tell, how much I paid for it, although $10 would have been a decent deal to start with. It got bundled together with 60 rounds of the M855 ammo, 48 rounds of 9mm FMJ and a 3DS Nintendo game for my son.... for $45 "out the door".... which is pawn shop speak for the amount of tax being included which is another 8%+ discount. My best guess is that it probably cost me about $8.

When it's all said and done, I've got about $95 invested in 12 magazines. That's less than half of the normal amount that a person should expect to pay just walking into a store and buying them. I'd say that 12 is probably enough for me, although I do still have the 8 "bad" Hera H3 Gen2 mags sitting around. Now, if I can just figure out how to get those lips reformed...