Lancer L5 AWM Advanced Warfighter Magazine initial review
I just picked up a couple of these mags from Rainier Arms to try 'em out for awhile and see how they stack up against my Pmags and USGIs. These are "Translucent Smoke", they also offer them in Translucent Black, Translucent Brown, and Opaque Black, FDE, OD, and Foliage Green. I haven't been able to shoot these yet, but considering Lancers rep I'm sure they'll function fine. Finding a reliable mag from one of the big quality producers (Magpul, Tango Down, or Lancer) isn't the issue (they're boringly reliable) as much as finding the mag that has the features that works the best for you. So here it goes...
First Impressions: Seem extremely well made and lightweight. Stippling seems to be a good combination of "grippy" without being "holy **** this tears everything up" aggressive. It's easy to get a good grip on these.
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...herz/026-4.jpg
They disassemble extremely easily with the tip of a 5.56 round
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...herz/001-6.jpg
Anti-tilt Follower design, couldn't get the follower to bind with my finger to save my life.
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...herz/007-6.jpg
Floorplate, note no rubber like previous L5's
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...herz/009-5.jpg
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...herz/005-5.jpg
Feedlips are steel and are finished in a uber non-reflective color
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...herz/036-2.jpg
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...herz/028-1.jpg
Mag body has indicators for 20 and 30 round mark
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...herz/027-4.jpg
They locked back the bolt like they're supposed to, and dropped free easily from my LMT lower.
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...herz/025-2.jpg
But I did notice one drawback, it's much harder to lock the magazine in with the bolt forward than either a fully loaded Pmag or a USGI downloaded to 28. I even down loaded the AWM to 28 and still found it required a considerably harder "smack" to lock in. It might just be that the springs in it are new and not "broken in" yet, so we'll see if it gets any easier.
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...herz/045-2.jpg
Here's a size comparison with Lancer AWM, PMag, HK, and USGI
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...herz/040-1.jpg
All in all it seems like a nice mag, but the difficultly in locking in a fully loaded mag with the bolt forward makes me a little leery of replacing my USGI or Pmags with these. I really like the feel of them as well as the ability to quickly peek down and have an idea of how many rounds you've got left while also having steel feed lips (I've had Pmag lips fail before). We'll see if the steel feed lips hold up better than the HK mags. I look forward to putting these in regular rotation in my training and see how they hold up over time...