HK vs Lancer clear mags?

[dwhitehorne]

I've got both mags also. Lancers are fine and I use them on duty. I bought two of the clear HK mags when they first came out. The HK mags work fine for range mags but both of mine spit rounds out worse than the original Lancer mags when you drop them. If I do anything other than lightly click the mag in the mag well on an open both the top round always pops out. I guess mine are different from Montrala. David

[MichaelVain]

I have a bunch of the HK mags, I've never had problems with them in my KAC guns with either 5.56 or 300BLK. Needless to say, they work great in my MR556.

[montrala]

I guess mine are different from Montrala.

I would check those mags on cracks near back of feed lips.

I can bang on my HK mags bottom and it will let round loose no earlier than on 3rd hit. Lancers do it for me on 1st hit every time (while they are flawless for me in any other account). Of course in both cases, when testing, I use considerable force, more than what I use when seating mag. So I'm writing about possibility of rounds spill in case of excessive force used when seating mag, not something that happens all the time. I'm still 100% confident with using Lancers, especially when I'm aware of potential problem and take this into account.

I can confirm that when I dump partially loaded HK mag on the ground, sometimes top round tilts up and ends being straight up. But never had it fly out of the mag.

[Metric Matt]

Lancers are my preferred plastic mag, lots to recommend them, like I have not yet seen them tight in a receiver, being able to get a round count or a rough count at-a-glance, and oh yeah, they work! Steel feed lips sure seem like a plus.

My .300 BLK interest is back-burner at this time but I found Lancers seemed to work better in that caliber than some others.

All that said-- any and all molded mags are for the here and now. They help preserve my metal mags which will still be good in 50 years. I doubt any of the plastic ones will be.

I'm curious, what makes you think a properly stored plastic mag will not be good in 50 years? I'm aware that heat and UV exposure does degrade many plastics, but is there something else that causes degradation over time?

[ETSGroup]

I'm curious, what makes you think a properly stored plastic mag will not be good in 50 years? I'm aware that heat and UV exposure does degrade many plastics, but is there something else that causes degradation over time?

I can tell you that good plastics, especially some of the newer technology holds up very well even in UV and other harsh environments. For some reason people have this notion that plastics all get old and fade color, get brittle and crack and junk like that. I'm sure this comes from some of the older plastics on cars that sucked and such. But make no mistake, top tier plastic magazines stored in someone's house are going to be more than functional many many years from now. Look at glock frames. I have one here from the mid 80's that is perfectly fine and that gun has over 20k rounds through it. And that is from 30 year old plastic technology...

[plouffedaddy]

FWIW---I've never had an issue with a Lancer mag but I've had 2x HK mags split/crack about a year after I got them. Don't know if it was a bad batch or what but it's a data point.

[Metric Matt]

I can tell you that good plastics, especially some of the newer technology holds up very well even in UV and other harsh environments. For some reason people have this notion that plastics all get old and fade color, get brittle and crack and junk like that. I'm sure this comes from some of the older plastics on cars that sucked and such. But make no mistake, top tier plastic magazines stored in someone's house are going to be more than functional many many years from now. Look at glock frames. I have one here from the mid 80's that is perfectly fine and that gun has over 20k rounds through it. And that is from 30 year old plastic technology...

Thanks, that's what I figured. I can see where someone would get the idea that plastics will fail after a certain period of time though. Having worked on German cars for close to 20 years now I can tell you that the glass fiber reinforced plastics used on cooling system components will basically turn to dust after around five or six thousand heat cycles.

[ETSGroup]

FWIW---I've never had an issue with a Lancer mag but I've had 2x HK mags split/crack about a year after I got them. Don't know if it was a bad batch or what but it's a data point.

Yes, I believe they are made from some kind of poly carbonate. Most PC will become brittle over time unless specially formulated to withstand UV and such.

[montrala]

Polish military had this problem with white, translucent mags for Beryl. Especially in Iraq. They developed cracks very fast. Being AK-style mags they worked even in this condition, but not inspired much confidence with troops. FB Radom changed to different formula (and now in green/blue tint) plus removed steel inserts (they were points for cracks to start developing) and I still have to see cracked "new style" mags. Still, those are AK style mags - thicker walls and feed lips.

And I've seen 2 cracked HK polymer mags as well. HK gave bunch of mags as give-aways on 3Gun matches for people who competed with HK. Those 2 mags that cracked (one got crack on "spine" and near feed lips, on second whole feed lip separated) were from one guy and it took him like a week to destroy them. No one else managed to do this so far here. Honestly, I do not know what to think: bad batch or guy is extremely unlucky. Anyway, I check mine for cracks every time I load them and nothing so far.

[fmiq]

Love my Lancers