Lancer L5AWM

[Krazykarl]

Forgive me in failing to do enough research before I spent the money last year. The 15 Lancer L5AWM 556 magazines that have been fully loaded for a year were finally utilized last week. After my experience during that range outing, a few searches on this forum and other web based sources, yes, the Lancer L5AWM 556 will fail on multiple attempts and with multiple magazines to feed from either an open or closed bolt. Multiple rounds were steeply lodged into the top of the chamber and damaged. Once the magazines were downloaded to 25, the failure to feed situation stopped.

[pag23]

I'll chime in....I have a few Lancer mags from 2016 to present.. I had a 2016 production Lancer mag in one of my guns loaded to 28 rounds on a closed bolt that failed to feed when pulling the charging handle and releasing. I tried Pmags, Okay, DH and a brand new Lancer mag all were fully loaded to 30 rounds so it was not the gun. The gun now has a Pmag Gen3 in it.

Needless to say that defective mag was destroyed with a sledge hammer. I did notice that the follower was tilted to the right when the rounds were unloaded, and the spring seemed bent to the right when the mag was taken apart.

[Hammer_Man]

I haven’t had any problems with mine, but I don’t store mine loaded either. I use Okay or Magpul Gen M3 for that.

[Defaultmp3]

I haven’t had any problems with mine, but I don’t store mine loaded either.

Same, never had any issues with the L5AWMs outside of some of the tabs breaking off near the feed lips, which Lancer has told me has no functional impact. That being said, these days I only use them for FoF, as the translucent ones are easier to verify that I'm loaded with Sims, and Lancer has slightly better customer CS for broken mags compared to Magpul IME (Lancer paid shipping for my replacement mags, Magpul had me pay out of pocket for shipping). A friend of mine did mention that the L5AWMs he'd seen in the field before had some feed issues due to the steel feed lips developing rust and thus causing additional drag when feeding, this was when he went through a rotation at JRTC.

[jackblack73]

I keep mags loaded in ammo boxes because I don't like to waste time loading mags at the range. I also have been shooting very rarely lately. That means I have mags that sit loaded 2 or more years. I have never had a problem with Lancer mags.

[Krazykarl]

Is there a particular date code that I should look for? In the haze of my memory, I thought I read somewhere that Lancer was aware of the issue. It had something to do with the steel feed lips and burrs. Lancer made a change. But I can't remember when this change occurred....

[georgeib]

I think I have in the neighborhood of 50 Lancer AWM mags, most of which are the translucent smoke. I keep my mags loaded to 30, and though I haven't actually fired all 50ish mags, I've never had any issues at all.

[mack7.62]

When it comes to magazines I let the USMC do the testing because they have the resources to do so. Only magazine USMC approved to go to war with is the PMAG gen 3 so that's good enough for me.

[bamashooter]

Have and use multiple brands in assorted guns. One of which is the Lancer L5 AAM. Have perhaps 10-12 and have shot them plenty with no issues.

[Hank6046]

I've got maybe 2 dozen Lancer Mags and never have had any issues with them, and that includes multiple classes. I've got a few loaded for years next to my defensive rifle and no issues at all from them.