Trouble with Alexander Arms E-Lander 17 round magazines

[Disciple]

I just got these and they are binding when I load them. With the magazine empty it is easy to push the follower all the way down so it's not a problem with the springs. Is anyone else having this problem? Is there anything I should check or try before I return them?

[Lemonaid]

E-landers have the shorted o.a.l. capacity of the mags I have tried, if your ammo is longer that 2.260 it might bind.

[Disciple]

Good idea, but COAL is 2.21" so that's not it.

[tdbru]

Disciple,
i've had no issues with my E-Landers. one thought, take a wooden dowel and fully compress the follower and let it return to the top about 20 times, and then see how well or not it loads.

Lemonaid is right that if rounds are too long they will bind, of course.

Tap the rounds to the back of the magazine a couple of times while you load them.

good luck.
-tdbru

[biodsl]

From my experience Elanders need to be broken in. I have a 17 rounder that I use every trip to the range. I tweeked the front of the lips out a bit and just kept using it. It works fine but I never load to full capacity. I have a few 25 rounders that I don't use. I just don't need the capacity and my ASC's work fine.

Load it to full capacity and let it sit a while. Use it and use it some more. Hopefully it will break in for you.

I may try one of the new 20 round Duramags.

[Klaus Von Richter]

I do not own any E lander mags but I see more post about reliability issues with them more than any make.

[VASCAR2]

E-Landers have very stiff springs! Load them to full capacity and let them set loaded till you go to the range. Shoot them till their empty, reload them and let them sit till you go to the range again. E-L mags are difficult to unload by hand when new without a tool to press down on the next to the top cartridge in the mag. With use my E-Landers have proven to be reliable mags.

[Wanderson]

[NugginFutz]

I bought my E-Landers when they first arrived on shore from Israel. They are the 17 round variety and the only issue encountered is the well known "full mag rattle".

New versions of the E-lander seem to be using a stiffer spring, but I wouldn't know why that would cause binding, unless the followers were tipping.

If you haven't already, try both methods of loading up the magazine: 1) where you slide each round in over the feed lip and 2) by pressing each round down into the magazine directly over the follower, in a fashion similar to how stripper clips load a 5.56 magazine (just one at a time).

I feel that method 2 would be less susceptible to cause follower tipping, which could result in the binding you're experiencing.

[VASCAR2]

My E-Lander mags only rattle when new. Once they wear in the rattle disappears.

[NugginFutz]

My E-Lander mags only rattle when new. Once they wear in the rattle disappears.

Hmmm. And here I thought I was just going deaf...

[VASCAR2]

[Wanderson]

[Rosecrans1]

Take them apart. Clean and spray with CLP or equivalent.
Load them to capacity and let them sit two weeks.
I had to do this to two out of three of mine. Why the one worked from the get-go is beyond me but...............it rattles when full! Mmmmmm.

[Disciple]

I appreciate the suggestions.

I tried loading these again today and I think only one magazine of three is really bad, and I had the luck to try that one first. I disassembled it and put a stack of 17 rounds in the body, then slid the stack back and forth with my fingers at each end and I could still feel it binding. The other magazines are significantly more difficult to load than other brands but now they did not feel pathologically so; I think my fingers were bruised from struggling with the bad one the other day making these seem worse. I'll see if I can continue to break these in, and I'll try to replace the problematic one.