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]

Same, the elanders need some break in, I always start with 12 rounds first time out then bump up a round or two.
My newest e-lander 17 still sticks past 14 rounds but when empty the follower never seems to bind. Still haven’t opened it up yet though to check it, I like to let em break in dry before trying a dry lube to speed the process.

Gotta admit, I have zero break in issues with CPDs and just took some 20 round CPD/Duramags to the range and they’re still easier to load on day one vs my oldest e-landed. Not that I’ve had any malfunctions with e-landers, and once they’re broken in, are heavy gauge steel with STRONG springs so should hold up well.

But CPD 20 are much easier to use off a bench over the 26s.

[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]

Well, Nugg, never thought about that but it’s a possibility. My hearing might be worse than I thought, hadn’t even noticed the rattle while wearing my Peltor electronic muffs.

[Wanderson]

Well I took a look at my elander that wouldn’t load past 14 rounds and I think it was a bad follower.
I had spare e-lander followers from replacing my 5.56 e-landers with Magpul followers. They looked identical to the follower in my 6.5grendel mag including a ‘1’ stamped on the bottom, but one of them had a ‘2’ but was otherwise identical. So I dropped in the ‘2’ follower and it takes 17 rounds now.

[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.:confused:

[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.

[VASCAR2]

I had one 24 round E-Lander that had rough welds on the spine which was dragging on the follower. I smoothed the rough welds with a hand file and the magazine was gtg. There are other reports of E-Lander mag bodies not being aligned properly when welded causing issues. There are other reports beside my issue of rough spot welds on the interior of the body. Some people report feed lips being in the improper position and need tweaking.

It sucks that these poor quality mags reach the public. You either try to return them to the vendor, fix them yourself or trash them. Fortunately I’ve been able to fix all my 6.5 Grendel mags.

[Disciple]

I thought I would avoid problems like that by buying branded Alexander Arms magazines, but at least one slipped through quality control. Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone.

[VASCAR2]

I have 33 AR-15 magazines for the 6.5 Grendel. I have six original C Products, seven ASC, 18 E-Lander and two new 20 round CPD Duramags. These mags include capacities , 5, 10, 15, 17, 24 and 25 rounds. I don't have any of the 26 round curved CPD-Duramags.

Having one faulty ASC and one faulty E-Lander is not good but quality control is the issue and not design. The E-Lander mags use a heavier gauge of stainless steel for the bodies but are durable. The E-Lander mags are heavier, have less room for cartridge overall length and harder to use when new. Once worn in my E-Lander mags have been reliable.

[Bobjones]

I believe E-landers are steel, not stainless. I only recently started shooting Grendel but seem to like my e-lander better than my duramags but can't say either are bad. No issues other than the duramags being tough to cram the 20th round in when new.

[VASCAR2]

I just looked and AA states heat treated steel mags for the E-Lander 6.5 Grendel mags. Alexander Arms says they encountered failures trying to use 6.5 Grendel mags with 6 ARC and say their E-L mags are optimized for the 6.5 Grendel.