Magazine Reliability

[Goju]

For the sake of those with less that stellar memories (mine) and new members who were not on the old board, could the community please comment on which mag sizes were the most reliable - and the ones to be avoided?

[warped]

I have all mince functioning well.

I had to tweak lips on the 26 round mags, the 17's as well plus those only hold 14-15 well, the tens had no problem at all.

The tens are really nice but the 17's allow for really heavy winter gloves and mag changes.

[longdayjake]

Yeah the 17's won't hold 17 at all. Why do they call them 17's? Is that how many will fit in there without a spring?

[GrantMan]

Yea I always wondered why they didn't call them 14 rounders.

I only load 10 rounds in the 17's. If I remember correctly I had problems with the 17's loaded full but they work great with 10 rounds.

Never had problems with the 10's are 26's

[Sgt 45]

And I thought I was going nuts. 14 in a 17 but they work better with 10 - YES! 10 rounders do hold 10 and 26's I think are about 23 or 22. Does Mag Pull make Grendel mags? I can't say as I'm overwhelmed with C Products, though they do work.

[CoolBarrelBill]

I do not think Magpul makes Grendel mags.

[ss355]

My "15" round mags won't hold 15 rounds without shortening the front leg of the follower. I tested this by removing the floorplate and holding the spring to provide some follower resistance while loading. At 15 rounds, the front leg of the follower extended perhaps a 1/16th of an inch below the bottom of the mag body. I shortened the front leg of three followers and can now cram in 15 rounds in those mags, but the spring is so tight at the 15th round that it's a bear to load that round. I'll probably just run all my 15 round mags with 14 rounds.

My 25 round mags take 25 rounds just fine. I might be able to squeeze in a 26th round, but it would be a really tight fit, and I'm happy with 25 rounds.

Interestingly, my 10 round 7.62x39 mag works splendidly with Grendel rounds.

[Goju]

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I remember that the 17's were a bit problematic. Wouldn't P-Mags in Grendel be great!

[noone]

I had a bunch of the C-products "17" round mags that didn't hold 17, so I sent them back. C-products was really nice about it and sent me ones that actually did hold 17 rounds. I wouldn't mind buying some 14 rounders if they were actually shorter, but there isn't any reason to buy 14 rounders that are the same size as the 17's..I can just download if I want.

All the mags (AA and C-products) function better if I deburr the inside of the feed lips just a whisper. It does smooth out feeding quite a bit with just a wee bit of work.

[michaelmew]

Interestingly, my 10 round 7.62x39 mag works splendidly with Grendel rounds.

So, you have 10 round 7.62x39 mags for the AR that feed with Grendel rounds? Do the 30 rounders jam after 10?

I read on another forum there is an adpater for AK47 mags to be used in AR15s, but I can't find them anywhere. Does anyone have any experience using the AK mag adapter for the AR?


-michaelmew

[ss355]

So, you have 10 round 7.62x39 mags for the AR that feed with Grendel rounds? Do the 30 rounders jam after 10?

I read on another forum there is an adpater for AK47 mags to be used in AR15s, but I can't find them anywhere. Does anyone have any experience using the AK mag adapter for the AR?


-michaelmew

Yes, my C Prod 10-round 7.62x39 mags specifically for the AR work just fine with grendel rounds. I don't have a 10-round Grendel mag, but my 14 round Grendel mags look just like the 10-round 7.62x39 mag except longer and the slightly different follower. The ribs on the sides of both mags look identical. It's difficult to measure the ribs with calipers and get exact readings because of the curved edges of the ribs, but as best I can tell the ribs are the same distance front to rear and the same depth. Now, I do have C Prod 30-round 7.62x39 mags for the AR and those do have a different rib pattern than the 10 round 7.62x39 mag. I haven't tried any Grendel rounds in those mags because I have 25-round Grendel mags.

I'm not sure anyone makes an adapter to run AK mags in an AR. I know that there are adapters that allow you to run a 223 AR mag in a 223-chambered AK, and there's an odd-looking AR lower that takes AK mags, but I haven't read anything about what you mentioned, Michael.

[mtn_shooter]

All my c-products mags function 100%. I had initial feeding issues before I dremeled m4 feed ramps into my upper. I think m4 ramps should be mandatory on 6.5 ar's. It makes sense, larger diameter case puts the bullet lower in the mag.

[RangerRick]

I've got a 30 round 7.62x39 mag that I use when fire forming. It will take a few Grendel rounds, but will jam up with more because the Grendel brass doesn't have nearly as much taper as the 7.62x39, so they just don't conform to the banana shape.

Rick

[pinzgauer]

Wouldn't P-Mags in Grendel be great!

I've given all my P-Mags to my son and have gone back to Alloy mags for 5.56. Not a problem with the pmags, just not a problem either with the standard AR alloys. (Cprod) Just not worth almost double the cost. Likewise, ever wonder why the pmags want you to store rounds with the cover in place to take the strain off the lips? Not a bad idea if you want a dust cover, but I'm more concerned about long term storage with plastic lips than the alloys. I have a 20 round colt mag from '68 or '69 still going strong and shot 2-3 times a month.

Likewise, between my brother & I we have 25+ Cprod grendel mags (mostly 25 round, (3) 17, and (1) ten) which have all worked flawlessly in 3 different rifles & carbines. Bought in lot's of 2-3 beginning in late 2008 through earlier this summer.

I know others experienced lip issues in early grendel mags, but for the last couple of years there was not much posted on mag issues other than people with problem rifles which could not get them to shoot with any mag. Same for capacity issues in some early mags.

One thing I have seen is that some (20%?) of our grendel mags are on the thick side and are very snug my sundevil billet lower. But are fine in milspec forged lowers. Not unusable, just won't drop free in some cases. But then again, PMags have the same issue. (Witness the mfg of the Euro spec Pmags)

my view: Grendel mag concerns are overblown.... Hard to beat a stainless grendel mag for $11 like the cprod

Just a data point

[Rust]

I had five months worth of problems and horrible customer service hassles with C-Products over them sending me mismanufactured mags. But at the end of it all the mags have worked flawlessly for me both for standard Grendel and my fireforming loads. Has anyone tried other Mfg's 6.8 mags for the Grendel? The C-products bodies are the same so I assume the others would likely work as well.

[longdayjake]

I was told that the 6.8 and 6.5 mags are identical but one has blue followers and the other has black.

[longdayjake]

I just loaded a 14 round 6.5 mag with a bunch of 6.8 rounds. It hand cycled all of them perfectly.

[ss355]

I was told that the 6.8 and 6.5 mags are identical but one has blue followers and the other has black.

I believe that. I have a C Prod 25-round 6.8 mag that looks identical to my C Prod 25-round 6.5 mags except for the follower color.

[noone]

The P-mags I have for my AR-10 style rifle don't allow me to seat bullets as long as the metallic ones will. I think it is because the plastic mags have to be thicker for strength, so the inside dimensions aren't as long as the metallic mags. As overall length is critical to accuracy, I would only use P-mags for the Grendels (if they were even made) if the mags had the same inside dimensions at metallic mags. I just don't want to give up the bullet seating length just for P-mags.

P-mags work fabulously well, and don't require any smoothing of feed lips to insure reliability, but I get hung up on the available overall cartridge length issue.

[myitinaw]

I believe that. I have a C Prod 25-round 6.8 mag that looks identical to my C Prod 25-round 6.5 mags except for the follower color.

Indeed, the blue follower is in the CProducts Grendel magazine.