[Vesarius]

Has anyone seen or tried these? I was looking at windowed PMAGs or EMAGs and someone suggested them to me.

http://www.cabelas.com/15-15-countd...-921B-E011-8E88-001B21631C34&mr:referralID=NA

I have never seen them in action and was really in the market to buy a lot of 10 or so and don't want to spend that much and be stuck with that many if they aren't worth it. I suppose I could always buy one and try it, but I figured I would ask around first.

 

[DSM]

Never have tried them nor have seen one in person. My take is what do I gain by adding parts or mechanisms to the operation? Do I introduce another failure point that could gum up the mag if it fails? But still, seems pretty neat. Until they can make one like on Aliens I'll pass.

A windowed PMag is a couple bucks cheaper however, that'd be my vote.

 

[Vesarius]

That was pretty much my first thought.

 

[ACRFan]

The are made by CAA or whatever they are called now. I would not waste my time. The windowed pmag is fine. These things are junk. Everything made by CAA (which is an airsoft company) is junk.

 

[kjsl105]

No no tell us how you really feel about CAA, ACRFan lol. (I'm with u)

It's cool, maybe even convenient if you have the oppotunity/luxury of time to scan for that little number or process the color. IMHO if you were actually enganged in a situation (life threatening or competition) where you're pretty amped, the less you have to focus on extra details the better.

+1 for Windowed Pmags

 

[USMCfor20]

Looks like a gimmick to me. I agree with kjsl105, under stress that counter is too much to focus on.

 

[Warpdrv]

Ahhhhh When your out - Your OUT - time for a new MAG !!!!

I always know when Im out - No more BANG BANG !!!

 

[Vesarius]

Its funny you guys brought this back up because yesterday I went to the range with the guy who was trying to get me to buy some of them( I just went with windowed PMAGS, btw). He brought a few with him and I tried them in both his AR and my ACR.

Overall, I don't think they were junk, but they weren't outstanding either. I ran about 120 rounds through them and didn't have any failures. As far as the looking for the exact number of rounds, even at the range I didn't find that to be useful. However, the color coded indicator was sort of useful. It sticks out enough so you at least know when the mag is getting low(which anyone who shoots full mags enough should know when they are getting low). Overall the plastics they were made of were pretty good, but not as good as Magpul polymer. The magazines seemed to have a more glossy finish than the PMAGS, which made me wonder if they would get slippery when they got wet or greasy. The major problem I had with them is that they are a huge pain in the ass to take apart. Because the base plate is actually what the counter is attached to, you cant use ranger plates or other magazine accessories on them.

Oddly enough, the only magazine that gave me any issues is the one that came with the ACR. It doesn't want to catch the bolt and hold it to the rear when the magazine ran out.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I might check them out if they were made by Magpul, but not from a company I have no experience with. I get the concept of easy inventory and knowing for sure whether or not it's time for a tactical mag change, but that is negated if the normal function of the mags is questionable.

 

[RussTBullet]

I strongly recommend against them. I went to a IDPA pistol and rifle match last month and there was a guy there (also with a ACR) who had 2 Pmags and 1 of those CAAs. Out of 65 rounds that day, he had 4 malfunctions and guess what mag cause the trouble? (Not the Pmags). Anyway, I guess really isnt that bad, but why have 4 malfunctions when you can have none? I also prefer the side window, but whatever, its just my 0.02 cents.

 

[ACRFan]

Look at the range it doesn't matter. Also, if you have been in combat, most of the time you are only shooting a mag and a half. Because you should be trained or training to only shoot at targets you see unless you are suppressing. When I was in the Navy, we would use tracers to make ourselves aware of low ammo.

Here is the break down:

When loading the magazine, the first 3 rounds are tracers. The next 2 rounds are non tracer. The 6th round is a tracer. So when you see the first tracer, you know you have 5 rounds left. 3 tracers in a row and you better have your hand on the next mag. We would even sometimes play around with the 11 round in the mag indicating you have 10 rounds, then 5 rounds and then 3 consecutive tracers as the last 3 rounds.

You see tracers are excellent tools to know when you are getting low. You are looking down the barrel so you will see the tracer. I do this with my "SHTF" loads now. Can't train with them at the range as my range (most are this way) do not allow tracers.

Just a little trick of the trade.

 

[Vesarius]

Look at the range it doesn't matter. Also, if you have been in combat, most of the time you are only shooting a mag and a half. Because you should be trained or training to only shoot at targets you see unless you are suppressing. When I was in the Navy, we would use tracers to make ourselves aware of low ammo.

Here is the break down:

When loading the magazine, the first 3 rounds are tracers. The next 2 rounds are non tracer. The 6th round is a tracer. So when you see the first tracer, you know you have 5 rounds left. 3 tracers in a row and you better have your hand on the next mag. We would even sometimes play around with the 11 round in the mag indicating you have 10 rounds, then 5 rounds and then 3 consecutive tracers as the last 3 rounds.

You see tracers are excellent tools to know when you are getting low. You are looking down the barrel so you will see the tracer. I do this with my "SHTF" loads now. Can't train with them at the range as my range (most are this way) do not allow tracers.

Just a little trick of the trade.

Yep...learned that same one in the Marines.

And at the range I go to it does matter somewhat. They call cease fires at random times (its supposed to be every 15 minutes but they basically do it whenever someone else shows up that needs to set targets) and I have to unload. I like to know whats in those mags roughly. I also just started running some competitions and I like to pre-load all of my mags for whatever the competition sets are going to be. Some require reloads at certain points and being able to see how many rounds are in each mag before I load them makes sure I dont put the wrong one in.

 

[busboy]

Yep...learned that same one in the Marines.

And at the range I go to it does matter somewhat. They call cease fires at random times (its supposed to be every 15 minutes but they basically do it whenever someone else shows up that needs to set targets) and I have to unload. I like to know whats in those mags roughly. I also just started running some competitions and I like to pre-load all of my mags for whatever the competition sets are going to be. Some require reloads at certain points and being able to see how many rounds are in each mag before I load them makes sure I dont put the wrong one in.

Tracers work both ways. My old infantry battalion had a similar SOP for tracer load outs. It took one firefight for us to dump our tracers into their own mags so we could choose when we wanted to mark targets and so forth.

As for the countdown mags, I have two of them. Never had an issue with them, and they're a step up from the standard issue STANAGs or whatever they're called. I haven't done any torture testing on them, but they seem as robust as a PMAG. The follower is particularly good in them. The count down feature is nice as well, especially the color coding system. One of the two mags doesn't keep an accurate round count on the bottom window, its off by about five, though both back windows work.

 

[DSM]

Tracers work both ways. My old infantry battalion had a similar SOP for tracer load outs. It took one firefight for us to dump our tracers into their own mags so we could choose when we wanted to mark targets and so forth.

Another thing with tracers is that since ball to tracer ratio like 4:1 is almost universal if you've increased the tracer ratio it can give the appearance of more bullets in the air. Might buy a second or two while breaking contact.