top-quark.blog
Alive!!
Thu, 08/05/2004, 03:19You see that subtitle of mine, under "top-quark :: blog"..? That's not a joke.. Instead of reading this blog, I suggest you take up a number of other equally-rewarding hobbies, such as:
-Watching paint dry
-Watching grass grow
But, to reward my occasional reader, I'll sometimes put up morsels of goodness. In truth, I've had the photos for this installment prepared for some time, but.. writing's no fun.
Today, we have... Magpul Industries' brand new, fancy-schmancy anti-tilt followers for M16 magazines! Make no mistake, these aren't your green followers that are so last-century.. These are a brand new design, and quite the feat of modern engineering.
After the Sanchez/Cooper magazine issues which prompted the redesign of the traditional black followers, the US military adopted a new green-colored follower, with anti-tilt features. Unfortunately, someone overdosed on crack, and only did a half-assed job. The result is typically military; it fixes the problem, but just barely. If tilted too much, you can quite easily jam a green follower. It may be a 30 second fix, but if you're loading your magazines in a battle environment, your situation is probably time-sensitive. Solutions exist already; H&K, in overhauling the ailing British SA80, has come up with some new high reliability mags, with some sort of chromed metal anti-tilt follower. This is about ideal, but because of the Clinton "assault weapons" ban, citizen shooters can't buy these new normal-capacity magazines. Also, they're very expensive, at around $40 for law-enforcement.
Magpul, being an innovative company, has created something of an interim, or upgrade option in the polymer anti-tilt followers. Also, as a new company connected to users pretty directly by the internet, they've been exposed to the concept of the "beta test". So, lucky us, Magpul made available for a short time a limited number of "beta" Magpul followers. These are colored red, and made in a different process than the production followers. They're also made to be dimensionally close to the magazine size; plainly-stated, that means they're kinda tight. Sand and grit could potentially be a problem, but these are test pieces, and not made for combat.
Here it is; the top of this wondrous lump of plastic. The really nice thing about these is that they're molded with Teflon; this makes them very slick, and improves the smoothness of feeding. I say they're worth it just for the slickness.
Compared to the now-standard green follower, the Magpul followers have a lot more "beef" to them. This makes them far more resistant to tilt. Sharp/experienced eyes will also note that these are molded in such a way as to account for the magazine ribs. Normal followers require a degree of finesse (or brute-force) in getting them in/out of the magazine body. With Magpul followers, you simply insert them straight-in. It's easy, but mine lost some plastic on insertion. I don't count it against the followers, as magazine tolerances do vary, and it doesn't impair function.
The followers in their natural environment...
Update!
(kinda contrived, since I'm writing this whole article now..)Magpul has now started to sell production versions of the follower. How do they vary from beta? The production followers are by comparison slightly undersized for reliability, and are manufactured apparently in a more consistent manner (no shenanigans). They're also colored Coyote Brown, as popularized by Cavalry Arms.. I guess that makes them more suitable for tactical use, but that could be debated.. at any rate, it lets a user distinguish the production from the (rare) beta versions.
Coyote brown-a-riffic.
I'm guessing some people don't understand why these exist.. Just try doing this with a green or black follower. They'd bind up, or go totally nuts. With these, you could push the follower all the way to the bottom, and it still won't jam or bind. It's great. Same goes for the red ones.
Some empirical observations:
1) The red followers weren't made as consistently; I had a couple with odd bumps that interfered with proper operation. Actually, the mags wouldn't work at all. Magpul switched these out for me, though; great customer service. The production followers are very, very consistent.
2) The red followers, though theoretically more prone to sand/grit than the coyote followers, have functioned perfectly. I don't baby my equipment, either, and often drop my mags in the jagged rock/dirt we have in the mountains. The coyote ones should be even better, but I haven't used them much.
3) The followers have another nice feature; they can resurrect crappy mags. Back when I was stupid(er), I bought a couple USA mags; they never worked right, because they'd always tilt. With these, they function great... which is bad, because I look like a dumb n00b. *shrug*
Overall, these are highly recommended! If you look at reliability factors in a modern weapon, the weakest point in any system is the magazine system. With an $800+ rifle, you'd be insane not to spend a little extra to positively ensure perfect function.
Disclaimer: I don't work for these people. If I did, I wouldn't whine as much as I do about being poor.