Plastic Rifles

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

I only had two weapons malfunctions in combat.The first one was in Baghdad, reacting to contact when a sniper took some shots at our COP entry control point while I was Sergeant of the Guard on a non patrol day. I was shooting an M4, and I had a real bitch of a double feed coming out of a reload (bad magazine). Never pulled out my gerber so fast and smooth in my life, and whipped the stuck rounds right out and got a fresh mag in. It was truly one of those slow-mo moments.
I ditched that bad magazine, and ended up privately purchasing (for a pretty penny mind you) a bunch of HK steel, sand resistant mags.
The second was in Afghanistan, playing escort for a military working dog and his handler. We were looking for weapons caches and the like. That tour, I was a designated marksman, so my primary was an m14 EBR, but I also had an m9 that I carried all the time.
We were working through this little village, and I had to keep the local dogs from getting aggressive with our dog.
Those who know, you know...but for everyone else, the dogs in Afghanistan are ****ing enormous, aggressive, and make a 90lb German shepherd look like a little wimp. So, we'd have to tell the village elder to tell everyone to lock up their dogs, or when their giant sage kuchi dogs would get too close I'd have to shoot them.
Sure enough, this badass 200lb dog popped up out of nowhere and was making a beeline for Nero (our dog). I shot him three times, and then had a failure to feed. Actioned it, and shot him again and had another failure to feed. Problem was, (you guessed it), bad magazine spring. I kept those magazines pristine as could be, because sand, but it didn't matter. Those issued magazines were clapped long before they made their way to me. After that patrol, I went to our supply sergeant and traded him a listerine bottle full of old crow for 5 brand new magazines, fresh out of the box. I still have 4 of them today.
"What's the point?" I'm glad you asked. The point is, that your polymer firearm, if manufactured within the last decade, is probably more reliable than the shooter who carries it. The mags though, you gotta keep an eye on them som besths, or they'll let you down.
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It really is all about the magazines.

 

[Sobrbiker]

It really is all about the magazines.

And I love how here stateside all the gun bois think P-Mags are awesome top-tier kit.
They are awesome for what they are designed to be-low cost disposable mags.
Me, the majority of my mags are are resprung Okay Industries bodies with modern followers. I prefer twenty rounders.

 

[Briar Lee]

And I love how here stateside all the gun bois think P-Mags are awesome top-tier kit.
They are awesome for what they are designed to be-low cost disposable mags.
Me, the majority of my mags are are resprung Okay Industries bodies with modern followers. I prefer twenty rounders.

Rod Gates used two 20 rounders taped together with 18 rounds each.

He set the selector on semi.

He had 18 shots and a quick mag change.

He’d count the AK rounds incoming and when there were 30,,,,,

He had four or five seconds to eliminate the threat to the soldiers behind him.

He can tell war stories of those duels for hours.

So yes, standard issue metal 20 round mags are a good choice, if loaded with 18, according to Gates.

 

[Sobrbiker]

@Briar Lee- 18 always.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

Why only 18?

Why only 20? I guess the 20 rounders do make the gun feel lighter.

40 rounders are in the way. IMO

30 is just right.

I like the Magpul mags just fine. The metal mags look better, if that counts for anything, plus the aluminum mags are lighter than the Magpul.

 

[Jacob74]

The tale I've heard is that on early m16's that loading on to a closed bolt with a mag totally full would sometimes result in the round not seating correctly, so shooters would leave a round or two out to make sure there was room for the spring under the follower of the mag to compress. Those early m16's didn't have forward assists, and used m193 ball ammo (which I never fired in my career). Some cats still really like shooting from the 20 round mags because you can get more prone with the iron sights.
I never had that particular issue with rounds not seating in a full mag that I recall. I was mostly paranoid about the feed lips on the mags getting spread or bent. I can't speak to any issues with polymer mags, I never used them. I can tell you though, that for my m4, those HK steel mags were excellent, but they were a capital investment!