I am getting back into my 6.8 ARP rifle and was wondering if the magazine options have improved. I have Barretts, PRIs and some older CP. Are any of the new mag offerings better? Looking to get some new mags and wondering which of the new offerings are better and available. All replies appreciated.
Best 6.8 SPC mags available
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I have been using ASC stainless mags and have had no issues
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Pri are tank tuff and best especially if you are going to open the front to load long . ASC caught a little flak a few years back because a few of us had a problem with the sides flexing because , according to the company , some were not heat treated correctly but there great customer service replaced them with new magazines immediately and I have heard of no problem since . I use the ASC in 5.56 and . 300 bo . Super and sub and they work great .
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PRI will load to 2.3, Barrett won't allow long than standard.
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Right. I got them mixed up. It has been years since I bothered trying anything besides ASC.
Uber reliable magazines is not a strong suit of the 6.8 SPC setup.
I had problems with ASC (aka AR Stoner) until I started trimming the front of the magazine down with a Dremel. The case rims got caught on occasion on the edge of the magazine. Barret came with the fronts deep enough without trimming. I say that in past tense as I hear Barret aren't made anymore. The one PRI I have is a small one, which works well.
I had problems with ASC (aka AR Stoner) until I started trimming the front of the magazine down with a Dremel. The case rims got caught on occasion on the edge of the magazine. Barret came with the fronts deep enough without trimming. I say that in past tense as I hear Barret aren't made anymore. The one PRI I have is a small one, which works well.
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At one time I altered a few mags to use longer OAL loads in certain rifles but had to be sure you marked long rounds well, had right mags for them when went in field but the coupdegrap was in real world testing. Once I nailed down the right process and load (all brass annealed, sized, trimmed, primer pockets uniformed flash holes deburred and sorted) discovered there was not enough additional accuracy to be worth the effort of modifying mags and loading long.
One of my most shot projectiles are Speer 90 grain TNTs. They are inexpensive and good for paper, training and varmints which is majority of my killing. Out of the box they shoot well but if going long distance they can be made much more accurate. Wife and I usually sit down with two to four 650 count boxes per session where all are "pointed" in a Whidden Bullet Pointing Die then meplat is trimmed in a meplat trimmer so tips of bullets are all perfectly centered and uniform. A TNT that's pointed and trimmed exhibits about 1" less drop at 500 yards and at 250 yards (my longest range close to house to train) group at least 1/2 MOA less or better. As I finish pointing and trimming wife sorts all by weight. We generally wait till have four boxes pointed and trimmed then she sorts all into four boxes, light, mid, heavy and short range training/barrel foulers if fall far enough out of the three main groups tolerances.
Use a scientific scale (got a $5,000 scale at auction when local defense plant making cruise missile parts closed) to sort the bullets so generally end up with about 400 to 600 in each pointed, trimmed and weight matched box. She also weight sorts all the cases into four groups and each bullet group is matched to a box of weight sorted brass. Drop our charges using a powder measure then trickle to dead nutts on. Wife will sit and pick out or add a single kernal of powder till the scale zeros. If she is not available when charging cases use a MEC automatic trickler to weigh charges as don't have her patience.
All bullets, cases and primer pockets are trimmed to most uninform we can do, all are weight sorted and matched with charges that fall within 1/10th of a grain (one to two kernals of powder) so all the work is done at the bench with a few extra steps that guarantee our loads are as consistent as humanly possible without having a million dollar ballistics lab as a major ammo manufacturer may have for development and data for reloading manuals. Able to load to standard OAL and still have first round cold bore accuracy out to 400 plus yards on varmints.
Having a magazine that lets me load to longer COAL doesn't do as much for accuracy as our meticulous bench work and don't have to worry about which magazines am using as long as the feed lips have been adjusted to present the bullet tips to the feed ramps at a consistent angle from magazine to magazine. Have all popular brands but know I have well over 100 ASCs as are inexpensive, stainless welded body and tough. The one thing I do as put them in service swap the factory springs for Tubb chrome silicone flat wire springs (learned this trick with AR 10 mags that may feed 6XC, 2 Fity-Hillbilly, 7mm-08, 308 or 338 Federal based on which rifle(s) chose to take to range or field. Before swapping to Tubb springs had mixed results and had to separate and tune mags to rifle/cartridge combo but not anymore. About to build a 358 Winchester AR 10 and not worried about mags at all. Same with my fat case AR 15s whether 6.8, 22 Nosler or others. In standard mags have at least six cartridges I run regularly and the Tubb springs have made that much easier. Buy what you want or can afford, if have issues return it or fix it. I have become a fan of stainless welded body mags that are inexpensive enough I can adjust till perfect then after swapping innthe Tubb springs I have a huge box of fresh springs for the day when or if I start having to replace worn springs like I do annually in my IPSC and IDPA single stack 1911s.
One of my most shot projectiles are Speer 90 grain TNTs. They are inexpensive and good for paper, training and varmints which is majority of my killing. Out of the box they shoot well but if going long distance they can be made much more accurate. Wife and I usually sit down with two to four 650 count boxes per session where all are "pointed" in a Whidden Bullet Pointing Die then meplat is trimmed in a meplat trimmer so tips of bullets are all perfectly centered and uniform. A TNT that's pointed and trimmed exhibits about 1" less drop at 500 yards and at 250 yards (my longest range close to house to train) group at least 1/2 MOA less or better. As I finish pointing and trimming wife sorts all by weight. We generally wait till have four boxes pointed and trimmed then she sorts all into four boxes, light, mid, heavy and short range training/barrel foulers if fall far enough out of the three main groups tolerances.
Use a scientific scale (got a $5,000 scale at auction when local defense plant making cruise missile parts closed) to sort the bullets so generally end up with about 400 to 600 in each pointed, trimmed and weight matched box. She also weight sorts all the cases into four groups and each bullet group is matched to a box of weight sorted brass. Drop our charges using a powder measure then trickle to dead nutts on. Wife will sit and pick out or add a single kernal of powder till the scale zeros. If she is not available when charging cases use a MEC automatic trickler to weigh charges as don't have her patience.
All bullets, cases and primer pockets are trimmed to most uninform we can do, all are weight sorted and matched with charges that fall within 1/10th of a grain (one to two kernals of powder) so all the work is done at the bench with a few extra steps that guarantee our loads are as consistent as humanly possible without having a million dollar ballistics lab as a major ammo manufacturer may have for development and data for reloading manuals. Able to load to standard OAL and still have first round cold bore accuracy out to 400 plus yards on varmints.
Having a magazine that lets me load to longer COAL doesn't do as much for accuracy as our meticulous bench work and don't have to worry about which magazines am using as long as the feed lips have been adjusted to present the bullet tips to the feed ramps at a consistent angle from magazine to magazine. Have all popular brands but know I have well over 100 ASCs as are inexpensive, stainless welded body and tough. The one thing I do as put them in service swap the factory springs for Tubb chrome silicone flat wire springs (learned this trick with AR 10 mags that may feed 6XC, 2 Fity-Hillbilly, 7mm-08, 308 or 338 Federal based on which rifle(s) chose to take to range or field. Before swapping to Tubb springs had mixed results and had to separate and tune mags to rifle/cartridge combo but not anymore. About to build a 358 Winchester AR 10 and not worried about mags at all. Same with my fat case AR 15s whether 6.8, 22 Nosler or others. In standard mags have at least six cartridges I run regularly and the Tubb springs have made that much easier. Buy what you want or can afford, if have issues return it or fix it. I have become a fan of stainless welded body mags that are inexpensive enough I can adjust till perfect then after swapping innthe Tubb springs I have a huge box of fresh springs for the day when or if I start having to replace worn springs like I do annually in my IPSC and IDPA single stack 1911s.
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Any input on E lander mags?
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I have quite a few of the older PRI mags and they run great. The newer waffle one that I have were a bit finicky at first. I have some 10 round E-Landers that area bear to load, really stiff spring, but seem to run fine.
I don't recall ever having a problem with my mags. 5-round ASC for target/range, 10-round C-Products for hunting, and 25-round D&H which I rarely use. And I have some additional (hi-cap) ones in storage that I haven't even used yet.
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Out of curiosity I tried a variety of standard 5.56 mags to feed a few 6.8s. It was very flaky as would expect but did discover if didn't get greedy and try to stuff them full Lancer L5AWM 5.56 mags worked reliably enough to survive. Not something I recommend but if in a bind may work better than single loading. YMMV
I have 6 Barrett mags and I am not currently using them because of the length limitation they impose, I load pretty much everything long, but they seem built tank tough as someone else said, I mean they feel solid, so, I was thinking a out opening one like PRI does and see how it did. Thoughts anyone?
Though, I have been working up an xm68gd clone load, COAL and all so maybe they would come in handy then, but still Im thinking about it.
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I have 18 of the ASC 25-rd 6.8 mags. I have not had a single feed issue from any of them in over 2,500 rounds fired in the last 3 years. I discovered something a while back when I built my first 6.8 that the mag catch plays a bigger role than assumed. I had a mil-spec mag catch that came with the mil-spec lower and had used that for years assuming it was good enough. I would have occasional feed issues that were mag related like the bullet nose hitting just below the feed ramp on the receiver (partial nose dive), the bolt would then cause bullet set-back and it would fail to feed. That particular receiver did NOT have the proper feed ramp cuts, it was square, so that was part of the issue.
Before I replaced that upper receiver, I decided to replace the mag catch first as I noticed the spring was getting a bit soft, used a Geissele kit, I noticed the retention spring was much stiffer being new but also much thicker and the fit / machining of the catch itself was more precise. I compared it to the GI spec one I had before and there was a noticeable difference in the play the mag had in the mag well. It literally made my few "picky mags" 100% reliable. That was before getting a properly machined upper as well. Now with both, I have continued to have zero issues with any of my mags even after dropping the "picky mags" in gravel full of dust and kicking them out of the way multiple times during training classes and then re-loading them without cleaning and firing them at the next training stage. I still haven't cleaned them and they all work, I even had to wipe off the "Training Only" label I wrote in sharpie on one mag because it no longer fails to feed at all.
Sure, some issues can be magazine related, I did disassemble my ASC mags and knocked off some spot weld burrs, wiped them down with CLP when they were new, but haven't done anything since then. I think at this point the ASC's are pretty darn good given that I have 18 of them, beat the crap out of them and they all still feed. I also rotate them so each gets some use and abuse. I highly recommend people look into a cheap possible fix before throwing away or writing off a mag as bad unless your getting nose dive.
I have not modified the lips on mine and they all feed, so maybe that was a bad batch or ASC as altered the design?
Before I replaced that upper receiver, I decided to replace the mag catch first as I noticed the spring was getting a bit soft, used a Geissele kit, I noticed the retention spring was much stiffer being new but also much thicker and the fit / machining of the catch itself was more precise. I compared it to the GI spec one I had before and there was a noticeable difference in the play the mag had in the mag well. It literally made my few "picky mags" 100% reliable. That was before getting a properly machined upper as well. Now with both, I have continued to have zero issues with any of my mags even after dropping the "picky mags" in gravel full of dust and kicking them out of the way multiple times during training classes and then re-loading them without cleaning and firing them at the next training stage. I still haven't cleaned them and they all work, I even had to wipe off the "Training Only" label I wrote in sharpie on one mag because it no longer fails to feed at all.
Sure, some issues can be magazine related, I did disassemble my ASC mags and knocked off some spot weld burrs, wiped them down with CLP when they were new, but haven't done anything since then. I think at this point the ASC's are pretty darn good given that I have 18 of them, beat the crap out of them and they all still feed. I also rotate them so each gets some use and abuse. I highly recommend people look into a cheap possible fix before throwing away or writing off a mag as bad unless your getting nose dive.
I have not modified the lips on mine and they all feed, so maybe that was a bad batch or ASC as altered the design?
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