Magazines- How many fail?

[investorsc]

I went out shooting this weekend, and grabbed some 25 and 32 rounders from my stash...Loaded with Win White Box, or Win Subsonic Target rounds....I could grab a mag and no problems, the next on hang up getting the round chambered... Ammo was consistent- mags were not. Are there specs. that I can check? If you go toa gun show and buy say 10 or 20 mags- how many do you expect to actually work in a mag dump or 3 round bursts without uttering WTF:wtf >>>?

Thanks,
BRUCE

[Oswald2001]

I have over 100 mags. ALL of mine work great.

AFAIK, UZI mags should work 100% unless the spring is weak, the inside of the mag is super dirty, mag body is dented, follower is faulty or there is something wrong with the gun (e.g. weak recoil spring, etc.).




Edited: I forgot to mention that I have a couple of semis only, so, this may be a factor. Perhaps full-auto use is much more demanding on mag performance.

[abundigas]

I have about 2 dozen 25 round assorted IMI Mags, some from vector, some IMI surplus with the seem up the back i have never had a failure with a 25 round mag, On the other hand, I have had some trouble with assorted 32 round mags, one in particular is a new IMI /AA black painted mag it FTF the first 2 rounds more often than not. I have just bought 30 of the German Surplus 32 round mags, but have not had the time to try them out. But if I have problems with them I will switch to 25 round mags completely... I would rather have less rounds but with 100% reliability. I dont do well with failures in the UZI.

[Noah Zark]

As Oswald wrote, cleanliness, spring condition, and feed lip geometry/damage are the big hitters.

I recently bought several 25 rd mags that had semi-dried sticky rust preserv on and in them and on a lark I loaded and tried one. Two FTFs. Cleaned that very mag, and since loaded and fired it four times without issue. Lesson: Get rid of the schmutz.

With new and newly-phosphated mags, they phos on the inside needs to be "burnished" or the friction of a full stack of cartridges will overcome the compressed spring force and the mag will likely not feed. I burnish newly parked mags by loading three or four dummy "handloads" and using a thin stick such as a paint stirrer or broken yardstick I repeatedly "plunge" the dummy rounds fully down and back in the mag, maybe 20-25 times. This compresses the sharp phos crystals in the area of contact with the cartridge cases and really slicks them up. Anyone that bought Austrian FAL mags a few years ago in the 10-rd boxes from FN knows what I'm talking about. You could NOT load more than 10 rds in those without burnishing the inside of the mags first.

One 32 rd mag I picked up at a show had a slight bend to the front of one of the feed lips; it was bent down a bit. That mag would cause FTFs in my semi Uzi carbine. I bent the lip back up with a flat-jawed pliers and problems were gone.

Noah

[Trebor]

You should number your mags so you can segregate out the bad mags. I wrapped a strip of masking tape around my mags near the bottom. I numbered each mag on the masking tape. I also wrote my last name and cell phone number on the side opposite the number to help the mags find their way home if I ever leave any behind after a range trip.

So far, I've only had one failure to feed with one mag. I put a single check mark on the tape next to the mag number. I figure one time might not be the mag, but if it happens again, I'll add a second check mark and then assume it's a mag problem. I've run that particular mag through a couple more times since then and haven't had any other problems.

I wish I would have been numbering my mags and marking questionable or known bad mags when I got my FN FAL. I was having all sorts of problems at first, and thought I'd wasted $1,000 on a custom build, until I finally traced the problem to a single bad mag. Of course, it was the mag I was using the most, or at least one that I used every range trip.

[az paul]

Other than a couple of after-market mags I bought years ago, I've never had a mag failure. I generally clean up the used ones I purchase before trying them out.

[watchin]

A quick and easy way to ID mags that you prefer (or just to keep track of which ones you use) is to put small round 'sticky' labels on them. These come in many colors and can help you establish a system of mag rotation or just cull out difficult mags while out shooting.
-watchin-

[ARDOC]

I got some surplus 32 rounders and noticed with the park they were tacky and sticky. Even after several cleanings.

So I painted the inside and the follower with Brownells teflon paint.

Made the whole mag inside and out really slick.

Now they work like a charm. The bullets never stick and even in the areas that have the paint scraped off, the teflon has impregnated the metal and is still slick.

[bendavid25]

Thats it we shlep through endless bueauracracy, spends thousands of dollars on weapons, drive all the way to range, dump more money on ammo and the stinkin thing wont work because of some .10cent piece of metal called a magazine!!!!!

Thats it, I'm designing a belt fed UZI! Stay tuned......