Best mag seating AR lower?

[louu]

Are there any AR lowers that P mags just click right in smooth and effortless like a pistol?

I had an incident last weekend where I didn't push it in hard enough on a closed bolt and the mag fell out on the ground. I was pretty embarrassed because I pride myself on all my equipment running 100% all the time.

[Flexmoney]

...I didn't push it in hard enough

I pride myself on all my equipment running 100% all the time.

Hmmm.

[Bryan 45]

This is not an equipment issue. It's a training issue. Loading a rifle isn't like loading a pistol- don't just slap the bottom and assume it's seated.

Insert magazine with force, using a beer can grab. Before removing your hand, pull down on the mag to make sure it's seated. If it's not, your hand is still in complete control of the mag and you can insert it again. If it's seated, it won't come back out.

[jrswanson1]

To answer the question, no. A closed bolt and a full mag requires more force than a typical pistol reload. I have magazines from five different manufacturers, and used lowers from six different companies, and none of the mags, when full, were as easy to seat on a closed bolt as a pistol magazine. My DPMS lower was the worst with PMAGs, they required more pressure just to get the magazine into the mag well.

[Darqusoull13]

Also ask yourself if you need all 30 (40?, 45?, 50?) rounds in your magazine you are reloading into to finish the course of fire. Most of the time I can download the mag by 1 or 2 rounds to seat the mag a little bit easier.

[MarkCO]

There are some lowers that won't accept the Gen3 PMags due to the tab contact with the magwell.

But otherwise, yes Bryan is correct.

[RJH]

The secret to this in my experience is to use metal mags. With good followers reliability has never been an issue for me and they seat much easier than pmags. You can also load your ammo to a tough longer AOL if you want to, too

[Deerhunter9790]

I had the same issue. While the above comments are absolutely true, sometimes the mag just won't seat. I had a couple thousands shaved off the mag catch on my lower and it pretty much solved the problem. Still have to seat the mag with authority but it's much more reliable now. If I know I am going to have to reload I stoll download the mags a couple rounds as mentioned above too

[Doug H.]

I load my first mag full on an open bolt after that all my mags are down at least 2 rounds. I got tired of dropping mags after a reload like the OP. If you need more than 28 rounds after a reload get bigger mags.

Doug

[mpeltier]

I would agree with Brian with one caveot. How easy does the pmag seat when empty? If its difficult than there is/are adjustments that can be made somewhere to allow more positive seating of the magazine. It they seat easily when empty, it is you not overcoming the normal spring pressure of a full magazine, or your booger hook is still on the mag button when your trying to seat the fresh mag.

[EkuJustice]

The best seating mag I have found is a GI Straight 20 rounder. If I have to load in the clock that's what I use if possible. Index it like a pistol and seat it the same If I have to seat a longer mag I hit the bottom of mag and check its seated

[soterik]

Had the same question so I tested all the popular mags - fully loaded. On MY lower, a Troy mag was the easiest to seat.

I didn't try a metal GI mag though.

[fishsticks]

Also ask yourself if you need all 30 (40?, 45?, 50?) rounds in your magazine you are reloading into to finish the course of fire. Most of the time I can download the mag by 1 or 2 rounds to seat the mag a little bit easier.

Agreed. I went a slightly different route with the same result. I have TTI Basepads on all of my pmags. Allows you to load 30 or 40 and still have them seat relatively easily on a closed bolt.

As to technique, Bryan described it better than I could.

[photoracer]

Ditto on most of this. I used Pmags the first year in 3-gun and generally they worked well. In fact the flexing of the mags helped in getting a full mag seated on a closed bolt. Second year I switched to Lancer mags. Due to the metal lips they will only seat 100% of the time if you run them 1-2 rounds short. But they run better so small tradeoff since your first mag can be full.

[TonytheTiger]

I just recently had to file and polish my mag catch a bit. I got tired of being the guy with a mag on the ground after every closed bolt mag change. And no amount of practice or technique would make it lock in reliably, it even rarely seats with 5 rounds in a 40 round Pmag. People where probably actually starting to believe my sandbagging excuse since almost all of my mag changes are during 3GN classifiers...

[JonF]

Lou, are you sure its not because you were using pinned 15rd pmags fully loaded? Non of us can get a reliable pinned pmag to effortlessly seat on the clock against a CLOSED bolt when loaded to full 15 rds, just nature of the limitation. Most of us will only load them to 14 as a result.

Edited June 14, 2016 by JonF