E-Lander magazines

I ordered a few of the E-Lander 30 round AR mags (they say they’re made for the Tavor). It took several weeks but here they are. They look really nice. They’re made with the same fold and spot-weld technique we see on most Aluminum mags, but these are steel. They have a protective coating that supposedly exceeds the salt spray requirements in U.S. military specs. The followers are true anti-tilt, meaning you can press down at the very front or the back, and they go down fine, without up-ending like the standard green mil spec followers. The bendy tabs that hold the floor plate are reinforced. Nice touch.

All very nice, but I won’t be keeping them in my main line-up, at least not with a full 30 rounds in them.

This seems pretty bizarre to me– you can not lock the mag into an AR with a full 30 round load when the bolt is forward, i.e. no tactical reloads. I’ve noticed this with some of my other mags too.

I suppose one could tweak the follower/floorplate interface to allow another millimeter or so of follower travel and solve this problem pretty easily. The mag bodies appear to be identical in length to my standard aluminum mags. On the other hand, the box of Brownell’s mags I just got all have that extra millimeter of follower travel and snap right in with a full 30 round load. They aren’t quite as pretty though.

I’ve been on a kick for the last couple of weeks, pointing out, it seems to me, at least once per day how this or that must have been designed or built by people who don’t actually use the product. I suppose I should pay more attention to my own designs, but as a user of products, it comes naturally to be a critic.

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2 thoughts on “E-Lander magazines

  1. I’d check the follower height. The perfect anti-tilt followers may be a bit longer to accomplish the feat, hence the lack of travel.

  2. The problem you are describing has been around a long time. I have seen it with old GI mags and certain rifles. It may have to do with the exact placement of where the mag catch was machined into the receiver.

    Other issues; 30 is hard on the magazine springs; 30 and if it does seat, sometimes you can’t pull the bolt to the rear; 30 and sometimes it will double feed the first round.

    28 is a full load. Just pretend that is all it holds and remove all the problems.

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