ProMag 308 Mags..?? Anyone try or have one??

[mtjccmotel 12]

I just received my two Pro Mags today, and at $58 delivered, I am happy. I have taken some pictures disassembled. While they advertise as being 24 rounders the two I received hold 25 nicely. When loaded to 25 there is enough room to cycle the action. I hope to get to the range over the weekend and put them through the paces. If they function as well as they look I will be getting a couple more. One additional point they are slightly longer 1/4" than the Surefire 25 rounders.

 

Edited May 21, 2010 by Noob308

[jtboss 0]

I'm getting 1 this weekend. Will post how it runs by monday if plans go well.

[gpqueen 545]

I really like the quality of these. I received some in and they ran flawless. http://store.carolinashooterssupply.com/servlet/-strse-532/Promag-Saiga-308-24/Detail

[Cobra 76 two 2,677]

Well it is good to know that a product at least has the backing of the people who are being given it for free in exchange for their comments, and those that are selling it. Time will tell, hopefully they run right.

 

Why don't you go buy one for yourself and test it with your ammo...then come give us your opinion....

 

 

 

On my second test run of this mag, I took some video. Of course it performed flawlessly the first time, with no cameras rolling. It failed so miserably the second time however, I haven't even been motivated to upload the vids. I don't know what the problem was the second time. I was using the same ammo. I'm going to take the mag apart before trying it again, and see if a few of those shavings my bolt was taking off the follower, managed to get down inside and are binding the follower in the track or something. I've been very busy at home for the past few weeks, and haven't put a lot of time into the forum, or posting pics and videos. It's hard to get motivated sometimes with some of the feedback I get from the people here, due to their inability to handle things I've said and done in the past, like give very positive reviews for some promag drums that I PAID FOR.

 

[Cobra 76 two 2,677]

Here are the pics I took before and after my first time testing the mag.

 

It looks a lot like the SGM mag and probably weighs about the same (I did not actually weigh it so if it's off by a few grams...oh well.)

 

 

In my .308...

 

Here's where the bolt snagged on the follower when I charged the weapon on an empty mag...look close and you can see where it's caught on it.

 

The piece of plastic shaved off when I charged it again...

 

Here's the damage to the follower the first time.

 

Second time I charged it on the empty mag, it caught again....

 

Loaded and ready to go again.

 

Last two pics are where it got chafed on the magwell while inserting...no biggie, self fitting.

[Stansplace 414]

Did these lock up in your 308 the first time or do they require some sort of fitting like all the drums? I am also interested whether or not you had some plastic caught in the follower like you mentioned earlier.

[Cobra 76 two 2,677]

I didn't have to do ANY fitting with the Promag 20 rd drum or this .308 mag. It locked right it perfectly.

I'll try to find some time tomorrow to check the mag and see if it has any debris inside it. I also have another couple of rifles to try it in. Stansplace if you would like to bring your rifle over you are welcome to run some rounds through it if you want.

 

[N4KVE 14]

Thanks for testing & posting your results here. Will the mag work trouble free if you insert 20 rounds & fire 18? Then just load another 18 on top of the last 2. Just trying to see if the mag feeds well as long as you don't let the bolt rub against the floor plate. These mags are alot cheaper than the Surefires, which don't always fit. So far, the CCCspec's seem to work the best. I just need to know this mag would be reliable if I have to unload on the dirtbag trying to break in through the front door. Again, thanks for posting your results here. GARY N4KVE

[Cobra 76 two 2,677]

You're welcome. I haven't tried loading it less than full or loading and firing less than the full 25 rds. I wish I had an unlimited supply of ammo to use so I could actually do more varied test firing. I'll run a few more loads through it to see if it will run as good as it did the very first time. It was totally flawless the first time and I have a witness to that. I wish I had video taped it then. I took it apart today and there was no debris inside that could have caused a malfunction. I did think about one thing that was different the second time though...I had fully loaded the mag and left it loaded for several days before the second test. First time was on a fresh spring. Hopefully this wouldn't make any difference if they used good springs, I did was a little surprised though when I took the mag spring out today. It didn't try to get away from me and spring out, like most mags I've taken apart. Just seems to me like it should have more spring than that...

Leaving a mag loaded isn't supposed to cause spring fatigue. It is caused by repeated loading and unloading the spring. I'm not going to jump to conclusions now after just two loads, and assume the spring is weak.

I sprayed the inside of the mag body with silicon and will leave it unloaded til next time I take it to the range.

Hopefully there will be more people reporting their results now that they are out there.

My first impression was, this is a well built mag. It is very sturdy and looks to be made of quality material. If the spring is good on these, they should work great. It is my opinion that they should address the issue of the bolt dragging on the follower like it does, but other than that it seemed ok til the second time I used it. It did eventually empty itself so even though I had some jams along the way, it worked. It could have been the spring, or maybe a piece of debris did get down in there and cause problems til it came out...who knows....I need to shoot some more with it, and also try it in different rifles. I'll do that next time out.

 

[Stansplace 414]

I didn't have to do ANY fitting with the Promag 20 rd drum or this .308 mag. It locked right it perfectly.

I'll try to find some time tomorrow to check the mag and see if it has any debris inside it. I also have another couple of rifles to try it in. Stansplace if you would like to bring your rifle over you are welcome to run some rounds through it if you want.

 

 

I may take you up on that if I can ever get a day off work.

[mtjccmotel 12]

Got a chance over the weekend to try out my new Pmags. Was only able to run both of my two mags one time each, as I don't have an endless supply of ammo. I was pleased at how they performed. No problems with either mag both locked up well with no issues. Hopefully, I'll be able to burn some more ammo soon!

[Zambidis 90]

Why don't you go buy one for yourself and test it with your ammo...then come give us your opinion....

 

I've bought almost no firearm related products I am unhappy with. One of the reasons is that I buy from reputable companies and let others test things out first, particularly products from companies with spotty track records. I hope these are a good product. I'll wait for the independent reviews however. No offense, but the people and companies you've backed and the actions you've defended on this forum precludes me from viewing you as a person whose opinion I can or view an honest broker of truth. That's to say nothing of the unproffesionalism you have repeatedly demonstrated on this forum. Beyond that specific skepticism over your zeal I think it is sound to place limited stock int he opinions of those who stand to profit. I am inclined however to put much more stock in the opinion of someone like Greg at CSS who has shown himself to be a consummate professional here and in my various business dealings with him.

 

I have enough .308 mags that I don't need to run out and buy an unproven product. I may in time buy some though. If I do I'd be happy to post my review.

[jtboss 0]

Took my new Promag and new CSSpecs mags to the range. The Promag had 1 fail to feed out of 100 rounds total. It did show signs of stripping

some of the plastic on the follower,but I cleaned it up and it kept running with no other issues. The one from CSSpecs ran with zero problems

and I put 75 rounds through it.I would buy another Promag only because it is lighter,but if I was going to war I'd take the CSSpecs hands down.

With the CSSpecs if you run out of ammo you can still beat your opponent about the head with it and load it up and shoot some more. Think I'll

buy a couple more CSSpecs until I hear more about the Promags from others.

[ThirtyAughtSix 101]

Yesterday I pretty much had a torture test of my S308 and S410, eight guys not wanting to stop shooting them with an ass load (I guess "assload" is a spelling error) of magazines of various types around. So, this info is from a very hot gun, that was being fed brown bear and silver bear and we didn't give it a rest for about 2 hours.

 

Okay, I have 12 Surfire 25 round magazines and 1 10 round, two Csspecs 20 rounders and two 10 rounders, the factory eight that I converted to 10 rounds and last, but not least, two of the new Promag 24 (that hold 26??) rounders.

 

The temperature was 84ish, pretty damn humid and altitude was maybe 300 ft above sea level (that doesn't really matter for this test but I wants to seem smarts!!).

 

Like I said before, there wasn't any cool down time except when people couldn't keep up with reloading mags, or when they were focusing on the S410.

 

Under regular firing conditions (ie, not bumpfiring, but including rapid firing) THERE WAS NOT ONE FAILURE of any sort out of the 600+ rounds we shot. Yeah, there were only two Promag's but I encouraged them to use them more because they had the highest capacity (they didn't know I was doing any sort of testint).

 

Now, onto the irregular firing conditions. Bumpfiring with the Promags and Csspecs led to zero problems, not one hiccup. The Surefire's only had two failures to feed while bumpfiring, which isn't too bad in my opinion (did about six 25 round Surefire bumpfires).

 

So in conclusion, we have three very good S308 magazine's out there. For "disposable" magazines (those that I would not rely on for combat conditions) I would go with the Promags for now on (if they keep up the good work). For the price, you can't beat it, I should go order 10 right now, they are almost a full $20 cheaper than the Surefires. Don't get me wrong, the Surefires work fine and didn't have any problems till I got into bumpfiring.

 

But don't rule out the Csspecs magazines either. They are just about the same price as the Surefires and are more reliable. Another factor to think about is the weather. I never had the polymer magazine front tab break off in freezing temperatures that I hear can happen (and I've gone as low as 5F with a LOT lower wind chill). They also look cool as hell and seem the least likely to break off in some in some sort of close quaters combat/room clearing or in hand to hand using your weapon as a non projectile firing skull smasher/or to block an attempt of the same style attack.

 

So pretty much, get a bunch of Promags for range/backyard/woods fun, you won't be disappointed. Then get as many Csspecs mags as you feel necessary if your S308 is your SHTF/MBR weapon. On top of it, you are supporting a forum member by getting the Csspecs mags, a very nice forum member with excellent customer service.

 

Again, if you want some polymer mags for your S308, the Promag is the way to go. On top of it, if people keep buying them up like hotcakes and Surefire's market share starts to get smaller, their price will have to go down. Hopefully that happens across the board because I'm wanting cheaper mags for my .410 and Surefire is the only offering on that, perhaps massive sales of Promag's S308 mags will convince them to make other Saiga caliber magazines. On a side note, the Surefires going down in price (if that happened) would hurt some of our vendors who have massive stocks of them on hand... but that's free market/capitalism for ya. Perhaps said vendors that could have that particular problem could off them on gunbroker to some idiots who would be more than willing to buy them and and violate 922 with their unconverted saiga...

 

NOT RELATED: I've "heard" that Promag has updated its Hi-Point carbine magazines, the 15 round 9mm ones and they work great. Anybody try those out yet? All I heard in the past was stay the hell away from them but a 50% increase in round capacity would be quite nice. If this turns out to be false I'll just have to go ahead with that project I've been rambling about in chat for a while of making a wood stock for the hi-point that takes the double stack mp5 32 round magazines, now that would be one awesome firearm for the price (I would use an older 955 carbine as those are cheaper with the release of the newer 955-TS's... But if they make that 45 ACP they've been talking about for years I may just have to wait and get one of those and use some Thompson mags for my custom wood stock). Okay, enough talk of non Saiga firearms, just a project I've been thinking of for a while now... Now go buy some Promag .308's so they will start making .410's and anything else they don't make yet!!

 

EDIT: HAHA, didn't see jtboss's post above mine, those sharp little corners on the floor plate could slit a persons freaking throat, gotta love those steel Csspecs mags!!

Edited May 29, 2010 by ThirtyAughtSix

[mav 459]

Nice review 30.06, seeing as there have been a couple of reviews that had failures, I am going to wait for a few more before I buy, side note, I really wish Tapco would explore this market, products and prices almost always improve with competition.

[ThirtyAughtSix 101]

Nice review 30.06, seeing as there have been a couple of reviews that had failures, I am going to wait for a few more before I buy, side note, I really wish Tapco would explore this market, products and prices almost always improve with competition.

 

One note, I did push the followers down all the way to the bottom of the magazines as I do with every new magazine, using a dowel (in this case the dowel was my trench knife ), this seems to set the springs nice and right, but it could just be a superstition... If you guys are having problems, maybe try lubing them up a little as I did have to give my S308 a nice bath before going out (drilled two holes(not wholes ) in the receiver block to make her nice and sturdy) and I did notice oil did get into the magazines through the magwell.

Edited May 30, 2010 by ThirtyAughtSix

[Cobra 76 two 2,677]

Why don't you go buy one for yourself and test it with your ammo...then come give us your opinion....

 

I've bought almost no firearm related products I am unhappy with. One of the reasons is that I buy from reputable companies and let others test things out first, particularly products from companies with spotty track records. I hope these are a good product. I'll wait for the independent reviews however. No offense, but the people and companies you've backed and the actions you've defended on this forum precludes me from viewing you as a person whose opinion I can or view an honest broker of truth. That's to say nothing of the unproffesionalism you have repeatedly demonstrated on this forum. Beyond that specific skepticism over your zeal I think it is sound to place limited stock int he opinions of those who stand to profit. I am inclined however to put much more stock in the opinion of someone like Greg at CSS who has shown himself to be a consummate professional here and in my various business dealings with him.

 

I have enough .308 mags that I don't need to run out and buy an unproven product. I may in time buy some though. If I do I'd be happy to post my review.

 

What the hell ever dude. No offense intended, my ass. You basically come in here and call me a liar and insult me by insinuating I am only backing the NEWER Promag S-12 products because I stand to profit from them. That's horse shit for one....I don't sell their products at all. Show me one post where I have said I do, or have any Promags for sale.

I don't care how many other .308 mags you have for your Saiga, I happen to have plenty of other mags too. This allows me to compare them all, and their prices. I like my FBMG mags, but paid a lot more for them. The SGMs cost more too and they have some "issues".

You go on to say you trust Greg's word much more on these, when in fact he does sell Promags. That makes no sense. Greg and I are good friends and we discuss all these new products between ourselves on the phone, before he decides whether or not to stock them. He trusts my opinions on all Saiga products, as well as other leading individuals in the industry, so honesty I don't give a crap what you think. If you had actually ever done any business with me, other than repeatedly judging me and slamming my posts on the forum, you would undoubtedly have a much higher respect form me and what I do. But like a few other asshats here, you would rather continue to insult me in public like you do, so you can add to the list of "unprofessional" posts I put up, ALWAYS in response to some jerk who decides he wants to take me to task for one thing or another on the forum. Yes, I do have an "Irish temper", and NO I don't like to be offended on the forum where I come every day to do business....so when someone with a record like yours of doing their best to try and judge me, while implying things that are not true, I DO take offense. FYI the only reason I decided to take them up on their offer, when the vendor here who asked me to try out this mag and give a report on it, was because I wanted it to work as good as it looks like it works, so again, just like with the 20 rd Promag drum I bought to test and report on, I could give people an HONEST, unbiased review because I am NOT selling it...and I'm NOT one of these regular people on here who on blind faith, or lack there of, hate Promag and everything about them, even though they have finally pulled their heads out of the sand and started producing higher quality mags for US. I have NO TIES to them what so ever, so you, your buddies, and Mike D can lie all you want and keep accusing me of it if you like, I really don't care. They are just another company trying to offer up some good things for the Saiga market, and I will support them all I can in their efforts, as long as I can see they are trying to do good for us. I cannot wait for them to be the first to bring double stack stick mags, and drums, to market for ALL the Saiga shotguns. I will also volunteer my time and money for testing them out in all my Saigas, and report my honest findings to you and everyone else. Don't read them and don't comment if you don't trust what I have to say. You really don't matter. The people here who actually matter...the smart members and vendors who get along with me just great, and don't let a few haters influence their thinking, are the ones I am here to do business with. If you don't happen to like some of my rude responses to yours and others' rude posts about me, then so what? The people here who are nice to me, get treated with respect by me. The rest I couldn't care less about. My work speaks for itself. As long as people like Greg Queen and Tony Rumore (among many others...) are picking up the phone to call ME...not you...when ever they have a question about something Saiga or AK related, and they trust my experienced opinion, that means a whole lot more than some self serving person like yourself, who always waits for everyone else to try everything out, so they can keep their little perfect record going for never having bought something that failed them.

If you have any more negative BS you would like to share with me then please do it in private, and spare the intelligent members of this forum from having to listen to it. People who are smart enough, can tell from my posts that I know what I'm doing and am very trustworthy. People who actually DO business with me are all very happy. I don't need small minded folks like yourself, who judge people by their reactions when upset by lies and accusations, to keep trying to ruin my business with their very negative comments. Please go find something else to do with yourself if you can't keep your little gripes and accusations against me of a more private nature.

Thank you.

Meanwhile, I will continue to give of myself around here and help people find out the truth about things, even with all the haters running rampant.

 

 

[paprotective 362]

I agree on this with Cobra.. Zambis you overstepped on this abit. Were talking about reviewing a product to HELP the forums and out of left field you throw utter *hit out here?? wtf??

 

I gave Cobra the mag to test out for the board to hopefully reap the benefit of a small review on functionality so maybe some of the forum folks here can save $15-20 over the Surefire mags.

 

ThirtyAught.. thanks for adding to the reviews.. Nothing overly bad so far on these.. good idea to compress the spring first.. IMHO.

 

CSS and Accessory Arms carry them and some other vendors.

[Zambidis 90]

[Cobra 76 two 2,677]

I guess I have to spell it out for your small mind to understand. I DON'T care what you think about me because I know you don't know me and it doesn't matter. I DO however, care what you SAY about me in front of other people, because you have a personal problem and you are full of it.

I am volunteering my free time to help people like you, who are afraid to spend their money on products you are afraid may not work. You want to criminalize me for it because of your own little personal problem. That is wrong.

As far as your little problem with people giving away "free stuff", you are clueless there too. If someone sends me a magazine to test (not the kind you read), and asks me to try it out, and give my opinion of how well it works FOR ME, I will do just that. If you don't like it then too bad.

For one....my time and money spent just on ammo, is worth MORE than what it cost to build the mag, so the MFG isn't out much at all for what they get back in reviews. Secondly it is not really FREE if I spend time and money on it.

 

[Zambidis 90]

You want to criminalize me for it because of your own little personal problem. That is wrong.

 

Get off the cross, no one criminalized you or anything close to it. I merely pointed out that I personally don't put much stock in your opinion and stated why. After all there are posts here and elsewhere of you defending the practice of accepting people's money and not sending them the merchandise they ordered (most people call that theft by deception and/or breach of contract). I further stated that I personally would be interested in seeing more independent reviews.

 

By the way I don't have a personal problem with you. First, I don't know you. Second of all my opinion of you is not personal in nature it is based on your conduct I have seen you display in this forum where you purport to lend yourself out as a professional. I have a low opinion of you as a businessman. I, however, have no personal issues with you whatsoever.

 

I'm not sure how I can even respond to the well thought out and ingeniously articulated argument that I'm "full of it." Perhaps I can consult a twelve year old for the proper retort to your school yard ad hominems. Until then I suppose I'll just have to act like an adult, you might want to try that too.

[Ruffian72 548]

Loaded and fired 4 times. No issue. 25rders are larger than I like, at least this one worked. Posted in past my feeling and review of other 25rder made, and the crappy nonservice. Lesson learned. csspecs are great and reliable, FBMG are choice for plastic. Just the right size and have faith over couple years of use.

[gunboy69 50]

Much thanks to all who posted reviews . I have been screwed by promag in the past,but have been very pleased with them lately. I had the chance at the shotshow to tell them how I felt,and got the same quality assurances in the future.

 

I really like the look of their mags over others,so I hope they are a success.

 

Hey Zambis,

I am highly amused by your witty banter,but come on....(ellipse)...don't pretend you weren't being a complete ass to a highly respected member. You are obviously trying to provoke a man who has proven to be easily offended. I have done business with him,and he is very professional. He has also helped countless people on this forum,spending countless hours posting pictures,and tutorials.

 

While you are certainly entitled to your opinion of Cobra,do you really feel like your comments were purely helpful to members,and not just antagonistic to one.

What you did was take a innocent review ,and trolled it into something ugly. That's not what we do here.

[Zambidis 90]

Gunboy,

 

I suggest you re-read the thread or the cliff notes version found in post #49. I didn't "troll" anyone or anything. At this point further discussion of any of that will add nothing to the discussion of Pro mag S308 mags so lets leave it be.

[vintagedude88 16]

I'm really interested in these mags because I'm not so happy with the way the Surefire's fit into the gun. The Surefires always just barely fit in. In other words, it needs a lot of insertion force just to push it in before the release "clicks" as if the mag is pushing against the underside of the bolt. In comparing it to the factory mag, I noticed that there is a bit of contour on the left side feed lip. I've tried cutting the same countour on the Surefire's feed lip and it has helped a bit but its still tight. Looking at the pics from Cobra, I noticed that there isn't a contour on the left side feed lip as well. So my question is: Can this mag (Promag) be easily inserted into the gun? Most importantly, can it be easily inserted with the bolt closed? Also, can a fully loaded mag be inserted with the bolt closed? I ask the last question because when I did this with the Surefires, I got dented shell casings on the top round. That problem was fixed after I modded the follower and floor plate.

Edited June 7, 2010 by FrustratedInCali

[headshot 52]

[ThirtyAughtSix 101]

I'm really interested in these mags because I'm not so happy with the way the Surefire's fit into the gun. The Surefires always just barely fit in. In other words, it needs a lot of insertion force just to push it in before the release "clicks" as if the mag is pushing against the underside of the bolt. In comparing it to the factory mag, I noticed that there is a bit of contour on the left side feed lip. I've tried cutting the same countour on the Surefire's feed lip and it has helped a bit but its still tight. Looking at the pics from Cobra, I noticed that there isn't a contour on the left side feed lip as well. So my question is: Can this mag (Promag) be easily inserted into the gun? Most importantly, can it be easily inserted with the bolt closed? Also, can a fully loaded mag be inserted with the bolt closed? I ask the last question because when I did this with the Surefires, I got dented shell casings on the top round. That problem was fixed after I modded the follower and floor plate.

 

1: Yes, it is inserted easily into magwell, but I never had the issues you described with Surefires either.

2: Yes, again, with all my 308 mags, I can insert them with the bolt closed, I didn't even know that was an issue.

 

From what I hear around on various threads about the S308 magwell, they do have some different tolerances. One magazine can work fine in one weapon and the other can be a pain in the ass to get it to "click" in. With my S410, the Surefires were hard to insert and get the positive lock in "click" until they got nice and broken in.

 

So, I really couldn't tell you if in your specific weapon that the magazines will fit well but they fit mine perfect and there was no "breaking in" to get them to behave as such. Give one a shot, they are under $30. Then again, I see you live in Cali, so the whole more than 10 rounds thing is a bummer for you.

[paprotective 362]

I think Cobra 76 Two may have tried his out again this past weekend...

 

Lets see if he has any updates on this..

 

Anyone whom has one and had experiences with these thus far??

 

 

Albert

PS.. we have them on sale for $26.99 also for anyone that may want try some.

[308SAIGA 55]

If they are anything like the SKS mags STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll let the pigeons go first, let me know, I'll stick with the Surefire mags

[Cobra 76 two 2,677]

Pigeons? Whatever...

 

I got some more ammo and I'm planning to finally sight in the scope on my other .308, instead of just blasting away expensive ammo into the berm just to test a mag nobody seems interested in because of other ProMag failures...I'll report back on how it did after. I took it to the range yesterday actually but my scope mount needs a little adjustment to get me on paper at least. It was not even within the range of adjustment on the cross hairs. I have a laser bore sighter to help with that now. Should be able to do some shooting soon with that and some other optics I want to try on my Saigas.