Promag 12 round drum

[mgconnor13 206]

I picked up a Promag 12 round drum this week. It fits perfectly into my gun. There is almost no play! The front lip is metal cover in plastic, the rear lip appears to be plastic. The main body seems to be made of a rather tough plastic and the rear plate seems thick too. The drum is about the same size as a factory 5 rnd factory mag. For 12 rnds this thing is pretty compact. I probably won't be using my 10 rnd AGPs or MD 20 as much simply because they are so much bigger.

 

One thing I did notice is that when you have all 12 rounds in there's almost no play in the gear. It can't put a fully loaded drum into my S-12. A friend could lock the drum in his gun with 12 rounds in it with the bolt closed but it was so tight he couldn't pull the bolt back with out crushing the top shell. It isn't a huge surprise that I can't load it with the bolt closed since a lot of guns have a hard time locking in a full mag/ drum.

 

Did some shooting yesterday afternoon and this drum didn't skip a beat. I feed every thing I put it it. I really like this drum and I'd like to buy more.

Edited October 8, 2010 by Rusty truck

[mscottrogers 56]

I've got one as well and like the size. I hope Chaos comes out with one and MD brings out their double stack. I don't think the promag can be taken apart and put back together easily like a double stack or the MD20.

mine works well but the shells rattle in it.

[mgconnor13 206]

shells rattle in mine too. I'm about to take mine apart and take some pictures of whats inside.

[mgconnor13 206]

It's not that hard to pull the drum apart and put it back together. I've done probably a dozen times trying to get the spring tension right after I took it apart. Pictures coming soon.

[mgconnor13 206]

Ok I got the drum back together and i got the spring tension right.

the inside is a gear, a "follower" for a lack of a better term, a false round, and a spring.

The back plate clips in and the the bolt goes through to the nut on the front.

 

To disassemble take a 1/4" Allen wrench to remove the bolt.

Take a flat head screw driver and pop out the four clips and pry off the cover.

rotate the gear counter clockwise slightly and pull. there will be a lot of resistance because the spring has a lot of tension. have a good grip on the body of the drum so it doesn't spin.

once the gear is out you can pull the follower off the gear

the false round pretty much falls out once the gear is gone.

Edited October 8, 2010 by Rusty truck

[psl sniper 963]

I've got one as well and like the size. I hope Chaos comes out with one and MD brings out their double stack. I don't think the promag can be taken apart and put back together easily like a double stack or the MD20.

mine works well but the shells rattle in it.

already took both mine apart (just to see) real easy reasembly.

[mgconnor13 206]

To re-assembly a couple pieces have to be in specific places. When I refer to positions look at it from behind like you're looking at it through the rear cover like when it's in your gun. 12 o'clock is the tower.

 

To re-assemble put the spring in the body. there's a hole at the six o'clock that the spring goes into.

Take just gear with out the follower. it has several holes for the other end of the spring to go into. put the gear in the body at about the 11 o'clock position. now wind the spring counter clock wise 2x. (may vary drum to drum how much you need to pre-tension the spring)

Insert the follower into the gear. once the follower is in the spring will stay pre-tensioned.

Rotate the gear counter clockwise enough to get the false round into the tower.

snap back cover on

the nut goes on the front, put the bolt through from the back and tighten it snugly.

 

to test I loaded the drum, it should have a good mount of tension. Try unloading the drum with your thumb. The rounds should pop out when the rim clears the feed lips, if the spring isn't tight enough the round with just fall out when the rim clears and the next round may not come all the way up.

 

 

The drum is really simple to pull apart and re-assemble. Every thing inside looks pretty tough. I'm not going to abuse the crap out of my drum but I won't feel bad I drop it.

Edited October 8, 2010 by Rusty truck

[Paulyski 2,227]

Ya'll know they make one with a smoke cover... Right?

 

 

I'm just not the biggest fan of clear polymer on any part of a gun.

It just don't look right to me personally. I think the smoke 12 looks kinda cool.

The owner of this forum sells'em for $69.95 here;

http://www.saiga-12.com/proddetail.asp?prod=PMI003

 

 

But still... Rusty...

Nothing can completely replace the hell-yeah effect of the MD-20's 20 rounds... Size or no.

 

Not getting into a drum debate, just a personal observation.

[blackshoesnipe 0]

Thanks for the revue and the pic's!

Mostly I have heard that these mags are marginal at best, but I might just buy one now for shits and giggles.

 

+1 to the "hell Yeah!" effect of the MD20.

[Paulyski 2,227]

Thanks for the revue and the pic's!

Mostly I have heard that these mags are marginal at best, but I might just buy one now for shits and giggles.

 

+1 to the "hell Yeah!" effect of the MD20.

The promag 12 round drum has the best reviews of all the promag S-12 products.

I've yet to hear issues with the 12 rounders.

I've heard of some occurrences of a few issues with their 20 & lived through the 10 round stick debacles, but the 12 round drum seems to be a winner so far.

Edited October 9, 2010 by Paulyski

[blackshoesnipe 0]

Thanks Paulyski,

Good to know.

 

I'll happily shell out $69.00 for something more compact (length wise) than a AGP-10, and gives me +2 rounds.

Hell, if my Saiga likes it, and it doesn't need fitting, I can always sell it.

Honestly for me, drums are just something (really, really fun!) to play with.

 

Russian 8's or the Mystical double-stacks are what I really want.

[mgconnor13 206]

oh the 20 round drum is friggin sweet for blasting away at the range =

 

I thought I'd try the 12 rnd drum to see if it was more practical as a "daily use" drum.

I really like the fact it sticks out about as far as the 5 rnd factory mags, has more rounds then my AGP mags, and isn't ridiculously heavy when loaded.

 

The smoke back cover would be cool, I bought the last one in stock at a local shop so I was happy to just get the drum.

 

I'm not going to get into the MD vs Promag debate.

 

I like the 12 rnd drum. It's compact, offers good capacity for the size, reasonably priced and has been completely reliably so far. That my experience so far

[GenuineOutlaw 1]

Thanks for the post Rusty. I'm new here and just sort of fell in to this one. I just bought an S12 and was looking at this promag and there you were. Excellent feedback...and thanks for the heads up on the $69.00 sweet deal.

[RABIDFOX50 6]

Thank you for the review. I am picking one of these up after my Chaos rail gets here. Good to know they have smoke rear covers.

[midnaite 43]

[mgconnor13 206]

OH NO!!! the drum strikes again!!

[peaches 4]

i just picked one up an i had to trim the rear down a bit an there is a bit of play from left to right... bit disappointing

[zenman223 460]

not to hijack or anything but i didnt want to start a new thread, does anybody know why there isnt any 3" capable drums? is there a reason it will not work or has it just not been done yet? anybody?

[psl sniper 963]

not to hijack or anything but i didnt want to start a new thread, does anybody know why there isnt any 3" capable drums? is there a reason it will not work or has it just not been done yet? anybody?

basicly since 2 3/4 shells are more common they went with a drum that would feed them. supposedly mike d said he could do one or the other but not both.

[Shadoh 16]

I have the MD drum and this one as well. The Promag is a bit sloppy in the in the gun but feeds with no problems. I just wish that these drums would feed the cheap foreign 2 3/4 shells that are a tad longer than normal. Those seem to be the cheapest rounds out there and I cant use em (. I thought I read somewhere on here that there is a mod you can do to the drum to get them to feed but I cant find it now.

[psl sniper 963]

I have the MD drum and this one as well. The Promag is a bit sloppy in the in the gun but feeds with no problems. I just wish that these drums would feed the cheap foreign 2 3/4 shells that are a tad longer than normal. Those seem to be the cheapest rounds out there and I cant use em (. I thought I read somewhere on here that there is a mod you can do to the drum to get them to feed but I cant find it now.

supposedly you can modify the md drom to use the longer one by adding washers inside the back plate, ive never personaly tried it so not 100% sure.

[mgconnor13 206]

I've noticed shells tend to rattle around in side drums. I don't know if a drum that held 3" shells would have so much play that a 2 3/4" shell might not catch on the feed lips when it came up. Might be possible to have a drum that will feed both if you have a way yo keep the rim of the shells on the back of the drum so they come up and catch on the feed lips uniformly.

Edited October 21, 2010 by Rusty truck

[peaches 4]

so after you adjusted the drum are you able to able to load a round whit the bolt closed ?

[midnaite 43]

just recieved mine today, it's so tiny

[Paulyski 2,227]

just recieved mine today, it's so tiny

Now I just gotta wonder...

You're French, right?

Like IN FRANCE FRENCH... Right?

 

Any time I've ever communicated with a Frenchmen about firearms, they were always calling us crazy bloodthirsty gun nuts from a "gun-culture".

 

So, are you a pariah in your country for having such a bad-ass shotgun?

[midnaite 43]

yes paulyski, a real french from france living in france, 100% french with wine bottle and the berret on the head.

firearms don't have a good image in France, if you say you own guns, people will think you're a facist left wing extremist eating baby seals for breakfast.

so I tend to hide it

people are really scared of guns here, so I just laugh myself so much in my head when I take the parisian subway (I live in Paris) with my guns in my bag to go to the shooting range.

[ssblair 0]

I've got a Promag 12 round drum--I like it. The shells do rattle a bit, but I wonder if that might not be remedied by adding some felt inside the drum between the follower gear and the case heads or something.

 

While the 12-rounder is quite compact (and not terribly heavy), it tends to interfere with my left forearm (I'm a righty) when holding the forearm of the shotgun. This may be remedied by using a bottom pic rail with a vertical handgrip, but I don't have one of those to comment on that. So right now, without doing anything to the forearm of the shotgun, the 12 round drum is a wee bit less than comfortable. The MD20 is even worse and I couldn't make it through a full round of trap without having to rest and stretch my left arm due to the weight.

Edited October 26, 2010 by ssblair

[Sumsky 115]

I want to see a MD torture test done on a ProMag. Run that Truck over it a few times.

[Paulyski 2,227]

I've got a Promag 12 round drum--I like it. The shells do rattle a bit, but I wonder if that might not be remedied by adding some felt inside the drum between the follower gear and the case heads or something.

Good idea.

It would need to be secured & it would need to be replaced/maintained, but when perfect, that would fix the issue of the shell rattle of the drums if you kept your ammo consistent lengths & there was no additional drag impeding feeding.

It would only need to be done to one drum, being as, if a person needs more than 1 drum of 12 gauge... Well... They likely have more urgent issues than drum rattle to worry about.

 

 

While the 12-rounder is quite compact (and not terribly heavy), it tends to interfere with my left forearm (I'm a righty) when holding the forearm of the shotgun. This may be remedied by using a bottom pic rail with a vertical handgrip, but I don't have one of those to comment on that. So right now, without doing anything to the forearm of the shotgun, the 12 round drum is a wee bit less than comfortable. The MD20 is even worse and I couldn't make it through a full round of trap without having to rest and stretch my left arm due to the weight.

Are you shittin' me???

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFgiUm4lQig

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfCfAVde90A

 

If you can't reach around & lift an S-12 with a drum for a few minuets, you either have WAY TOO MUCH shit hanging off your gun, or you need to go to the gym.

The girl in that video is only like 5'6" maybe 120 & your gender is listed as male, right?

[mgconnor13 206]

um I use a vertical grip on mine and I have no problem using drums. Just saying