I picked up a pair of Lancer L5 Mags locally from http://www.eguns.com/ here in Utah.
Sadly, I didn’t have time to get them to the range so my impressions are only cursory and preliminary.
So obviously the first thing most will want to know is how they compare to PMAG’s
Lighter than PMAG’s
They come with green USGI followers. I would think the L5 mags are compatible with Magpul followers, but I haven’t verified. After a trip to the range I will see if an upgrade is required, but since all my USGI mags have worked fine, I am not concerned
The L5 Baseplate is rubber which is nice for when mags hit the deck
The feed lips are metal, which means they shouldn’t get chewed like as a couple of magpuls I own,.
My general impression thus far is good, base purely upon aesthetics and apparent build quality. The real proof is in the use…and by use I dont mean running over them with a truck. I mean intended use.
So here are some pics. Range pics as soon as I can. For sure these mags are cool as hell.
It’s just the camera angle. They are the almost same length actually, with the L5 being just a couple of hairs shorter, and slightly straighter than the PMAG
They use there own proprietary follower but it is close. When I was doing a T&E on these I didnt try to insert a Magpul follower in the L5’s but from what I was told they will not work.
Just a note: I don’t yet have the L5 mags on the website so if you are interested you need to call or PM me. They will show up on the website when I get around to having time to do a website DB update
A Magpul follower for a USGI mag does not fit without serious modification. It’s too wide and too tall. I modified a follower to fit and was not happy with the effort required. It also did not seem to provide any benefit as it could still tilt.
A follower out of a Pmag will fit. They are much narrower. They are also do not line up perfectly with the Lancer L5 magbody. We did not try this setup, but maybe it could work. Unmodifed the capacity is 26 rounds, I think.
Lancer is working on an anti tilt follower of their own. We haven’t had any issues with their proprietary green follower.
We may also see a 20 round L5 variation.
Lancer has also made a disassembly tool for the L5’s. We shipped some out last week and I have not received feedback yet on these.
I also like that I can use my old school Magpuls on the L5.
The quality is definitely there. We have not had any function issues. I love a USGI mag with a Magpul follower, but they have been replaced with Lancer L5’s.
I shot 30 rounds each through four L5 mags this weekend. Hardly a grueling test, but they ran fine, no malfunctions whatsoever. Bolt stripped off the top round on every one fully loaded (I had some of the D&H mags from a couple of years ago that had a little trouble with this so that is why I checked.) Rifle was Colt, ammo was Privi Partisan 55 grain. Also, seated fine with 30 rounds but took a little smack to do so.
New gen Magpul followers wouldn’t fit, the rear slot is to wide for the L5 mag. I dropped them fully loaded a couple of times on my carpeted floor, nothing happened. I am not a hard core user, and don’t intend to drive over them with my VW or anything:D , but FWIW I liked them.
I hope Lancer does well; Magpul proved the polymer magazine to be an excellent idea, and while I really like Magpul (says my credit card) I like a competitive market, and thus more options, too.
I only have Colt rifles in the shop right now. They dropped free without any hiccups from them. But Colt worked with Lancer on the development, so I expect them to work well in a Colt rifle.
Even thought these are in direct competition with PMAG’s, I wonder if Magpul would be willing to make some followers for it. I just received a batch of these they look pretty good. Like the idea of having steel feedlips. I’m going to try 'em out at my next training session to see how they do (I normally run C-Products SS mags and P-Mags). Magpul could have probably stolen some of Lancer’s thunder if they would have just released their smoke/clear P-Mags.
Magpul did “the truck test” against a USGI mag to show that the mag body returns to it’s original shape after the load is removed and the USGI is deformed. It made a point.
