OK - I know this is just a sample of one…but a pal of mine got a black PMag with the intent of beating the holy shit out of it alongside a USGI magazine and see how they compare. Sooooo…
On a gravel range, we loaded the PMag with 30 rounds of XM193 and noted that it would seat in three sample Colts with the bolt closed with no problem. We then proceeded to throw the magazines into the air 20-30 feet and let them hit the rocks. Neither one of them spit out more than a couple of rounds, but the GI mag was already showing signs of unhappiness (i.e. dents and so on.)
We then took the Pmag and started hitting it on the edge of a steel plate (a Pepper Popper) on the spine, feedlips, and on the floorplate attempting to knock it off. No dice. Got a few minor mars on the spine of the Pmag from the blows to the steel, but nothing serious. The USGI mag would no longer seat in the mag well after five blows to the spine on the steel plate. We then commenced to beating the feedlips of the loaded magazines on the steel plate, and dropping them on steel and on rocks from 6-8 feet. The USGI mag’s feedlips were totally distorted, and the PMag showed no ill effect.
We decided that now would be a good time to see if the Pmag would feed, so we locked it in a carbine and fired six shots with no problems.
Then, we decided to do ye olde tire test. Putting a half-inch stick under the Pmag, I drove over it with my car twice, which succeeded in doing nothing but breaking the stick.
Sooo…we did a burnout on it. Positioned the loaded Pmag under the drive wheel, loaded up the tranny and dropped it into D. The PMag went sailing out to the back of the car, gravel flying.
Still worked. The gravel scraped the shit out of one side of the Pmag, but no problems. Fired 30 more rounds flawlessly.
Just for grins, we ran over the USGI magazine too, and succeeded in pancaking it with one pass of the wheel.
Soooo…what about heat? I held a Bic to the side of it until I couldn’t hold the lighter anymore and succeeded in bubbling the surface just a little bit.
I’m impressed.
