Good info from Mike:
http://soldiersystems.net/2015/06/20/gunfighter-moment-mike-pannone-28/
Tango Down over Lancer/PMAG?
It was a great article, added some comments there myself.
I still think 28rds and USGI mags suck unless retrofitted with Magpul followers. Even then I still use PMAGs as primaries.
No experience with TD mags, in fact I’ve only seen them in person once in the mag pouches of a 0311 CQB instructor from 1st MAR Division Schools.
Great article. I’ve never down loaded mags and never had a problem. My Uncle who served 3 tours in Nam always told me to load 30 rounds. I do lube the inside of my mags and the spring but I use a dry moly lube.
I think LAV always has Tango Down mags in pictures and videos.
Good article. USGI mags with green followers are not crap. It is refreshing to see someone realizes this.
Yeah I use pretty much all 20 rounder GI mags.
These other magazines are not bad but people get pretty passionate and emotional about certain aftermarket mags. I was taught that at the end of the day every magazine is essentially disposable.
Magazine retention and discipline notwithstanding it is an expendable component. But I’ve seen grown men openly gasp if their Pmag falls in a mud puddle.
Yeesh.
I wonder if the years under the AWB tainted peoples view of magazines as disposable/expendable and the more recent panic scarcity. I remember back in the late 90’s trying to get ahold of anything standard capacity other than maybe combloc surplus AK mags was an expensive endeavor. I paid ~$50 bucks each for a couple of factory 15rd beretta mags around 98-99. which at the time was a pretty good deal from what i could find.
I’ve had enough bad experiences with green and black USGI followers not to use them. To each their own as always, but I’ll stick with Lancers for primaries, PMags and USGI mags with MagPul or Tan followers for back ups.
I will agree 100% with the “30rd mag means you load it to 30rds” part. The 28rd “trick” has always bugged me.
I’ve mentioned it before months ago but the newer USGI Brownells mags with tan followers are horrible too. I outright despise them because of the double feeds they caused, the round orientation is reversed and its a product of a bureaucratic institution that has to ****ing reinvent the wheel again when there are quality COTS solutions already out there.
I am no HighSpeed/LowDrag door kicker, but in my thousands of round of shooting the AR, I have always loaded to 30 and will continue to do so. As for the magazine, I use USGI, PMAG, Lancer, Hexmag…so far all of which have been reliable. I even have some of the steel eLander mags that were actually about the only thing available for a while-they work quite well in 2 of my Colts and my LMT.
Great info!
I have always used GI mags, even in my M16 with 416 upper because they ran great and you knew they would always fit in any ol’ gun.
I have always loaded to 28 rounds after picking it up as common wisdom (I always thought it had to do with seating mags properly during tac reloads (which I never practice, foolishly). But hey, I will start loading to 30 now!
Loading a GI mag to 30 is fine until the spring loses a little bit of it’s oomph. Then they’ll have malfs on the first round. Ask me how I know…
Can’t tell if there is sarcasm in here… 
It does have to do with ease of seating magazines during a tac-load.
Brownells mag bodies are garbage.
Nobody’s mentioned the translucent HK polymer mags. I know I’ve seen a torture test between them, the PMags, and Lancers and they did quite well. I have PMags and the HK mags and haven’t had a problem with any of them so far loading 30 rounds in them, but I haven’t put the volume of rounds necessary to validate a long term test. I haven’t tested them doing tac loads either though. Just wondering if anyone who has, had any problems with them.
I have never had a problem with mine but they are simply too big for my liking.
+1
I like them well enough, theyre durable and reliable. But compared to the standard GI mags or the Magpul/Troy mags, I always prefer the thinner profile for load out gear.
I think I ended up painting it, because I paint everything eventually. But I can strip the paint and set up a 1:1 swap if anyone is that curious about trying the HK mag without spending anything.
After the YEARS of use I’ve seen g2 pmags take, I’m pretty confident in magpul.