While this will be SBR’ed before too long, these mags are the same for those with the carbine version. A short version and a longer detailed version are below.
Short Version:
CZ Scorpion Evo pistol (will be SBR’ed when approved) shot for the first time today. Factory config without any alterations, bought new, manufactured in 2017.
Used 3 of 3 recently purchased Manticore Arms magazines, each loaded to 30 rds only. Also used the 2 factory CZ 20 rd mags.
Ammo was Speer Lawman 124 gr (very good quality ball ammo - this is the exact ammo that Sig and Glock use for their factory live fire function testing )
All 3 Manticore Arms mags experienced multiple double feeds. The factory CZ mags were run repeatedly with no problems. See 2 pics below (one has a right-most round at the top, the other a left-most round at the top)
Long Version:
The Scorpion Evo pistol was stripped and cleaned of factory grease etc. and properly lubed with G96 CLP per the manual. Inspection of all part before and after showed no visible abnormalities. Nothing whatsoever was done to modify the weapon (not even a sight on the rail). 2017 manufacture date bought from reputable FFL dealer new.
4 Manticore Arms 32 rd magazines had been purchased directly from Prepper Gun Shop. Also had 2 20 rd CZ mags that come with the pistol. All were stripped and springs were extremely lightly lubed with G96 CLP. One 32 rd Manticore Arms mag was immediately rejected, as a dent in the mag on arrival in the rear right of the body slightly impaired the travel of the follower at this point. It was never used. All other mags were normal on inspection.
The other 3 Manticore and the 2 CZ mags were loaded to 30 rds and 18 - 20 rds respectively with Speer Lawman 124 gr ammo. Several thousand rds of this lot have been previously shot by me through a number of G17s and HK VP9s with no issues.
The factory CZ mags ran perfectly on slow and fast fire when tested repeatedly, always loaded to 18 or 20 rounds.
The first Manticore Arms mag has 2 double feeds when slow fired at a rate of ~ 1 rd per 5 seconds. These occurred at roughly around 20 rds left in the mag and another at ~ 8 rounds left. The bullet portion of the top round was in the chamber, but the brass could not fit as the 2nd round down was nose-ing up, as it was ~ 25% fed (its rim was still barely under the front-most portion of the feed lips). One DF occurred when a right-sided round was being the top round, the other was when a left-sided round was at the top.
The other 2 Manticore Arms mags had 2 identical failures at around the same point remaining in the round count, except these 2 mags were fired at maximal (mag dump) speed.
These DFs did NOT clear with (1) tapping the mag (was already inserted fully) and then (2) racking the charging handle (the bolt simply returned to the same blocked position against the top round). I had to eject the mag, at which point the mag came out with the 2nd round falling out on its own, and the bolt then automatically moved forward and the top round was chambered (since the double-fed round always came out with the mag). Not a good malfunction type to have in a firefight / in the dark.
Bottom line - all the Manticore mags are going back as a defective product in general (at least with my weapon, which works perfectly with CZ 20 rd mags). While Lawman isn’t going to be the round I’d use for home defense, I don’t trust any mag where 3 of 3 new mags have a 2 / 30 (6.7%) rate of double-feeds using high quality ball ammo. Not worth the further wear & tear on the weapon for testing a moot point, when I’d never use these mags anyway - my sample size is good enough for my brain’s statistical satisfaction at this point. The 4th Manticore mag being physically damaged on arrival (and therefore never used) clearly occurred at the factory and not during any shipping damage (different issue obviously).
Just curious if anyone else has seen or heard of this issue. You can always blame the weapon, but in this case that’s sort of unsatisfying, given no issues using factory mags.