Mag Replacement Interval
 

So I'm at the point where i need to replace nearly all of my G36 mags. I was kind of pissed at first but then I realized I'm still using the original bunch of mags from the first year I was playing.. so I've gotten 6 years of mileage out of my G36 magazines, which seems pretty reasonable to me.

How often do you guys find you need to replace your mags? I figure armashite users will have it easier since you can get those mags for $10/pop in metal, whereas mags like P90, G36, SiG, AUG, etc. are generally more expensive and less durable.

Just curious and I thought this might be an interesting discussion.

6 years is absolutely awesome from my vantage point. I would love to get some G36 midcaps that were that reliable, if you have any pointers on which brands you like, please share ! :)

I haven't had mags for 6 years, but I've definitely been having to throw out mags. The replacement rate for mine (so far) seems to be tied more to quality control and outright failure of mags than to wear and tear.

As you suspect, us armashite users definitely get mags for cheap, but it seems that we pay with high failure rates.

Here are some of my data points on failure rates:

Beta project PMAGs - Have had these for not more than 2 months and already on my team we've had 2 seize up and refuse to accept any attempt at repair. This is from two packs of 5, so that's already a 20% failure rate. They look pretty (bullet windows! -- though perhaps not for everyone's taste) and are very cheap to buy, so I'm happy to keep loading up on these if they break. It's not possible to disassemble these like the more expensive PTS ones, so their long term viability might be weak.

G&P stock mags (included with C8) + G&P M4 mags - 83% failure rate in under 6 months. Out of 6 that existed on my team at one point (5 of which were mine), only 1 still works. They would not feed no matter what I did, tried lubrication, loading well under capacity, etc. All were purchased back in the early summer of 2011. Will never touch G&P mags again.

CYMA G36 midcap mag - 100% failure rate out of the box, never worked. I even disassembled it, started a thread on it, tried lubrication, etc etc. Would not feed properly, BBs just get stuck somewhere deep in the mag and stay there.

Velocity Arms (JG) metal M4 mags - 5 purchased in the last 6 months, one mag door snapped within the first couple games, otherwise these have been fine. They feel pretty sturdy and the springs feel peppy.

Greenbox PMAGs - I used to be pretty iffy on these in terms of reliability, but after a bit of a crappy and unstable month-long "breakin" period, these are basically my most reliable mags. All of my initial feeding problems went away, and I have a feeling they will last a long time. Even if I forget to empty one and only remember a couple days after the game, I generally find the spring is still good and hasn't lost any zip. They're pretty inexpensive as well, so I think that even if I'm highly abusive with them, I'd be okay with a modest replacement rate.

PTS PMAGs - In our team we have several of these in a couple of colors, and we also have the short versions. They're all pretty much perfect. The wonderful thing about the PTS PMAGs is that you can disassemble them without any fuss or force, clean them and reassemble, so I have a feeling these might end up being the kings of long-term reliability and may yield a low replacement rate. The only problem is that they're super expensive, and losing one really really sucks.

I'd love to hear what G36 mag you think I should be using.

The best G36 mags I've found so far are 50-round King Arms mags (the ones with the fake rounds). MAG G36 midcaps are crap. KA midcaps are built decent but require a lot of dremmeling to make fit. Classic Army ones feed and fit great but fall apart after a while.

I recently purchased a pair of Dboys 50-round mags from Huang ($18/ea) to test out. Seem sturdy enough.

You sure you need to replace them? Perhaps they only need a cleaning and lubing?

Considering it exploded into 5 pieces while in my gun :)

Nothing a bunch of superglue and ducttape can't likely fix, though mags in one piece would be nice lol. It actually fed fine before exploding...

Only G36 mags I've ever had feeding problems with are MAG midcraps.

Coincidentally, they also make the only P90 midcaps that don't feed for me. The MAG 190 armashite mags are also fragile and very prone to breaking, I've had some come broken out of the box.

I have some MAG 90-round VN midcaps I bought when I was using my M4 magwell conversion. Never got them to feed in that, though they feed ok in my only M4 if I load them to 60 rounds or so instead of 90.

I don't get why so many people love midcaps.. I have yet to encounter any that don't feed like shit.

Magpul PTS is about to realese a G36 P-mag, how convenient :P

How would that even work...?!

Edit: Never Mind. 5 seconds on Google yielded this, though:
http://www.popularairsoft.com/news/p...g-maglevel-g36

Mostly for milsims, as they have ammo limits. For skirmishes I use almost exclusively highcaps, but only because mid/low caps have huge feeding issues with my gun.

As for G36 mags, I've had a src highcap that came with the gun. It's the only mag I have for the gun and its lasted around 3-4 years so far with no issues whatsoever.

Or we can just play paintball.

Most milsim games have 300-400 round ammo limits.. I carry 6 50-round mags =300 rounds. Perfect, and feed fine. I carry them for skirmishing too since I hate hicraps even more than midcraps.

I know vest real-estate becomes and issue with G36 magazines.. I wouldn't mind carrying 8 of them but I really can't fit that many on the vest and have them easily accessible.

Every low-cap or low-end midcap I've gotten has always had some sort of issue. Every one of my VN-style King Arms mags have had the issue of not feeding correctly after about 3 months of use. Requires relubing and cleaning before every game so ensure they actually work, and even then, 1 or 2 (I have 6) usually still screw up. After a long duration of profanity and tinkering, they work again, but fail within 2 weeks. All of them are on the "Replace" list.

However, the 8 MAG SiG mags I have are in perfect feeding condition, and they are midcaps. Each of them have been smashed up, cracked, tumbled, basically any sort of impact trauma at this point, and work every time, and usually only require 1 or 2 drops of lube in the mag every winter for over the winter. One of the mags was even left at a field in the dirt for 5 weeks, rained on, trampled on, then found by a referee, then dropped again and beaten to hell and found for a second time by a referee. The spring was rusted along with the screws for the clamps and even then, all it needed was a few drops of lube and it was working fine. Not sure if MAG brand mags are hit and miss, but the 8 I have have been in use for the past 3-4 years and still are. All of these have stood the test of time and durability in my eyes.

The SiG mags are proving a hell of a lot more durable than my metal "high quality" VN mags and in the long run are actually costing me less to maintain. When I had to get the SiG mags way back when, I found the experience more pleasant than dealing with armalite mags, mainly because of the issue of how some mags are wobbly in the well, some don't feed with certain hop-up assemblies/bodies or simply are garbage out of the box. Replacing my only stanag was much more of a pain in the ass than replacing my old high-cap SiG mag.

I realize the OP is talking about G36 mags, but... The PTS PMags are great, I've even contacted them and bought repair kits, due to their modularity someone modified some of the mags I've purchased and I was able to fix their mistakes; quite a bit cheaper than buying new mags.

I've never had a problem with my PTS brand mags. Yes they are costly but work amazingly and I don't load any of my 120 rd midcap past 90 BBs anyway. I remember reading that if you add more than 100 to some midcaps the feed spring looses some strength.