Thread: 308 AR magazine help?

Hey Everybody, was wondering if someone here could point me in the right direction

Just bought an Anderson manufacturing AM-10, which I'm told takes the same mags as Remington R25s and DPMS 308s, and it came with two absolutely crap "5 round" mags that refuse to work very well at all.

For starters, with 5 rounds in there I can't make the mag click home with the bolt closed. Can do with four but requires significant upward force.
Then as I draw the charging handle back, all four rounds and the follower tilt backwards (theres nothing keeping the follower straight) as the bolt rides over the top cartridge, and they stay that way so that when I let fly with the bolt, the arse end of that first round is sitting too low and the bolt lugs miss it completely, closing on empty. Also, I'm pretty sure the spring in there is a little 223 one and the large piece of wood serving as a limiter slides around against the floor plate freely. After spending 3 grand on a rifle I'm pretty frustrated.

Is there anyone who can point me to a site or shop that sells good quality A-Cat 308 mags? 5 or 7rd, I'm not bothered, I just want this damn thing to work.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

You could get DPMS 5 round mags off Brownells for $US30 each if they were in stock. What brand are the mags you have?

They have nothing written on them but seem to be of rather crude construction. I hear there's a rush for that sort of thing over there, I think I probably picked a bad time for this haha

Originally Posted by Dan

Then as I draw the charging handle back, all four rounds and the follower tilt backwards (theres nothing keeping the follower straight) as the bolt rides over the top cartridge, and they stay that way so that when I let fly with the bolt, the arse end of that first round is sitting too low and the bolt lugs miss it completely, closing on empty.

So you are saying that when the bolt is pulled right back as far as it can go the rounds in the mag are still sitting tilted back? Sounds like something to do with spring tension (or complete lack of) in the mag. Either that or the follower is grabbing on the walls of the mag and could do with a little work with a file to free it up.

Originally Posted by Towely

So you are saying that when the bolt is pulled right back as far as it can go the rounds in the mag are still sitting tilted back? Sounds like something to do with spring tension (or complete lack of) in the mag. Either that or the follower is grabbing on the walls of the mag and could do with a little work with a file to free it up.

Yeah that's the one, even in a mag that isn't in the rifle if I push the stack down evenly, it rises back up nose-high. Follower seems free from the sides but the spring seems to be an AR15 spring so is way too small and inevitably goes all wonky like an accordion in there when I put the mags back together. Spring tension is pretty stiff as it's very hard, the little tags of steel bent over to stop the follower jumping out cut a mean gouge in the brass and you really have to let fly with the bolt to make it force a round out of the mag and into the chamber, provided that is, you've stuck yer finger thru the ejection port to straighten the first round haha.

Cheers man ill pull them apart again and have a go at them with the file

Try it with out the wood block

Cheers Mark, Obviously gotta keep it legal haha but for elimination's sake I just took it out and tried with dummies, same problem:/ there's a lot of brass on the inside of the ribbed indent groove things that run up the height of the mag, could they be too tight or something, every time I cycle the bolt the rim of the cartridge being stripped catches on them, shedding brass as it goes past each, which requires a great deal of force. It's super hard to unload a mag by hand, without taking the floor plate out haha. Frustrating and baffling to the point of checking to be sure I actually had the right ammo. Dunno what else I can try

sounds like too much mag tension

but once a spring is shorter it cant be made longer...

I know zip about AR's or bits of them, but a lot of the rimfires work better if the spring is rotated 180 degrees. Could be worth a try at least. Are the rounds staggered in the mag?

Originally Posted by gadgetman

I know zip about AR's or bits of them, but a lot of the rimfires work better if the spring is rotated 180 degrees. Could be worth a try at least. Are the rounds staggered in the mag?

Cheers Gadgetman, interesting suggestion, will give that a try. Yeah they're staggered, but the bullet shaped lump of plastic on the follower that starts the "stagger" might be off because the rounds are damn tight in there against the mag walls, every time a round gets fed the rim at the back gets caught on each of the mag's 3 vertical 'ribs' leaving a lot of brass behind

is the follower easy to push down? I dont think you will be able to rotate the spring as it needs to poke into the follower

Originally Posted by Bill999

is the follower easy to push down? I dont think you will be able to rotate the spring as it needs to poke into the follower

nah quite hard, you reckon hack a bit off? I'm not that bothered if I cut too much haha, there's 2 of them, I only need 1... The spring is the same at both ends, and it just pushes against the follower it doesn't poke into it

Waaaay hard compared to my 223 ones

see how the follower has a hole in it on the bottom of the follower? and the top of the spring hooks round? put the hook in the hole, then try that, Thats how it should go together