Thread: Tasman Research: New NZ made AR15 magazines

I was approached by the maker of these magazines, and sent one to test. They're a plastic 30 round AR15 magazine, will be available in a variety of colours - the example I have is Flat Dark Earth, and is ribbed with a slightly rough texture over all external surfaces. Moulding flashing is minimal.

They actually hold 31 rounds, and will lock into a rifle with a closed bolt when loaded with 30. They ship with an alternate baseplate, of the Magpul "Ranger plate" style, which simply slips on in place of the standard flat baseplate. All parts of the magazine are marked with a neat little kiwi symbol, the spring is the normal sort of coiled spring you find in AR15 magazines, and the follower is a grey plastic anti-tilt design, it is unable to tilt to a degree that it will jam. The internal OAL of the magazine is reasonably short, like all polymer mags, 62gr softpoint ammunition barely fit. The rear of the magazine has round count holes at 10, 20 and 30 round positions, which line up exactly when loaded, allowing you to see how many rounds remain in your magazine. They seem slightly longer than usual for a 30 round magazine.

The fit in the Aero precision lower of my E-cat AR is slightly on the tight side, the mag doesn't drop completely free - there's a little bit of friction. No problems with locking in, and it reliably engaged the bolt hold open when empty. No damage was sustained dropping the mag when empty today.

I fired 210 rounds through the rifle, freshly cleaned and lubed, with this mag today and had two malfunctions, both misfeeds. Can't 100% certainly attribute them to the magazine, but the rifle is generally very reliable with my normal magazines - 20rd alloy mags. I will shoot more with it and test long term reliability.

It's good to see some more NZ made products coming online, I'm unsure what price point these will be at or when they'll be generally available.