What does pmag stand for

I bet they got a PMag. They are all rocking and rolling with PMags. Polymer magazines existed before, but for the M4 or M16 platform, they typically sucked. Magpul fixed that, and then they offered their magazines at an incredibly affordable price. The price was low enough your lowly Lance Corporal could afford to buy a couple a week to replace his ailing and failing aluminum magazines.

I know because I was one of many who did just that. Hwy do so many professional armed men choose the PMag? Well, there are several reasons why the PMag has become the defacto choice of everyone from mechanics in the air wing to Raiders hitting houses. This is the biggest reason why the PMags are so beloved. They work, and they work so dang well. They can be abused and used for years without issue. Drop em, kick, and occasionally clean them, and you are good to go.

They feed reliable regardless of the condition, and it takes a lot of abuse to knock a PMag out. PMags are heavy hitters and are designed inside and out to reliably feed thousands and thousands of rounds. The constant curve internal geometry ensures the ammo travels smoothly throughout the magazine. The follower is the portion that touches the ammunition and guides it upward. When the United States was just using the M4 and M16 series of rifles, things were easy.

The problem is these other platforms have their quirks, especially in the magazine department. The Pmag Gen M3 has been designed and tested to work with all of these new platforms. Beyond that, they even work with some foreign platforms like the British SA The internal design ensures smooth and reliable feeding.

The exterior design is all about ergonomics and ensuring that reloads are easy and intuitive. The Pmag Gen M3 is heavily textured on the outside with a ribbed spine and curve.

This allowed Magpul to optimize the floorplate for strength as well as to reduce its width. One of the more common complaints about the M2 design is the width of its floorplates. This can cause the mags not to stack as well in some magazine pouches, especially for those that use a bullets-up orientation.

The M3 floorplate is narrower and installs from the rear, as opposed to from the front as with the M2. However, this is untrue. The covers are not interchangeable between generations.

This brings us to the comparison of the internals. For both models, pressing in on the button in the center of the floorplate allows the plate to slide off of the base of the magazine. The long-life stainless spring retains both the floorplate insert and the follower when removed. The spring itself is the USGI standard and therefore the same in both models, but the follower and insert have slight differences that prevent them from being interchanged. M2 internal parts are molded in a greenish grey color, while M3 internals are bluish grey.

The followers and magazine bodies fit together in such a way that the follower can be depressed into the magazine, but cannot be tilted front to back or side to side.

Both generations of magazine body tube feature a constant interior curve, meaning the follower does not need to make any transition from curved to straight the way a GI magazine follower does. Simpler is better when it comes to reliability. There are two more interesting functional difference between the two generations. The M2 30 round magazine is technically capable of accepting a 31st round. This was not done so that you could load a 31st, and you should not load more than 30 , it was done to provide enough slack to the follower so that it could be inserted and locked into a gun while the bolt was closed, as the bottom of the bolt will depress the top round when the magazine seats.

Many users still found the force needed to seat a fully loaded PMAG was higher than they liked and this stiffness could sometimes lead to a failure to lock the mag in during a tactical reload. Magpul decided that both issues needed to be addressed with the M3. I tested both and found that round number 31 will not quite fit under the feed lip of the new magazines.

But then somehow, the fully loaded M3 is also easier to lock in under the bolt. I think these have been the improvements that impressed me most about the M3. Magpul has stated that the Black M2 MOE magazine uses the same improved polymer as the M3 mags, but I have not seen the same claim for the other colors. In fact it was stated around the time of the update to the M2 MOE that eventually the other colors would be phased out.

Standardizing on black still allows you to paint the mags if you need them to be a different color. This new material was chosen because it shows improvement over the physical characteristics even of the advanced M3 material. In addition to the standard models, both 30 round mags are available in a windowed version. These have transparent panels inset into each side that allow you to see the loaded rounds, or at least the position of the spring, so that you can get an idea of how many rounds you have left before your next reload.

The old PMAGs came in two sizes: 30 round and 20 round. The 20 rounder was a straight bodied design that pretty closely matched the lines of the original 20 round GI mags. The M3 line also includes a new 10 round and 40 round model. Instead of being straight, each of these follow the lines of the M3 30 and feature the same unique constant curve internal geometry. I have three 20 round M3s, and I find that I use them more than any of my other mags just because of their handiness and overall lower profile.

But for most AR users, the choice is between a great mag and an even better one. Most of my mags are older Rev M models. The price. Magpul lowered the price of the M2 nearly as low as most inferior budget mags when the M3 was released. Neither is very expensive, but if you need to buy several at once, you can fit a few more M2s into your budget. Besides, how often does a civilian like me accidentally crush a GI mag, or permanently distort a steel feed lip? Bottom line: The PMAG M3 and M2 are superior in most respects to the competition, even when the choice is again between a great mag and an even better one.

Any info on the internal dimensions of PMAGs? Your best bet would be to contact the manufacturer.