Magazine Recommendations for Saint Victor Pistol
- Thread starter Gijoe24
- Start date
TEXASforLIFE
SAINT
I will 2nd that!
Which generation? Does it matter?
TEXASforLIFE
SAINT
I only have gen2, but I use lancer and hex mag. I use them in 556 and 300bo without any issues.
Pitdogg2
Professional
Your call actually. I like the window pmags. Personally I'd buy the latest generation unless you're getting a great deal on a previous generation. I'd buy whatever's available from where you're ordering from.
I've not heard of the Lancer mag's but I've friends who have the hexmag and they work flawless as well.
Keystone19250
SAINT
Magpul, gen 2 or 3 will work.
HansGruber
Ronin
Remember that rifles can have their own personalities...only buy a couple and try them out before stocking up.
Otherwise, yes, PMags are usually solid performers, as are D&H...I like the HK steel mags, myself, but like everything HL, they’re a little spendy.
Otherwise, yes, PMags are usually solid performers, as are D&H...I like the HK steel mags, myself, but like everything HL, they’re a little spendy.
Talyn
SAINT
+1.
I have one that won't take Lancer's but have had no probelms with Gwn 2 & 3 PMags.
TxSenorWhiskerz
Alpha
I just tried loading what I’m assuming are some 1st Gen Pmag’s (they were gifted to me) into my Saint Victor Pistol and you have to bang them in there but the 3rd Gen Pmag locks in easy as ****…… Was something changed on the Pmag’s from 1st to 3rd Gens that’s would cause this?
scott.amy00
Alpha
Okay Industries Surefeed E2 are my goto magazines, they are a fantastic made in America aluminum magazine with anti-tilt followers, great feedlips and the texture of the E2 is a great plus. They're less expensive than the Magpul magazines and in my opinion and experience an all around better magazine. I get mine at Primary Arms and they have several colors to choose from and great prices.
ddeuce22
Professional
Magpul Gen 2 or 3 doesn't matter. Hex Mag, Lancer, 2nd Amendment all seem to work just fine in most AR platforms. D&H and Okay Ind Surefeed E2 if you wanna go metal. Of course each gun has their own quirks so some may have issues, some might not. Test it all out. Lots of choices and good luck!
I would recommend buying a couple of each to experiment with in your unique weapon (i.e. the one with your unique serial number), @Gijoe24 , before you look at buying in-bulk or in "value packs" of 10 or more.
Why?
Because each gun is just a little different from another - and magwell dimensions (including concerns such as the tolerances for the magazine catch and how the lower mates with the upper) is one of these critical and crucial areas where some unique tolerance-stacking can occur.
This is why you'll have guys who own "the same gun," yet one complain about X or Y magazine not dropping free or even potentially causing feeding issues in his gun, but yet another person totally raving about how awesome that same magazine happens to be, "in his experience." Neither are lying - they are just bound to the singular piece of empirical evidence that they're limited to.
Take a look at this video by Chuck Pressburg -
^ It's ostensibly about that age-old argument of whether to load a 30-round AR-15 magazine to-capacity or to down-load it by one or two rounds, but this same idea of "unique tolerance differences" goes here, too, in terms of the general/overall functionality of the magazine versus the gun.
My leading choices?
Magpul's GenM2 and GenM3 P-Mag magazines are both very affordable and readily available. Go to any training class or competition, and you'll see that these fully polymer magazines feature heavily. And there's a reason why they're ubiquitous, for despite their unassuming nature, they feature the winning combination of reasonable pricing, quality materials, build, and thoughtful engineering with thorough development (https://www.arbuildjunkie.com/ar-15-magazine-basics-performance-overview-duane-liptak-magpul/), capped off with excellent customer-service...and this has allowed them to dominate the market as well as to come to hold many military contracts, setting a standard for the entire industry. For me, these are the starting points of my recommendations, with the old GenM2 being what I tell friends to first get a few of to try. The GenM3s spec not inconsiderably more impressively, but their added expense - plus more importantly the fact that they do not play well with certain specific lowers (due to their integral over-insertion stop) - usually has me telling my friends to first purchase just one of, to see if it works well with their gun.
If you prefer fully metal-bodied magazines, the aluminum Okay Industries/Surefeed magazines are considered tops, with D&H/DSG/Brownells/BCM following a close second and often debated with the former based on cost. Typically, in spite of how much Magpul's P-Mags are favored, when troubleshooting, most folks will recommend a known in-spec aluminum "USGI" magazine such as these as the starting point. There's always an argument of whether "plastic mags" or "aluminum mags" are better, and you can see this play out in these two legendary old threads on M4C.net, which feature big names like Larry Vickers and such -
- https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?145532-Now-is-the-time-to-stockpile-magazines
- https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?81074-Move-back-to-GI-magazines-a-journey
Remember that personal-preference plays out a lot here, too. Those who favor polymer-plastic mags like the P-Mag will note that their feed-lips are very resistant to the type of damages that can rather easily put a metal magazine out-of-commission. Similarly, these magazines show readily visible signs that their feed-lips are damaged or otherwise should be taken out-of-service with readily visible cracks - versus a metal magazine's "spread" being undetectable to the naked eye. On the flip side, those who favor metal or metal-feed-lip magazines would suggest that these could always be "bent back into shape" in a field-expedient, empirical manner - while cracked plastic often can't be made to function reliably, even on an emergency "just this once so I can get home" basis.
Alternatives?
In terms of polymer magazines, the Troy Battlemag and the TangoDown ARC Mk2 are also seen in high-volume count training classes and are similarly highly thought-of by various SMEs such as the late Pat Rogers. HK makes a poly 5.56/.223 AR mag, too, which are also highly thought-of by man (I honestly don't know much about them). Based on reports via M4Carbine.net , P&S, and what I've seen in high-round-count training classes, I personally would -NOT- go with any other polymer mags other than Troy, TangoDown, and P-Mags.
Steel? If it's my money, I'd go HK. You pay in terms of money and weight, but these are very, very highly regarded. That said, there are naysayers here as well, citing the same "baseplate whack" failures that's seen of the Lancers (below). Their cost alone typically keeps all but the Gucci of most shooters away from these mags. E-Landers are another viable one in this category, and they were all the rage during the last craze (2013-'16), but honestly, I don't think they're worth it in today's market, which is still seeing a glut of magazines and easy availability. More recently, the C-Products "Duramags" have been stirring the pot, garnering favor from even the likes of SOLGW, but I honestly don't know enough about them to say one way or the other (some debate that it's worth remembering that C-Mags' aluminum mags were not considered to be of the best build-quality, in the years prior, and was considered a second-tier product, at-best).
For hybrid (part metal - typically feed-lip; part polymer plastic - typically body) magazines, the Lancer L5AWM are the current benchmark. Some folks don't like them because these tend to fail the field-expedient "slap on the bottom of the mag, see if rounds pop out the top" test (i.e. "rounds waterfall"). Avoid non-AWM models that are still hanging around in the secondary market. There's also a manufacturer's notice regarding a specific time-point during which their followers were "non-conforming" - avoid those dates as well: https://lancer-systems.com/awc/3_15follower/ . I use the L5AWMs for my range beaters, but I will come right out and say that there have been several big players in the game (i.e. London Metro, Poland (and some other Scandinavian countries, IIRC) who have dropped them in favor of GenM3 PMags, and it stands well to remember that the L5AWMs finished dead last in the USMC's tests - the same ones that saw the adaptation of the Gen M3 PMags into current service. So why do I use them? Because one of my first ARs (https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum/threads/lets-see-your-ar-setups.258/page-4#post-4251) has magwell specs that runs slightly tight and tends to need me to strip away an empty mag - it really likes the Lancers, so I've been using them as my primary range-beaters ever since, even though I've since switched range/training guns (https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum/threads/lets-see-your-ar-setups.258/page-2#post-3579).
Aside from steel mags, I don't have much of a dog in this fight (or maybe I have *all* the dogs in this fight?): I have a mix of Okay aluminum, PMags (mostly Gen M2, with the exception of a few 40-rounders and a couple of D60s - in addition to the ten L5AWMs that I load up for classes, I also carry with me in another ammo box ten loaded PMags to the same class), and Lancer L5AWMs. I'll use them until they go bust, and just put it in the circular file.
And that's the last point that I want to make: magazines are disposable.
Unless you live behind enemy lines and can't get the magazines you want, there's really no reason to be married to any magazine. When one fails, take it out-of-service immediately and replace it with another. You can trouble-shoot the failed magazine later - and possibly even remediate its failings (be it re-forming metal feed-lips or "rebuilding" the internals with a new spring and follower, and perhaps even a new base-plate) or simply throw it to the side as a marked "training magazine" that will help you practice induced stoppages.