Last week I published an article with lots of great info on Magpul’s upcoming M3 PMAG. Originally, Magpul had planned on offering a standard baseplate (or floorplate) as well as an accessory ‘slimline’ baseplate. However, they’ve abandoned this approach and gone with an all new, single design.

Here you can see the original design.

And the new style. Notice the improved interface between baseplate and magazine body.

I’ve had a couple of offline discussions about the new baseplate design and I keep hearing people use the term “compromise” when they ask me about it. Well, I’m going to throw that word right out of the window because to me, “compromise” means they gave something up. From my perspective, that isn’t the case at all. Rather, they looked at both variants they had developed prior to SHOT Show and in testing over the past few months, developed a new baseplate for the magazine. For one thing, this baseplate slides on from the rear. It’s also a low profile design but you can still get a grip on it and the design offers a slight rand all around the base of the magazine but it’s not so pronounced that it causes issues with mag pouches.

www.Magpul.com

Magpul is a sponsor of the Hot Shots calendar and during the photo shoot, SSD was able to check out some of their latest wares.

MOE Stock

The new MOE fixed stock for AR-style rifles unveiled at SHOT Show will be hitting the market very soon. QD cups are coming that will accommodate the MS3 mount and be offered separately in order to keep cost down and because not everyone needs them. There are holes in both the front and rear of the stock to accommodate the QD cups offering lot of versatility to the shooter.

It offers slightly larger storage compartment dimensions than the issue A2 stock. Additionally, it uses the PRS buttpad. In fact, it will be compatible with all PRS accessories in the future.

These are the initial photos of production models of the stock.

SGA 870 Stock Upgrades

Look for an MSA style loop adapter that inserts between the SGA stock and receiver. It will fit in the slot seen below. Coming soon.

M3 Magazine

One magazine to rule them all. Seriously. Magpul has invested 3 years in improving their magazine. To me, it’s as if Magpul crossbred the PMAG and EMAG to produce a single magazine that is compatible with the gamut of weapons featuring NATO Std magwells (SA80, HK416, etc) as well as AR Mil Spec weapons. But, it’s not just about new materials. They’ve also improved their molding processes as well as a few design features. By extension, this means they have had to improve their test fixtures to record improved performance. It’s gotten that much better.

Notice the slightly raised portion above and below the mag catch slot. It is an improvement that improves the strength and life of the magazine.

Here you can see the new floor plate design that slides on from the rear. The slim line option shown at SHOT has been abandoned. However, they do plan on releasing a Ranger Plate. Additionally, the dot matrix to aid in magazine marking is visible. You may also notice the bulges along the front of the mag in order to improve grip.

The body of the mag is also a bit different than its predecessors. For example, you can see a slight bulge on the spine about where the magazine bottoms out in the magwell. It’s called an over insertion stop. This is to keep the shooter from over inserting the magazine either during (re)loading or immediate action. Unfortunately, with this feature it looks like that new Kydex I got a few weeks ago from HTC will have to be replaced once these are available. But, the new features are worth it.

Additionally, you may notice the new, more pronounced cut out along the top rear of the mag. This is to more adequately accommodate the bolt hold open devices in some non-Stoner style weapons like the SCAR and ACR. With those weapons the bottom of the carrier could drag across the top of the mag. In fact, both the spine and feed lips performance has improved several fold.

Magpul has also improved the follower. While it won’t look like previous Magpul anti-tilt followers due to its asymmetric shape, they have also improved the channel that it rides along inside the magazine body.

Finally, this doesn’t mean that the PMAG, or for that matter, the EMAG will go away. Magpul will continue to support their contracts for those magazines as well as support those that prefer the slick sided EMAG. If there is one takeaway, it is that M3 (Material, mold flow, mold processing) denotes a technology that will be carried over into all future magazine designs. In addition to a proprietary magazine for an LWRC 6.8 rifle, Magpul assures us that that will be an additional new Magpul M3 technology magazine coming after this model.

www.magpul.com