Troops in Afghanistan Get New Lightweight Rifle Magazines

UK Ministry of Defence ^ | 1/20/2011 | ASDN news

[gleeaikin]

Good news for our troops.

[gleeaikin]

Good news for our troops.

[kbennkc]

In total over a million EMAGs will be sent to Afghanistan under the four-year, GBP13m contract with Hereford-based distributors Level Peaks Associates.

I guess a plastic magazine that takes four years to get into the field might be worth 13 BPS a copy.

I don't know about Hereford, England, but if a guy from Hereford, Texas tries to sell you limeys a plastic mag for $20.68 watch where you step.

[null and void]

so this change means each carries around one kilogramme less weight in total than before.

Nooooooooooo, it means they'll carry an additional brick of C-4, or more ammo.

[sinanju]

The infamous SA80 saga continues.

[jospehm20]

Yep.

[garjog]

When do they get the new hand-held Stealth weapons?

[OneWingedShark]

The problem with “lightweight equipment” is that if they cut your carried weight by a third they’ll give you twice as many to carry.
[/sarc]

[OneWingedShark]

There's one plastic mag that I really like, and $20 would probably be a fair price:

The 50 round PS-90 magazine.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Is this magazine half the weight empty, or filled?

[Ben Hecks]

I thought those were called “clips”.

[mylife]

These are fine magazines.
They are stiffer than metal mags and impervious to warping/denting which leads to misfeeds/jams.

The com bloc folks have been using Bakelite mags for ages for this reason.

[SJSAMPLE]

I don’t know how the EMag differs from the PMag, but you’d think they’d get a better bulk discount.

[deoetdoctrinae]

"The 30-round Magpul EMAG magazine..."

Wait. What? 30 rounds? Oh the huge manatee. We've got to get these outlawed. Somebody might get hurt.

Is the sarcasm tag really needed?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***The infamous SA80 saga continues.****

It’s hard to believe the SA80 would have such a failure rate sinceit is based on the Armalite 18 rifle.

Reports from backin the 1970s showed the AR-18 to be extremely reliable. It has been said the AR-18 (full auto) was a standby during the Viet Nam war due to the failures of the early M-16.

HOWEVER...Gun Tests magazine (Remember them?)tested one of the English made Sterling AR-180s back in the 1980s and found it to be unreliable as the extractor broke during tests.

[sinanju]

I don’t know how closely the SA80 could be based on the AR-18 when the SA80 is a bullpup design. I gather that it shared nothing in common with Britain’s experimental EM1 - EM2 7mm design they tested in the late 1940’s (beyond being a bullpup).

The AR-18 will forever remain a question mark. The official legend as I read it was that a Japanese company was contracted to manufacture it in the 60’s but that was scotched because their constitution forbade them from supplying arms to belligerents at war.

The original AR-15 was supposed to have been phenomenally reliable when originally used by the Special Forces and SAS but when the Army adopted it as the M-16 the ordnance corps forced a change in propellant, which fouled Eugene Stoner’s direct-gas-impingement system and cause all the jamming problems. I believe it was the late Dr. Edward C. Ezell who insinuated that the ordnance corps did this deliberately to sabotage the design, as the M-16 had been forced on them by SecDef McNamara. Casualties be damned.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***The official legend as I read it was that a Japanese company was contracted to manufacture it in the 60’s but that was scotched because their constitution forbade them from supplying arms to belligerents at war.****

This is true. I used to have a HOWA made AR-180 but let it go. Two weeks later the price skyrocketed!

I later bought a Sterling AR-180 but it was no where near the quality the HOWA was.

[B4Ranch]

[ArrogantBustard]

I thought those were called “clips”.

I don't believe you.

I think you're just trying to start a flame-fest.

"Live to Flame, Flame to Live".

;'}