I Did Not Know That

I was unaware that you could spend 11 minutes saying, "I trust metal more than I trust plastic."

Why do they trust aluminum over polymer in their tediously long YouTube video?

Teh feelz, I guess.

Oh and the metal magazines are cheaper.  Which since the vid keeps circling back to that point, I think the real reason he trusts metal is that it's cheaper.

I just love these "scientists" talking about materials engineering.

Tell you what, if metal is blanket better than plastic, why are the handguards, grip and stock on that AR in the background all made from dead dinosaur squeezings?

Now that Orlite is in its grave and Thermold's original melti-mag is dead and gone; nearly every plastic mag you're going to find has feed lips as strong as aluminum made from a polymer where the deformation strength is higher than the yield strength.  What that means is it will break before it bends enough to change shape permanently.

You cannot say that about aluminum.  Worse, you can't tell if it's bent past functionality just by looking.

There are polymer magazines which use metal inserts to strengthen their feed lips, true.  This is not an affirmation that metal is stronger than steel than it's an admission that the maker is using a softer plastic.

I say this as someone who owns, and mostly trusts, USGI aluminum magazines too.

I also say this as someone who has had failures in every type of aluminum USGI magazine too.

The vaunted 20-rounders still have springs in them, and springs are a wear item.  Magazines are wear items!  I only fixed the 20-rounders because vintage and retro.

The black-follower USGI 30-rounders I have only started failing when the springs got a bit tired.  All of them were cured by the application of Magpul's anti-tilt followers.

I've had green-follower magazines crack near the spine at the feed lips.

What does this mean?  It means I'm shooting!  Magazines are wear items!  Just about any of them work when they're new.

The question is:  Does a $15 PMAG M3 last 25% longer than a $12 USGI.  If yes, then they're roughly equal in value.  But if a PMAG lasts twice as long, it's a much better value.