The Truth About 29 Rounds | Back to Basics

What about one in the chamber? The say you load one and then top off the mag or you just decide to reload before your bolt locks to the rear? Does 30rnds or 29rnds make a difference in the next mag?

Does anyone know WHEN the ridge on the back of the P-Mags was instituted?!? Good Vid by the way 👍👍

I always put 1 round in each mag and then carry 30 mags

When I service a firearm with a detachable magazine, I also service the magazine next trip to the range. I’m all ready to go no issues. San Diego

First time watching one of your videos. Down to earth quality information. Thank you. I'm now subscribed. Stay free

Don't the USGI mags tilt to quickly unload the mags?

Can the metal GI mags be over-inserted in a lower like the Gen1 PMags?

Just found this. Great video! Subscribed to the channel. Do you do Rumble?

Great infor, now I'm gonna read comments for the AKCHULLY guys....lol

Anti tilt followers are a game changer. Most people ( at least that i have delt with ) have no idea.
I have gotten great deals on 1911 mags because of their crap followers.
Then i just swap em out and theyre good

Excellent instruction, thank you.

Great detailed explanation! I wasn’t aware of the old PMag problem so definitely going to upgrade. Thank you!

Some carry 29, is that because of spring tension and allowing compression while inserting the mag or does that have to do with the bolt picking up on the left side better??
Do speed loaders affect the way rounds are inserted into the mag? Are they as reliable as hand loading?

I didn’t know Chris Costa had a little brother …

I run an ak. I use 30 and never heard if this issue. Ar's are hot trash

Incredibly informative video, well explained!

What about loading from stripper clips? Can Pmags handle the key?

The best learning from this video was about the non-tilt followers and the extra lip that prevents over-insertion of pmags. I'll be checking all of my mags, now.

and the last three rounds are tracer

Excellent information and presentation. Thanks for taking the time to better inform an old dog.

Thanks for the video.

I should get some of my magazines, load them up, and see whether I can knock rounds out of the magazine by bumping the bottom of the magazine.

I have several magazines loaded with twenty rounds because I bought a 20-round box of ammunition, loaded it into a magazine, and then threw away the box. I don't have an opinion on whether to load 28, 29, or 30.

I have health issues. I wish I could find a class for people who have chronic fatigue syndrome and rarely last more than two or three hours at anything.

Fantastic video. We need more of the basics. Especially for guys like me who have had to find their own education because we weren't given even a crude level of training in the service. Speaking to that, I was taught the 28 thing in the AF, my Army and Marine friends say 30. My only concern is the reliability. If it runs at 30, cool. Then that's what I'll do.

Good information!

I've been loading 29 for many years now after having failures to seat mags with 30. There's so many people now evangelizing about loading 30; maybe I have to try 30 again to make sure I'm not crazy?

i understand this mainly fuddlore but my ksi 33 round glock mag DEFAINITLY has a weaker spring than when i bought it

Guess 98 percent of my pmags are the older generation.😢

When I joined my agency we were issued two busted ancient military surplus magazines. First thing I did was hop online and order Magpul rebuild kits. We were later issued PMAGs (finally).

Great info, thank you, sir. I didn't know about the bump on the back of the Gen 2 mags. I only seem to have Gen 1 mags so I will be ordering not only Gen 2 mags but I'll be ordering some of those Duramags as well. You may have saved mine or someone else's life if I have to use my rifle in defense of life....thanks again, sir!

I will never be able to figure out how to load my mags to the correct amount...ever😮

awesome video. i didn't know magpul mags will accept 31 rounds. thank you. thank you very much. i typically speed load off stripper clips so its never been an issue, however i have to say that there is a lot i never really knew before and i am ex military. weapons weren't my main thing and i don't pretend to be an expert. this is a great video. many thanks for bringing me up to speed on newer equipment. in my day we didn't have polymer magazines or at least i sure as hell never had one. i still have my reservations about them. i went half and half. half my mags are polymer and half are metal. all of my magazines have the magpul anti-tilt follower. my metal mags are brownells. i've heard they are good magazines. i haven't had any issues with them yet

Give your magazine firm tug down to confirm it’s fully inserted and not just held in by friction. Push in - click - tug down. And don’t ride the charging handle forward - pull rearward and release fully.

Great information, thanks

Does anyone know why the first gen magpul mags have the top round on the left?

All my Gen 2 Pmags, now belong to my son, fine in his ar15.. There is an issue with gen 2, using .300black. Upgraded to Gen 3, good to go. As the video states, i always fill to 30 rounds. Be surprised on how many gun fights end with the person with more rounds carried alive.

Holy shit I didn’t know Chris costa had an older son!

I had a bunch of MFT mags i left loaded and eventually (after like a month or two) the feed lips had separated enough that multiple rounds would get ejected just from setting them down. Hell, you just looked at them wrong and next thing you know 15-20 5.56 rounds would be ejected out. Edit to add: I know people don't like ProMag but their RollerMags have been reliable for me. I have about 30 mags total between Pmags and RollerMags and the RollerMags have been just as reliable and durable as the Pmags at about 2/3 to 3/4 the price. The only downside is the RollerMags are slightly longer because of the longer follower. I've used just about every budget (cheaper the Pmags) AR mag on the market and RollerMags are the only ones worth a shit.

Thanks for sharing! Magazines keep the rifle running no reason to skimp on them

Question - How long can a mag stay fully loaded without having to worry about spring fatigue? All of mine are Pmags.

I learned something new today. Glad I stopped and watched

Very educational in a basic skill. Your presentation skills are spot on!

Always 30, except when it's 32. What do you think of MFT gen 2 mags?

One of the nicest men you'll ever meet. True patriot, warrior and gentleman. Lake stevens was a great night.

Wow. Great info. Now I know why my early generation p-mags were always giving me trouble, but the later gens worked well. Thanks brother!

Had a cheap mag laying on the truck tailgate during the summer, it got so soft it unloaded itself laying there, true story ! It would dump one about every 5 seconds down to about 3 or so, Lesson learned, Spend .50 more cent and go first class!!!

Good information! A note on the last magazine he talked about- I have 4 that I got from Cabela’s. Can’t tell you the name without looking, but I had them loaded up and put them in the bottom of the gun cabinet. One evening while we were watching TV, we heard a racket and couldn’t figure out what it was. Then heard it again coming from the gun cabinet. I opened the drawer and the magazines had almost completely unloaded themselves. That was the last time I used them.

Note to those seeking mag pouch carriers; generally speaking, metal mags slide in/fit most mag pouches easier than Pmags due to Pmags having a much wider baseplate and multiple sharper edges along the side of the mag.
Steel mags are slicker, don't have a baseplate wider than the mag itself, and are just easier to stow.

If you over-insert a magazine, couldn't one just push the mag release while trying to take the mag out?

For AR15 I am Lancer mag all the way. I have a few hundred. For AR10 I have about 25 Lancer mags and 75 Mag Pul. Love the Lancers but boy they are expensive.

The Duramags don’t appear to have the tab that prevents over-insertion. Do they have this potential problem?