How far do you Load up your AR Mags?

[albatros43]

I put 35 in mine

 

[Plinker66]

Im no expert but in my experience a fully loaded 30 will not lock in on some mags on a tactical (bolt closed) reload on some lowers. For example I had one lower that would not take a certain brand of metal mags loaded to 30 with the bolt closed. But that lower would take pmags loaded to 30. And another lower would take those same metal mags loaded to 30. So it apparently varies from lower to lower and mag to mag (maybe tolerance stacking), and if you’ve never had a problem with 30 then you’ve probably been lucky to have used a combination of a lower and mags that did not create an issue for you for reloading with the bolt closed.

 

[Allsmiles]

I short load mine; but I normally am shooting my x39 AR. 223, 308, and 9mm I fill up.

 

[cmshoot]

The old style USGI aluminum mags are better served with 28 rounds. They locked in easier when the bolt is in battery, but more importantly, when left loaded for long periods, it puts less stress on the feed lips. The added strain causes the feed lips to spread. They’ll spread just so far, then they crack.

PMags, and similar modern designs, take this into account and can be used with 30 rounds. The PMag is slightly longer than the old USGI mag.

I load my PMags with 30rds, but when I used the aluminum mags I only loaded them with 28.

 

[RiverBend]

28 w 5 backups per rifle

 

[GFB]

30 magazines loaded with 7 rounds each

 

[FrankDracman]

Full mags