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Shot 2024 thread

You guys have it backwards. Black is the strongest. Clear is the weakest. Strength is determined by darkness of pigment.
It's why sand pmags went away.
But...I still run the sands with no issues.
I trust your opinion but who knows what’s true on the internet

Magpul
Product Updates

•With the launch of Stealth Gray across the board, we will be discontinuing Foliage Green as a color option, to be completely phased out by the end of 2014. Also, based on demand and to maintain consistency across our line of magazine products, all non-black MOE magazine color options will be discontinued by the end of 2014.

•Black is very hard to beat in strength as a color. This is due to the small size of the carbon molecule which makes up the black color and disruptes the base material the least during the molding process.

Sand color came about during experimentation in new materials and processing. It was the first time we made a color that was as strong as black but it took another couple of years of development to get a color that kept the M3s strength but fell within the new US Army "non black" specifications.

Technology is not static, it evolves.

•This new Sand colored material shares many of the properties and components of our latest black material. Endurance, reliability, chemical resistance, stability, and other parameters are exactly the same. The main difference, due to some proprietary developments in composition, is strength. The GEN M3 AR/M4 PMAG is extremely resilient in black. However, as tough as our basic black material is, the Sand material is even stronger. We’ve seen very significant increases in feed lip drop and other rough handling tests from -60F to 180F—to an extent that it made our initial results hard to believe. Similar proportional increases in the other magazines in our line have been seen in our testing. With this increase in drop strength, we still see the resiliency that makes the PMAG what it is—Feed geometry does not change, unlike metal or softer polymer magazines—and so reliable feeding is not affected by this punishment.

To clarify this just a little bit, the Medium Coyote Tan color was developed because it maintains the same strength as the black polymer while falling within the color range for the "Small Arms Weapons Neutral" Coyote color specified by the Army for non-camouflage equipment. FDE does not fall in that color range, so Magpul wasn't trying to recreate FDE in the M3 line. The Army designated the Coyote color for any Soldier items that are not made in our Scorpion II Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP), such as T-shirt, boots, belts, pouches and equipment bags, etc. Magpul posted about the new color here when it was first announced
 
The 36mm Kahles 3-28 is absolutely sick. Without it even being pointed out to you the FOV slaps you in the face. It's basically a high magnification K16.
If they fix their CA issues it sounds nice. I shot my 624i for years. Got it in the right light and that was it. Bleh.
 
I trust your opinion but who knows what’s true on the internet

Magpul
Product Updates

•With the launch of Stealth Gray across the board, we will be discontinuing Foliage Green as a color option, to be completely phased out by the end of 2014. Also, based on demand and to maintain consistency across our line of magazine products, all non-black MOE magazine color options will be discontinued by the end of 2014.

•Black is very hard to beat in strength as a color. This is due to the small size of the carbon molecule which makes up the black color and disruptes the base material the least during the molding process.

Sand color came about during experimentation in new materials and processing. It was the first time we made a color that was as strong as black but it took another couple of years of development to get a color that kept the M3s strength but fell within the new US Army "non black" specifications.

Technology is not static, it evolves.

•This new Sand colored material shares many of the properties and components of our latest black material. Endurance, reliability, chemical resistance, stability, and other parameters are exactly the same. The main difference, due to some proprietary developments in composition, is strength. The GEN M3 AR/M4 PMAG is extremely resilient in black. However, as tough as our basic black material is, the Sand material is even stronger. We’ve seen very significant increases in feed lip drop and other rough handling tests from -60F to 180F—to an extent that it made our initial results hard to believe. Similar proportional increases in the other magazines in our line have been seen in our testing. With this increase in drop strength, we still see the resiliency that makes the PMAG what it is—Feed geometry does not change, unlike metal or softer polymer magazines—and so reliable feeding is not affected by this punishment.

To clarify this just a little bit, the Medium Coyote Tan color was developed because it maintains the same strength as the black polymer while falling within the color range for the "Small Arms Weapons Neutral" Coyote color specified by the Army for non-camouflage equipment. FDE does not fall in that color range, so Magpul wasn't trying to recreate FDE in the M3 line. The Army designated the Coyote color for any Soldier items that are not made in our Scorpion II Operational Camouflage Pattern (OCP), such as T-shirt, boots, belts, pouches and equipment bags, etc. Magpul posted about the new color here when it was first announced
My story is this: Years ago I was working a buyer at Magpul's largest distributor and discussed the sand mags. It was relayed to me, by that distributor, that sand was the toughest color, so I bought a bunch. These guys are super close with Magpul and were key to putting them on the map. I say that too insinuate they typically know exactly what they are talking about.

Fast forward a few years later and I was attending the Best Ranger competition at Benning. I won't name their names but I found myself at dinner with THE top 3 execs at Magpul. I brought up how many sand mags I had and all three were curious as to why I liked the sand so much. I explained it was their toughest mag...and well, they corrected me.

Then I see your article.

I tend to believe the execs at Magpul because I had a talk with Mission First back in November and got to see and preview and even take home a couple of their new translucent mags. As we discussed the colors the same pigment-to-strength issue was mentioned and is actually one of the selling features because MFT has purportedly developed a material where translucent has identical durability to black.

Definitely seems like there are some contrarian opinions out there. Could be either:

Originally darker was better but but new technology came along

Or

Originally they thought they had sand as superior but over time proved to be untrue

I will say my sands are my favorite and I beat them bloody...no issues.
 
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