When I first saw the Hera Arms magazines, I was excited. It was like they took Magpul’s design and improved the optics, making it look bad-ass with a space age twist. It was cool, and I’m always happy to give a cool new design some exposure in the hopes that they keep producing quality stuff. But my hopes were soon dashed the very first time I loaded up a magazine . . .

Hera Arms magazine, c Nick Leghorn

That, ladies and gentlemen, is what it looks like when the feed lips on a magazine split. I loaded this magazine exactly once, slammed it into the mag well just like I’ve done with my Magpul PMAGs countless times before…and it started malfunctioning more often than Kim Kardashian gets mentioned in the tabloids.

Magazines need to actually function at least once to pass the test here at TTAG. These things failed to perform even that simple task.

Hera Arms Magazine

MSRP: $25

Overall: [Zero Stars]
I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul.

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32 COMMENTS

  1. Well I guess I’ll just play Devil’s advocate here and ask if this might be just a fluke manufacturing defect? I might be better to get another one to try out. Perhaps even two more to be thorough.

    • It would take quite a bit more than a second magazine to redeem that particular fail. Even if the second mag were to be flawless you’d only be batting .500, which is not exactly good odds in an MSR. Now if he gets to T&E one hundred magazines and all turn out to operate properly, then yeah, possible lemon. But – would you at this point risk your hard-earned money just to find out?

      Tom

      • I mean, its only $25 bucks. It not as if you’re out a fortune if it turns out that in fact, 2 mags in a row failed miserably.

        • Only $25? Dude, PMAGs are $9.99 to $15. Lancers, which I like quite a bit, are $15 to $19. Troy Battlemags at like $8.50. CAA’s MAG17, which is used by the IDF and is a pretty darn cool mag (I like how the window works and the button on the bottom) is like $12.50. Only $25? What are you smoking?

    • If anyone had ever had a Magpul, Troy or Lancer mag fail in such a fashion, it might be worth it. But I’m willing to be no one ever has seen such a failure on a Magpul, Troy or Lancer magazine.

      • I was doing some work with the 101st last year and the BN I was working with bought a Ton of PMAGS to take to Afghanistan. Many of the mags cracked easily in the cold weather and several had their retainers sheared off when using with M-249’s. Must have been a bad lot because thats the only ones I’ve ever heard of doing that and most soldiers loved them as they are more reliable and quieter than the aluminum garbage the army issues..

        I have had a few feeding problems with PMAGS for .308 (brass case ammo) and ditto for 5.56 when using steel cased ammo.

        • I may even venture to say that the 5.56 feeding issues isn’t the PMAG’s fault, rather the ammo itself. Steel case is notorious for feeding reliably in a variety of magazines.

  2. Between Magpuls, Lancers and good ol’ metal GI, I think AR-15 mags are covered. Why should I bother?

  4. This is why I like reviews on TTAG.
    A regular glossy mag would grab another one and redo the review in glowing terms.
    Not here. Huh-uh.

    Thanks TTAG. As Taro said above, “why should I bother?”

  8. Kiss of Death review on Black Friday. I guess they won’t get into the black this year in sales. Oh well, they can always pair up with Cheaper Than Dirt.

  12. I was going to post a scathing comment about only testing 1 mag and statistical probabilities of failure blah blah but then I did a search on hera mags and it turns out they are, in fact, steaming crap.

  17. On a similar note, I received my two, 25-round mags from Molon Labe Industries for my SCAR 17S. Upon receiving the mags, I started loading it. I noticed something peculiar. For each round I put in, I noticed that the lip of the mag started to expand…like about to give way. I thought it odd, especially being brand new. So, I continued to load until max. When I took it to the range, and slapped that mag in, I noticed that the round did not chamber. I pulled the charging handle several times…to no avail. When I tried to remove the mag, its like stuck in there. It took me a while to get it out. I thought it a fluke. So, naturally, I tried the second mag. It did the same thing. So, last week, I wrote via email to MLI. The CEO, Chris Gleason, apologized and told me to print the email he wrote since he would send me two new ones and an extra one to boot at no additional charge. I sent it out on the 25th of this month. Waiting for new ones to arrive. Has this happened to anyone here at TTAG with MLI mags?

  20. Hummm? Your results may vary!
    I got several Hera mags in a large “buy everything the guy had” deal. There were several different brands all used for a couple of years, all of them came to me loaded with ammo right out of the guys car trunk.
    I used the Heras in my Colt, SIG, POF and home assembled 5.56 rifles without any issues.

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