The AR market offers a wide variety of affordable and durable polymer mags, but I’ve always preferred aluminum mags. They’re typically smaller and, in my experience, fit more smoothly into magazine wells. But are they as hardy?
OKAY Industries has been making metal mags for the military for years. The company is now offering them to the public under the SureFeed brand name.Â
Appearance
Nothing radical here. All three sizes look just as you’d expect mil-spec AR magazines to look. All sizes are offered in three colors; gray, black and desert tan.
The self-lubricating followers are yellow in the 10-round mags, black in the 20-rounders or gray in the 30-round version. The 10-round mag comes with a black plastic base plate to enable fast extraction. It’s ideal for shooting from a bipod or complying with unconstitutional magazine capacity laws.Â
Function
I ran these magazines during my [shameless plug] Austin rifle courses. They functioned without a single jam or misfeed. The anti-tilt feature on the followers make the SureFeeds slightly quicker to load and helps prevent malfunctions.
Build Quality
SureFeed’s magazines are made in the U.S. of durable, heat-treated aluminum with an anodized finish. I regularly dropped them and threw them around during testing at the range under dirty, dusty conditions and at home when dry firing. Again, no issues. No base plates flying off, no followers ejecting and no visible dents.
Overall
The SureFeed mags are an excellent option for shooters who prefer the standard GI mag. I especially like the small 10-rounder; you can stash it as backup in a bag or in the car. The color options are a welcome bonus for shooters who want to match their gun.
Specifications: SureFeed AR Magazines
Construction: Heat-treated anodized aluminum, self-lubricating followers
Capacity: 10 20 and 30 rounds
Finish: Anodized aluminum with grey, black or desert tan paint
MSRP of $18.95 – $19.95 (found online for about $12 retail)
Ratings (out of five stars):
Build Quality * * * * *
Solid aluminum that will take a licking and keep on ticking.
Reliability * * * * *
I used and abused them and couldn’t get one to fail.
Overall * * * * *
Great, durable magazines that come in three functional sizes and a variety of colors to match your rifle.
almost makes me wish i had an ar.
If ‘silence is golden’, a metal AR mag isn’t…
Man, that is not the best branding. I can see why they changed the name to SureFeed.
“What do you want to name the company?”
“How about Perfectly Adequate Industries? Generally Acceptable Products, Inc.? Could Be Worse Conglomerated?”
in a good to go sense… and the logo is ol korrect as well.
but i hear you. how about meh, inc.?
Adequate Ordnance was taken.
“branding” is as “messaging” or “crafting”? Where BS is more important than substance.
I possess about 15 each of most known magazines. The new D.D. 32 round models are really good as well.
However, the OK Industries magazines are top notch. No problems whatsoever and the fact that Botach just had a sale on them I purchased more.
They are well made and very, very reliable.
Solution in search of a problem.
I have never in my life said, “Damn, I sure am glad I used a reduced capacity mag!”
I used to be all about the Magpuls but after grabbing a crate of various Okay’s for classes and range use I’m a believer in Al mags. Typically found at half the cost of Magpuls stack’em deep. I’ll run anything if the price is right and the functions fine.
Seems like a lot of companies make good quality AR mags at very competitive prices. Why don’t they make M1A mags too? Is there just not enough demand?
Slightly off topic, but can you folks recommend a good 5 round AR magazine to use for hunting? I’ve got 20 & 30 round magazines for general use but the Oregon game laws have a 5 round limit.
Pmag10 with 5-round limiter?
ASC mags out of New Britain Conn. , they’re stainless steel mags with 5 round max capacity . I have and use several for my 300 BLK and have never had a problem with them , I’ve put hundreds of rounds through them with never a problem and they’re tough as can be . I don’t baby mine and even after many drops and wild temperature swings they’ve never failed me !
Never had good experiences with Surefeed mags in the teflon paint variety. I think the teflon has enough thickness to make the follower stick and make the magazine not drop free. I wonder if they have any engineers left to warn them of stacking clearances.
Dang ttag….. Need content much? Mags are good. MKAY? Hope I’m not flame deleted but this is the worst “review” that I’ve ever seen on this site. I appreciate all you guys do but this is phoning it in.
Meh, Ill stick with my Lancers. And I even have a pile of good old fashioned 30rd mag sitting on the shelf what work perfectly well.
I used to use almost nothing but PMAGs and I had a couple of Lancers as well. I switched back over to the Surefeed aluminum mags because… well, I just like them. They are actually lighter than PMAGs, use a Magpul follower and with some Magpul L-plates or Ranger plates you have fixed the only real, practical concern of vulnerability they have.
Sure, PMAGs can withstand more 18 wheeler run overs if that’s what you’re concerned about, but the aluminum mags are plenty sturdy and their feed lips aren’t going to bend unless you like throwing fully loaded magazines down at the pavement, feed lips first.
Overall lighter, a tad slimmer so they insert and eject easier and just something nice about a good ol’ aluminum USGI magazine. OKAY has been supplying these to the military for something like 40 or 50 years and have been in business for something like 100 (they even made the majority of the M1 Carbine magazines during WWII) not to mention they OEM to a few people like Colt in particular. Now that they use Magpul followers any reliability on feeding or loading are out the window although older, surplus mags probably don’t have them.
Yes, I am a fan, no, I have nothing to do with OKAY or anyone that sells them, I just really like them. Then again I recently went back to my DD M4 quad rail after getting tired of my M-LOK rail. New isn’t always better after all. Not to say that PMAGs aren’t glorious: they are, 100% (as are just about every Magpul product I’ve ever had or used) and have been proven in every application the AR has been: hunting, competition, militarily, etc. It’s more just a matter of preference and currently I prefer Surefeed mags over PMAGs.
Are these any better or different than the 7-12 dollar d&h aluminum mags with the magpul followers?
I’d like to know this as well.
The finish on OKAY mags is far superior than any D&H mag. I believe they have a pretty stringent test protocol as well as opposed to just swiping a blade gauge through the feed lips to make sure they are of the proper width. A lot more geometry going on than just a blade gauge can verify.
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