https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIP9wBmgXj4
If there’s anyone making great products that don’t get enough attention, it’s probably Lancer Systems. Their L5AWM series of AR-15 magazines are, unquestionably, my favorite AR mags on the market. Now they have an even more advanced design for .308. Their carbon fiber handguards are pure lightweight sexiness, and holy hell do they have a lot of options. If only I had known about Lancer’s single ring scope mount I wouldn’t be running a much larger, heavier, 2-ring unit on my 1-4x Burris . . .
The company’s products are absolute top quality at ~mid-range price points. In the video above, Matt from Lancer gives us a SHOT Show booth tour of some new products.
First, the following arrived a couple months ago for T&E. I’ve already been shooting the lower with all three magwells quite a bit, but have been waiting on a new 9mm barrel to test out the handguard.
The L15 lowers (.223/5.56×45) are sold in various forms from totally stripped to completely assembled with buttstock, as seen above, to appearing on Lancer’s complete rifles. The L30 (.308/7.62×51) comes in “kit” form or on complete rifles. The L30’s magwells have a pretty sweet trick to them that you’ll see in the SHOT Show booth tour video at top. They both offer swappable magwells — standard, tactical, and competition sized flares — that use a standard pivot pin to solidly attach to the lower.
Should you like the idea of swappable magwells but already own a mil-spec lower and don’t want to change — BTW the Lancer pieces also offer ambi bolt release levers and an enlarged mag release — Lancer has you covered there as well. The previous design was a 2-piece magwell that attaches to any standard AR-15 lower:
…and the new design is 1-piece:
New for 2015 is Lancer’s L7AWM series of magazines. .308/7.62×51 NATO mags in 5, 10, 20, and 25-round sizes.
Just like the 5.56 mags, these have tough polymer bodies with steel “uppers” that provide steel feed lips and steel mag catches. The L7AWMs also have a steel insert on the front to make them more durable on a 7.62 during full-auto or other extended, high-volume fire. They have a patented drain in the floor plate that can be switched between open (to act as a drain) and closed (to better seal the magazine in dusty/dirty environments).
Lancer, by the way, is manufacturing the OEM magazines for the U.S. market Sig MPX.
A new, cable-style single point sling attachment connects to your castle nut. There’s also a QD version for certain rifles.
Lancer’s Nitrous Compensator will be appearing in the next muzzle brake shootout, and from its looks I think it’s one of the few that can honestly challenge the last winner (the rearwards-angled first blast baffle makes me think it will be more effective than other 3-port comps with straight baffles).
Lancer’s Viper Brake is available for big boy calibers and is new for 2015, in black or stainless just like the Nitrous:
Complete L15 or L30 rifles are awesome-looking rigs, and with .308’s starting at an MSRP of $2,559 I’m surprised I don’t hear more about them.
The clear/smoke ones are expensive as hell but Lancer L5AWMs are hands down the greatest magazines I have ever laid hands on. Steel feed lips, no dust covers to keep track of, and I can grab a mag and immediately ascertain quantity and type of ammo, and they just look freaking cool. If you can do without clear polymer they are in line with non-window M3 Pmags on price.
The 20rd Lancers are also a work of art. Magpul never seems to get the 20rd pmags working 100%, but the Lancer 20rd mags run like a sewing machine. I need to pick up the 10rd mags at some point.
Yuuuuup. I have a handful of 30-rounders (a couple translucent but most black opaque), one 20 and one 10 from them. All excellent.
I’m not sure I really trust the clear polymer ones on sturdiness (Lancer has said that they’re equally strong, but I’ve had a few people with background in manufacturing tell me that it doesn’t work that way – clear plastic is always less strong).
So I use the clear (smoke) ones for the range, but have a stash of solid-colored ones “just in case”.
Pretty sure some of the strongest plastics out there, e.g. Lexan and other materials used in structural as well as bulletproof applications (and submarine windows, for F’s sake), are clear. And not even just “smoke” translucent, but literally clear.
There are YouTube videos of people running over Lancer’s clear magazines with trucks multiple times and the mags coming out just fine. Running over them on asphalt and concrete, that is. The truth is, even if the clear polymer isn’t actually as strong as the opaque polymer, it ain’t gonna matter to me because if I can run over either of them with a truck they’re both significantly stronger than I’ll ever require haha
Hmmm may need to grab some lancers to supplement my PMAG collection…
Once you get a L5AWM, you’ll wish you could turn in all you p-mags to get more.
They’re both good magazines. What I do like about PMAGs is how easy to load they are, by far the easiest of all AR mags. They’re also plenty sturdy, esp. gen 3. But there’s something very reassuring about the steel feed lips and spine support on AWM…
What’s that .225 caliber the lower is for? Have I missed the train? 😉
Haha good catch. Edited, thanks. Dang 5 has to be so close on the keyboard to the 3! 😉
Lancer Magazines are truly the bee’s knees.
I’m calling BS on the heavier rings. GG&G’s FLT is 5.5 oz
http://www.gggaz.com/flt-scope-mount.html
…and Aero Precision makes one that’s 3 oz. Sorry, I did not mean to imply that all 2-ring units are heavier than Lancer’s single mount. But my Burris P.E.P.R. sure is. Also, after seeing the Lancer single mount on some Nightforce 1-6x scopes and Vortex 1-4 or 1-6x scopes while at SHOT, I really freakin’ loved the aesthetics of it.
Yet another magazine I probably can’t use in my AR-10B because it has to have the flashy angle that won’t fit in my squared off magwell. 🙁 Sigh. I much prefer the feel of the polymer magazines, but I’m pretty much limited to Armalite’s gen2s.
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