Ammo costs are down from the scarcity costs a number of years in the past. That doesn’t imply that they’re low cost, however some ammo is unquestionably extra inexpensive than others. 9mm is about as low cost as you may get in centerfire ammunition, and it would make you want you’d picked up a 9mm AR.
When you’ve got a rifle caliber AR-15 and wish to drop a 9mm higher on it, you possibly can at all times get a magazine properly adapter that makes use of pistol mags or Colt SMG mags. The adapters run wherever from round $70 to a few hundred bucks and you then nonetheless want mags, except you have already got some readily available. There’s additionally the problems of reliability with a conversion and ease of swapping your gun again to its unique caliber whenever you wish to. If you wish to bypass all of that, a better answer is to make use of the ExoMag from MEAN Arms.
However First, the EndoMag
MEAN Arms isn’t new to the 9mm conversion magazine sport. They’ve been making EndoMag conversions for some time now. The EndoMag is a drop-in conversion equipment for Magpul Gen 2 or later PMAG’s that allow you to use 9mm in your present journal. Merely disassemble the journal, pull the spring and follower and change it with the MEAN unit. The EndoMag comes blocked to 10 rounds, however you possibly can reduce the “plug” to permit it to carry 20, or 30 rounds in case your state permits it. Changing your present mags is as quick as swapping out the spring and follower.
Ensure you do use Gen 2 or later mags although. Initially I dropped the conversion in a Gen 1 magazine and had feed points. After I swapped out to a Gen 2 magazine the problems went away.
The EndoMag conversion has an ejector constructed into the magazine, which is essential for a 9mm conversion. Most devoted 9mm AR’s have the ejector positioned within the decrease. Because you’re utilizing these mags in a rifle caliber decrease, that ejector isn’t current, however MEAN places it proper on the journal. Endomag conversion kits price $29.99 and also you want donor Magpul mags to work with.
Enter the ExoMag
When you like the thought of the EndoMag, however would fairly have a devoted journal, then the ExoMag is what you’re searching for. These mags are produced from scratch as 9mm mags. They nonetheless match an everyday rifle magazine properly, and are the identical dimensions as an AR magazine. Meaning that you may nonetheless use AR rifle magazine pouches and carriers.
One factor I like with the ExoMag is that it’s visually completely different from a rifle caliber journal. For the reason that 9mm is way shorter than a 5.56 it solely takes up a portion of the journal width. MEAN skeletonizes the remainder of the magazine. This allows you to know at a look that you’ve got a 9mm magazine. On the EndoMag conversions I wrapped mine with tape so I might inform shortly which have been transformed to 9mm. You don’t want to do this with the Exo’s.
The primary Exomag launch is the massive 40 rounder, and that’s what I had readily available to check. There will likely be 32, 20, 15 and 10 spherical mags out there later. I’ll be sincere, I’d have fairly MEAN began with a smaller magazine, because the 40s are fairly lengthy. And truthfully. I used to be slightly skeptical on the reliability as issues appear way more frequent with the upper than regular capability mags. However I used to be positively prepared to present them a run by means of. Exomags are priced at $35 for the 40-round magazine and progressively dropping in worth all the way in which down to simply $20 for the ten spherical magazine.
Take a look at Platforms
I used three completely different weapons to check each the Endo and Exo mags. All three began out as 5.56mm SBR’s. On one I pulled the higher from my H&R 635 clone. The subsequent I used the Bearing Delay Higher from MEAN Arms. This one used a barely completely different model of the ExoMag because it has an ejector inbuilt to the bolt. This negates they want for one on the journal like the opposite conversions.
For the final one I used my Spikes Tactical 9mm higher. For the haters within the peanut gallery, yep my Spikes continues to be rocking a Keymod handguard. It’s an older gun and it really works, so I don’t mess with it. I feel I nonetheless have three older SBR’s with Keymod.
Anyway, other than swapping the uppers, I wanted to make use of the heavier buffers from the 9mm PCC’s as properly. Being a blowback system the 9mm AR’s want a heavier buffer to cycle, so it’s important to swap out your rifle buffer whenever you transfer to 9mm. Except you employ the MEAN Arms Bearing Delay higher. MEAN designed that one to be a one for one swap without having to swap buffers because it isn’t a blowback system.
Vary Time
With transformed weapons in hand, I headed to the vary. As a matter of truth I hit the vary with the take a look at weapons various occasions over the summer season. The MEAN Endo and Exo mags have interaction the bolt maintain open of your AR decrease so operation is precisely the identical as your rifle caliber AR. Being that the mags are the identical dimensions as a rifle magazine, reloads really feel the identical as properly, which is good for continuity of coaching.
Along with my two uppers, I additionally used two uppers from a buddy of mine as properly. He has a Foxtrot Mike FM-9 carbine and a home-built SBR. With my lowers and the 5 uppers I ran at the very least 300 rounds by means of my set of three EndoMags and three Exomags. Reliability was 100% on every vary session.
We had an excellent mixture of ammunition as properly. From crusty surplus ammo to trendy protection ammo, and each FMJ and hollowpoint masses. Bullet weights ran from 115 as much as 147 grains. The MEAN mags introduced and fed all the pieces with no points by any means. Regardless of my considerations concerning the 40-round mags and reliability, that didn’t show to be a difficulty both. I feel my skepticism of mags over 30 rounds comes from 5.56 AR mags, and I usually inventory to 10-, 20- or 30-round mags. Though I do have a number of Magpul 40-round mags and so they do run, despite the fact that I not often use them.
Sturdiness appears pretty much as good as any magazine. I let the Exomags drop to the concrete or gravel, relying on the place I used to be capturing, once I reloaded. No points introduced themselves. In addition they rattled round round in my ammo cans and remained loaded between vary periods.
The ExoMag Benefit
Swapping to 9mm is simple with the ExoMag. You need to use your present decrease with no modifications apart from swapping out the buffer tube. You don’t have to cope with an adapter that provides expense and complexity to your rifle. Coaching is simplified because you’re utilizing the identical profile mags, and similar working rules as your AR in its unique rifle caliber.
When you’ve got a surplus of PMAG’s then the EndoMag conversion could also be an excellent choice for you. However in the event you’re shopping for from scratch, I’d give the nod to the ExoMag. It’s a devoted 9mm platform that you may inform at a look is made for 9mm. It’s additionally cheaper to purchase the ExoMag than it’s to purchase a PMAG and a conversion equipment. You’ll be able to order the 40-round ExoMags proper now and put in a pre-order for the decrease capability variations. I plan on grabbing some decrease profile 20-round magazines after they’re out there. When you’ve been excited about including a 9mm higher to your present AR and had hesitated not realizing what magazine system to make use of, then positively take a look at the ExoMag from MEAN Arms. It’s a simple and dependable answer to your drawback.
The place To Purchase
Want Ammo? Try Ammo To Go, the ammunition retail sponsor of TTAG gun opinions and the web place to meet all your ammo wants.
Product and gun opinions are carried out independently and product mentions made primarily based on the standard of the product and worth of curiosity to gun homeowners. Nevertheless, whenever you purchase by means of hyperlinks on our website, we might earn a fee to assist help the prices of working the location and preserving it free for our guests.
