Author Topic: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?  (Read 17019 times)

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JKale2923

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How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« on: July 27, 2014, 09:10:10 PM »
I discovered Tapco when I found this forum over a year ago and was originally interested in the SKS 20 round detachable magazines. I was so impressed with it I bought some Tapco mags for my AK as well and they all worked perfectly. I more recently picked up a Bushmaster AR, the exact model is, SUPERLIGHT ORC W/ RED DOT. It works fine with the steel Bushmaster mag that came with it and some ProMags I picked up at a show. I later  picked up a couple Tapco mags, expecting the same flawless performance I received from Tapco on the Sino-Soviet side, but I ended up with significant jambs and feed issues, maybe every 5 or 6 rounds. I thought I may have some bad mags so I ran them through an PSA and Tactical Weapon Solutions AR, that I have access to and everything works fine. I do not think there is anything wrong with the actual magazines since they work fine in other rifles, but was wondering if there are any known issues or if Tapco is just not such a good fit for a Bushmaster AR rifle. I may just have a picky rifle, and have notified Bushmaster, but doubt they will do much since their magazine works flawlessly in the rifle.

I have tried asking over at one of the AR forums, but got some negative feedback like "Tapco Sucks", probably from people that have never even used one. I do know Tapco makes good products and do know my magazines function ok in other brands of AR. All comments welcome. Thanks

cbdolphin

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2014, 09:17:26 PM »
That is interesting.

I have used tapcos in Double Star, PSA, Delton, DPMS and Bravo company USA rifles and they have all cycled fine. Honestly surprised the pro-mags work and the Tapcos do not.

With that being said, Magpul P-mags are roughly the same cost as the Tapco and the Pro-mag and they are the standard for AR-15 mags, so I would just go with those!

Hodgie

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2014, 09:24:44 PM »
I have a few Tapco AR mags and they work find in my AR's, I have a PAP M85 NP pistol which is chambered in 5.56 and they have 0 issues however I have had issues in that pistol with Magpul gen 2 and 3 mags. The follower will hit the bolt carrier and will hang up until a bit of the corner cracks out. The Tapco's and GI mil spec mags are fine so I have to say it's an issue with how the Magpul seats into the PAP pistol possibly sitting to high. I would think it's most likely the same issue for you the rifle just doesn't like the way the mag seats in it.

JKale2923

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2014, 09:27:37 PM »
Interesting....I have to confess I bought the ProMags at a gun show and was not wearing my glasses. I thought I was buying PMAGS and cringed when I got home. I have to admit I am guilty of saying "ProMag sucks" simply because of my experience with one 30 round SKS detachable and comments others have written online. I was happy to eat those words when a ProMag 30 and 42 round mag cycled right though my Bushmaster. I picked up a PMAG Magpul with a windows on the side, but have not tested it yet. All this magazine testing is going through a lot of ammo! I will test the Magpul, if it that works I will standardize on that. I was hoping not to have a rifle that was so brand specific when it comes to magazines. I hope there are some minor tweaks I can do to make my Bushy less picky. I do not want to change too much though since there are brands that do work

cbdolphin

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #4 on: July 27, 2014, 09:30:09 PM »
Interesting....I have to confess I bought the ProMags at a gun show and was not wearing my glasses. I thought I was buying PMAGS and cringed when I got home. I have to admit I am guilty of saying "ProMag sucks" simply because of my experience with one 30 round SKS detachable and comments others have written online. I was happy to eat those words when a ProMag 30 and 42 round mag cycled right though my Bushmaster. I picked up a PMAG Magpul with a windows on the side, but have not tested it yet. All this magazine testing is going through a lot of ammo! I will test the Magpul, if it that works I will standardize on that. I was hoping not to have a rifle that was so brand specific when it comes to magazines. I hope there are some minor tweaks I can do to make my Bushy less picky. I do not want to change too much though since there are brands that do work

Also, were you testing just 1 tapco mag or did you try several? I'd stick to what works in your particular AR, but from experience, I haven't had any issues with p-mags. With that being said, Hodgie has.

Hodgie

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #5 on: July 27, 2014, 09:32:59 PM »
But only in a AK pistol that has a conversion for standard AR mags so I cannot blame it on Mag-pul since these were designed for the AR platform.

JKale2923

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #6 on: July 27, 2014, 09:45:06 PM »
Interesting....I have to confess I bought the ProMags at a gun show and was not wearing my glasses. I thought I was buying PMAGS and cringed when I got home. I have to admit I am guilty of saying "ProMag sucks" simply because of my experience with one 30 round SKS detachable and comments others have written online. I was happy to eat those words when a ProMag 30 and 42 round mag cycled right though my Bushmaster. I picked up a PMAG Magpul with a windows on the side, but have not tested it yet. All this magazine testing is going through a lot of ammo! I will test the Magpul, if it that works I will standardize on that. I was hoping not to have a rifle that was so brand specific when it comes to magazines. I hope there are some minor tweaks I can do to make my Bushy less picky. I do not want to change too much though since there are brands that do work

I have two Tapco mags that both jamb in my Bushmaster but work in PSA and TWS ARs. Since this is a Tapco section, I did not bring this up in my initial post, but I have several old time, Viet Nam era magazines, that are probably 30 or 40 years old. All of them have had at least one feed issue in all my testing but the Bushmaster has had the most. The Bushy is definitely more prone to mag issues. 3 of the steel magazines do not even reliably hold the bolt open when the Bushy is empty, but they work better in the other rifles. At first I was going to try and change the springs and followers in the old steel mags, but when I noticed how consistently the Tapcos had issue and how flawless the ProMags were, I reconsidered. It might just be easier to test out a Magpul, standardize one that and give the others away or at least just pack them away in the attic.

Also, were you testing just 1 tapco mag or did you try several? I'd stick to what works in your particular AR, but from experience, I haven't had any issues with p-mags. With that being said, Hodgie has.

Turn4811

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2014, 01:54:48 PM »
I have the Carbon-15 Bushmaster and I have difficulty getting any polymer magazine to lock into the mag well ( I have Pmags, Promag, Tapco, and a few no-name ones). The Bushmaster mag and the other steel mags all lock in without any issues in the carbon-15. The poly mags work in my PSA lower are OK as long as you only put 29 rounds in them. I also have found the 30 round poly mags will jam when you charge the rifle if you load 30 rounds regardless of lower manufacture.  For the C-15 my thought is the plastic on plastic is not good, and/or the tolerances on the Bushmaster is a little too tight in the mag well.

I now only use metal mags in my Bushmaster and anything in the PSA.
Tsquared

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mogunner

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2014, 02:17:36 PM »
I run Tapco and PMags in all three of my home-built AR's with absolutely no problems at all with either. I buy the Tapcos from CH Kadels (BudK's "sister store) for $15 BOGO whenever they offer a free shipping promo...I think I have about 16 by now or so.  :lol:

JKale2923

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #9 on: July 28, 2014, 06:49:05 PM »
I have the Carbon-15 Bushmaster and I have difficulty getting any polymer magazine to lock into the mag well ( I have Pmags, Promag, Tapco, and a few no-name ones). The Bushmaster mag and the other steel mags all lock in without any issues in the carbon-15. The poly mags work in my PSA lower are OK as long as you only put 29 rounds in them. I also have found the 30 round poly mags will jam when you charge the rifle if you load 30 rounds regardless of lower manufacture.  For the C-15 my thought is the plastic on plastic is not good, and/or the tolerances on the Bushmaster is a little too tight in the mag well.

I now only use metal mags in my Bushmaster and anything in the PSA.
I may get a few fresh metal mags to go with my Bushmaster. I will do more testing and as fun as it is all this testing takes time and ammo. I guess I will pick out a few good mags that work well and keep them with my Bushy. I may still see if there are some tweaks I can do to my it less picky, but it looks like I have a rifle that is magazine sensitive . My specific model is made to be light and everything is cut to the bone. Maybe in doing so a few things are shaved so much that only certain mags with certain followers are reliable.

JKale2923

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #10 on: August 01, 2014, 08:03:36 PM »
I got an email from Bushmaster today...please let me know if it makes any sense to you;

"you should not be having any issues with the feeding of the firearm from any magazine. What you may have to do is to adjust the magazine catch. To do this process you will need a pencil, what you will have to do is take the eraser end of the pencil and push the magazine release button until it stops and hold it. You will then look on the oppisite side of the reciever and you should see the mag catch sticking out of the lower, you will then rotate the mag catch one complete turn clockwise or to the right. Once you do this let the mag catch go and then test it with a magazine. If you are not getting a positive feeding action or the bolt will not stay to the rear on the last shot we may need to get the firearm in for repair. If you have any other questions please let us know"

I did the above and rotated the mag catch clockwise one turn. I went to the range right after and as bad as I want to make my Tapco mags work in my Bushy, I keep getting feed issues. All this while my Promags (30 and 42) continue to feed perfectly. I picked up a magpul and that worked fine today in my Bushmaster also. I then took my Tapco and ran 30 rounds through both of them using a PSA AR-15 without a flaw. My fix seems to be stay away from Tapco and any steel mags that look more that 40 years old and my Bushy functions fine.  I am not sure why this is bothering me so much, I guess because I fell in love with Tapco products on the AK and SKS side, I wanted to use them in my AR, but I just have the wrong combo. It is interesting, I had one box of old time Federal .223 rounds that have sat around for at least 15 years. All 20 happened to go through the Tapco/Bushmaster combination. I am not sure if ammo is part of the equation or I just got lucky. Wolf Gold and 5.56 .55 grain just seem to give me issues.

Hodgie

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #11 on: August 01, 2014, 08:59:44 PM »
Basically what they are saying is the mag catch is seated too far in the receiver. They had you back it off a turn to allow a bit more clearance which makes some sense HOWEVER I would think it would effect all mags not just the Tapco. You can try backing it out one more time. Obviously you dont want to go too far or you will be dropping mags when you least expect it.

I hear what you are saying we all want all of our firearms to be 100% reliable 100% of the time with every brand of mag, and ammo type there it. Unfortunately it just doesn't work like that, every AR that rolls off their line may be good but each one wont be 100% in spec with each other.

On thing I have learned about all types of production line firearms is that just about everyone has a flaw in it. That flaw may never cause a malfunction but never the less it's not 100%.

mogunner

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #12 on: August 01, 2014, 09:18:36 PM »
If you rotate the catch clockwise, that puts more spring tension on it, not less, so would draw it deeper into the mag well (if possible)

Exactly what problem are you having as far as feed problems? Every round? Left side feed ramp, right side feed ramp, next to last round, last round? I did have one Tapco mag that would always jam the next to the last round into the bottom of the feed ramp. Examination showed me that the little notch in the follower was catching on the rim of the next to last round and not letting it pop up and out. Took an emery board to the edge and no more problems.

JKale2923

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #13 on: August 01, 2014, 09:43:22 PM »
I should mention that after rotating the mag catch clockwise one turn, one of the 3 magazines I own that did not lock the bolt open started working, as in I popped it in the rifle and pulled the bolt back and it stayed open. This is not the problem I was mentioning in my previous post but was one of the issues in my magazine sensitive Bushmaster. I tried another turn clockwise and it still did not make a difference with my other two magazines that did not lock the bolt open, so I turned it back one turn. At least I have one of my problem magazines holding the bolt open now.

As far as the Tapcos, they do hold the bolt open when empty, but about every 4 or 5 rounds it seems to jam. I think it would be a more like a double feed if anything. If I pull back on the charging handle the jammed round flips out and a second round is loose and usually shakes out also or let me feed it manually. My one exception was when I popped off 20 rounds of 15 year old Federal .223 ammo. As I said before, I do not know if I just got lucky or ammo makes a difference too. I have been firing Wolf Gold brass cased and M193 5.56 ball ammo. Neither ammo has shown any issues in any other rifle. The Tapco mags I own work fine in two other ARs. The worst part is, I now have to argue with everyone that says "Promag Sucks" because those mags work fine in my Bushmaster. I have just about decided that I have a magazine sensitive rifle and should keep the mags that are working and stock up on Magpuls since that seems to be the standard now and the one I have does work fine in my Bushmaster as well.

JKale2923

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Re: How are Tapco Mags in a Bushmaster AR-15?
« Reply #14 on: August 01, 2014, 09:48:17 PM »
I just wanted to throw in to the moderator here, I know this a Tapco section and I still love your products! I have never had an issue with my AK or SKS magazines. I love my Tapco FCG I installed on my AK and if I had purchased a PSA AR, I would love your AR magazines