M4/M16 Medium Capacity magazine - ArniesAirsoft

Author

Shao14

Misopethamenos

Registered: September 2004
Posts: 306,044

Review Date: 4/9/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: �12.00 | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	solid build, no winding needed, silent, inexpensive, higher capacity than lo caps
Cons:	has some feeding issues, but can be fixed.

Introduction:

For AEGs, there are low capacity magazines that uses a spring to
feed the BBs out of the top, and there are hi capacity magazines
that use a winding mechanism instead of the spring one. The
advantage of lo cap is its lack of rattling sound of the BBs, and
the advantage of hi cap is, well, its high capacity. Somewhere
along the way, came G&P, and they made a compromise between the two,
and started making mid capacity magazines, which is still silent,
and holds about twice as many BBs as a TM lo cap.

G&P makes mid caps for several different types of AEGs, and this review is for the
M4/M16 mid caps

Look and feel:

Externally, the G&P mid caps look good and feel good. The shell is
made of metal except the top feeding nozzle that is plastic. There's
no flex, no rattle. The overall feel is just solid. The paint
finish is smooth and even. There are, however at least two different
colors for the finish. Two of mine look much more black than the
other two (they were bought at different times from different
sellers). On the bottom of each one, there's the text "ADVENTURE
LINE MFG.CO.INC PARSONS.KS.USA." (the tape you see in my pictures is
to just look cool, and serves no other purposes at all).

The mid caps fit in my CA M15A4 Carbine perfectly. It was a bit
tight the first time I inserted it, but after a few reloading, it'll
fall freely off the mag well upon the mag release button is pressed.
And again to give the finish credit, the paint doesn't get scratched
off easily from reloading. TM mags' paints tends to come off after
some reloading. The G&P mid cap will fit all M4/M16 AEGs that can
take TM M16 lo cap, and it is the same size as the TM M16 lo cap.

Functions:

The mid cap works just like lo caps, and it requires the user to
push the BB in one by one from the top feed nozzle. One can do this
by hand (definitely not recommended), or by using any of the BB
loaders. The BBs inside are not only double stacked, but also
circle around to achieve the higher capacity.

Issues:

The only issue with G&P M4/M16 mid caps I have is the feeding, but
there is an easy solution for it if you read on. G&P claims that
the mid cap holds 130 BBs, but if you stuff your mid cap all the way
to 130 (yes, it does hold around 130), you are more than likely to
get misfeeds. Basically, the guide spring gets stuck, and it just
stops feeding BBs. A little tap on the side of mag will get it
going again. All of the 4 mid caps I currently use had this
problem. A bit lubrication and a bit normal use mitigate this
problem somewhat. Some people even go through the trouble to open up
the mag shell and add spacer at the end of the spring. The simplest
solution I have found is to load each of the mid caps with only
about 100 rounds instead of 130, and I have ZERO feeding problem
with any of the 4 mid caps after that.

Conclusion:

The G&P mid caps are highly recommended if you don't like the
winding and the noise of the hi caps, or don't like the low capacity
of the lo caps. With a bit lubrication and proper use, the G&P
M4/M16 mid cap is just as reliable as a mag can be.

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Bert

Registered: September 2004
Location: Norway
Posts: 540

Review Date: 6/9/05

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 10

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	The best compromise between low and highcap, cheap, durable
Cons:	I only have four of them. :'(

I bought these because hicaps were completely out of the question, and their superior value when compared to more expensive locaps.

Unlike other owners, I haven't experienced feeding problems. My mags feed flawlessly and can take a beating. I couldn't ask of more from a mag.

Highly recommended.

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Jedi2155

Registered: March 2005
Location: Fullerton, CA
Posts: 203

Review Date: 27/3/06

Would you recommend the product? Yes | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 8

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Looks and feels good, relatively inexpensive, good weight
Cons:	Slight rattling, takes a while to wear in, hard to load into the rifle.

I've been wanting to move away from my ICS Hi-Caps for a while and when I realized that G&P made some relatively cheap metal mid-caps, I knew I found a solution.

First Impressions:
When I first got it out of its package it had a very nice dark grey color out of it and had a decent weight to it. Shaking it revealed a slight rattle but it was only barely noticeable.

Compared to ICS Hi-Cap:
I noticed how much smaller it was than my ICS Hi-Caps right away, and when I loaded it into my rifle, it looked much better. Although the ICS mags are Real Steel size, the gearbox in the rifle prevents them from being fully inserted into the magwell making them look a bit funky.

ICS M4 with ICS Hi-Cap

http://tacinept.com/Hosted_Images/Airsoft/MagReview/ICSM4_Hi-Cap.jpg

The G&P Mags are TM size making them look like how they should in a real steel M4.

ICS M4 with G&P Mid-Cap

http://tacinept.com/Hosted_Images/Airsoft/MagReview/ICSM4_Mid-Cap.jpg

Here is the G&P (in the center) compared with my ICS mags.

http://tacinept.com/Hosted_Images/Airsoft/MagReview/Mags_Compared.jpg

And the inscription underneath

http://tacinept.com/Hosted_Images/Airsoft/MagReview/Mag-Inscription.jpg

Loading & Firing:
After trying to load it with my bare hands for about 10 minutes (you really need a speed loader which I haven't purchased yet), I proceeded to put it in my gun. However, it was extremely tight and wouldn't want to go in and click. After some struggling, I finally jammed it in there and heard the click of the magazine. Being a little uneasy, I had a little difficulty taking it out as well. Luckily, after a dozen or two mag insertions, I've managed to wear it in and its much easier now and feels more realstic (instead of the easy slide of the ICS mags).

When I first tried firing it in my rifle, no BB's were going in, but after I slammed the mag all the way in, it started shooting in spurts. I was at first dismayed at its performance, so I reloaded (after 10 minutes of manually putting in BB's one at a time) and tried again, this time with much better feeding. Within the 3rd reload, BB's were firing fine down to the 5 or so (which is typical with any AEG mag).

Conclusion:
Overall, I would definitely recommend this despite the initial impressions and I'm going to grab another one (and a speedloader!).

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ICS M4 Car-97 RIS + AN/PEQ2 + Upgraded Upper and Spare M90 Upper
Prometheus Hop Up Rubber + 6.03mm Tightbore
G&P 30mm Aimpoint Replica w/ Cantilever Mount
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morugatu

Registered: February 2006
Location: Arizona
Posts: 464

Review Date: 4/1/07

Would you recommend the product? No | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 5

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Great looks, just really excellent!
Cons:	misfeeds CONSTANTLY

Opening: Wow, awsome quality! I sat for about a min. gazing at it before loading up the magazine and taking it out back for a spin in my SRC.

Firing with magazine: Loaded it up with full capacity and fired a shot on semi auto. Fired about three times and it stopped feeding. I took it out and smacked it. Fired another good burst on full auto and it stopped feeding again... I decided it was my SRC being incompatible and forgot about it (in between this trial and the next there is a one year difference with me loading this magazine about once every two months to try again).

Firing with magazine 2nd try: Now, with my new CA M15 in my hands, I managed to fire the whole magazine with NO misfeeds! Awsome I thought! Know I can use it and know my money didn't go to waste. Loaded it up again and it misfed again...ok I thought, maybe I did something wrong. Nope, no matter what it will not feed more than 30 rounds TOPS before needing to be smacked.

Fixing it up: Ok, so maybe it needs some custom work right? Well, I guess someone up there hates me, because I opened the magazine, making many attempts with different spacers including a handful of bbs, a large screw, and a spring guide from another magazine I had lying around. It refuses to work, infact, I believe it actually performs worse when I have a spacer in there.

Conclusion: I ordered a pack of 8 MAG midcaps after hearing them praised over G&P magazines. I will write a review on them soon. As for the G&P magazines, I give them a five just because the externals impressed me THAT much (The first magazine I found USA trademarks on). I STRONGLY reccomend you simply buy a hi-cap or low caps.

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"We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl
Year after year
Running over the same old ground
What have we found?
The same old fears
Wish you were here." - Pink Floyd

GuzziHero

Registered: April 2006
Posts: 5,083

Review Date: 28/2/07

Would you recommend the product? No | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 4

Positive aspects of the product (pros):	Look and feel good
Cons:	Poor fit, jamming issues galore

Bought my first M16 and as I hate hicaps, I got 4 of these fellers.

Open them up...looking good. I fit one in my gun and its a little loose. Try the second one and its quite tight. 3rd, OK. 4th silly tight.

The 2 that were too tight for my magwell, I run them in and out a lot to try and loosen them up. One capitulates for the most part, the 4th just will not drop out cleanly and is confined to my 'spares' bucket. I later find out that the metal body is badly cast...probably fixable with a mallet and I may have done that but...

I take them to a game. 2 of them misfeed...ironically, the 2 that fit OK. A quick tap sees them on their way but when Im already competing against Hi-Cap Harry and Box-mag Billy, I cant handle foul-ups.

Took them apart that night...one of which was really easy because the screw fell out the baseplate. Both the others are also coming loose so I go out and buy a bag of longer screws...no problems since. I try to file down burrs inside the track but to cut a long story short, that did no good.

In the end, I still carry those three...but they are my last magazines that I use after my 16 MAG mids so they will almost certainly always stay in my pouches. And thats the best place for them.

---
I still have MANY longer screws that are compatible with G&P mids. If anyone wants some, PM me and Ill send some out.

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