In the age of Magpul; it’s easy to forget that other companies make some good magazines for the AR15 as well. A few years ago, Lancer Systems came out with the translucent magazine that we pretty successful but was quickly overshadowed by the by Magpul mania–I myself am guilty of also having this fever. At Shot Show this year, I stopped by the unsuspecting Lancer Systems booth and was quite pleased with their improvements to durability and added features for their new magazines, the L5 Advanced Warfighter, along with some other new products they’ll be releasing this year.
The new Lancer L5 Advanced Warfighter magazine feature a one piece hardened formed steel feed lip which differs it from the completely polymer magazines or USGI magazines we’re accustomed to seeing. To help against corrosion the steel feed lips are coated with PTFE. Lancer Systems have also expanded the color options for the L5 magazine keeping its original translucent model but expanding it to 4 different hues which will also be offered in opaque or translucent and 20 or 30 round varieties. Its nice to see options out there considering almost every single AR15 you see out there, including mine, is always featured with a Magpul magazine–not to say that there’s anything wrong with that, but there’s nothing that will incite improvement like competition. I handled the L5 Advanced Warfighter magazines at SHOT and I was impressed–Gunblog.com should have some soon for a complete review sometime before summer.
Along with the new magazines, Lancer Systems also have an extremely light carbon fiber handguard coming out this summer. At SHOT these handguards looked great and were very light. The handguards are coming out in carbine, mid, rifle, and extra long length. The carbon fiber brought a high speed low drag look to them, and felt great. There weren’t as slick (texture-wise) as they look, which is a good thing because the last thing we would want are handguards that slip and slide while handling them.
The last thing at the Lancer booth, and the most noticeable would be their new QuickMag attachment. The first thing that came to my mind (and I’m sure yours as well) is, it’s a polymer RediMag. Although it was hard to tell, I would say that the Lancer QuickMag will probably be a few ounces lighter than the RediMag, although it won’t be that noticeable with 2 full 30 round magazines attached to it. Where the Lancer Systems QuickMag differs from the RediMag is in its operation. There are a few more buttons and levers with the QuickMag. The QuickMag can drop both magazines, or just one magazine, and it provides a separate button for the bolt catch and release. It should be noted that the QuickMag is still in its development process and should be available late in 2011.
