Beta Mag doesn’t like my MAX-11/15

[Garrett]

Or maybe the 11/15 doesn’t like the Beta mag. So far, standard GI and Pmags in the 20- and 30-round flavors work fine. The 60-round D-Mag works great.

I have a few of the 60-round quad stack Schmisser mags, but haven’t tried them yet. The bolt doesn’t ride over the follower when empty, and I don’t want to wreck the follower by crashing it every time i shoot the mag. I need to try to profile the back of the followers to avoid this. I just haven’t yet.

But today I was testing out the Beta Mag. I was shooting my reloads, but this is the same ammo that I was running in GI and PMags today, and I had zero failures with it in those.

Of the 100 rounds in the Beta mag, I had 9 failures. All were a nose dive type failure that typically pushes the bullet back into the case and stops the bolt. Like this:

Failed rounds looked like this:

I was shooting in short 3-5 round bursts for the entire mag. 9% failure rate is way too high. Granted, I’ve really only loaded and dumped this mag once before, about 8 years ago when bump stocks were still legal.

Yes, I used plenty of graphite, giving the top rounds in the mag a squirt every 10 rounds or so as I loaded.

Anyone else have success running a Beta mag in their Lage upper?

 

[A&S Conversions]

As far as gouges in the top dummy round, I use a snap cap as the first round into the Beta-C. That way I don't have to worry about the aluminum material from the rounded follower gouges going into the mechanism. That seems like a lot of graphite. I usually do a little on the first few rounds, a little more at about halfway, and a little for the last few rounds. How "wet" was your upper? Lube and graphite makes a gummy paste. Just a thought.

Scott

ETA, does the Lage upper have M4 style extended feed ramps? When using my 5.56 AR Beta-C mags, an older upper without the extended feed ramps had the same issue.

 

[Garrett]

Yes, it was running “wet”. Although I ran around 30 rounds through prior to the Beta mag, which would have blown the worst of it out.

I generally squirt just a small amount more often vs. lots of graphite more infrequently. This has worked well for my 9mm Beta Mags.

I’ll have to try some factory 5.56 next time, just to remove that variable. I typically do not crimp .223. Might help in this instance.

 

[chili17]

we tried 2 betas, a Korean beta, magpul and gi mags, a d60 and some surefire 60-100 quad mags and they all works without issue. Nose down sounds like weak ammo or weak recoil spring to me, just speculating here though

 

[A&S Conversions]

So does the Lage Max-10/15 have M4 style extended feed ramps?

 

[m11stuff@hotmail.com]

Yes, they are M4 cut.

Make sure you adjust the gas block for your ammo. Short stroking will cause jams.

 

[A&S Conversions]

Thank you. I figured that it would be but I couldn't remember.

Scott

 

[Garrett]

Good info all. Thanks.

The gas block was set up per the instructions (but using standard GI mags).

I tried again, using the same ammo, but adding crimp to the case neck. No change, with roughly the same number of failures.

One other thing, I’m running the ARRM, with the buffer and spring. I had previously played with buffer and spring combinations to get a good, smooth ROF. I did try a couple springs that were too weak, but they gave a different type of failure (chamber a round, with a light primer strike). I’m currently using a standard carbine spring with an AAC rate reducing buffer. The upper came with an extra power spring. It obviously runs faster. I might try that next.

Lots of variables to tinker with.

 

[Gaujo]

Did you try giving the system more gas? Stripping rounds takes energy and different feeding systems maybe require more or less energy.

 

[Garrett]

Did you try giving the system more gas?

Not yet. Working on only changing one thing at a time. But I’m getting there...

 

[har1340]

And did you use the same ammo on range day? (only changing one thing at a time) best way of getting there... Keep us posted.

 

[harley-mac]

I have the armatac 150 round drum mag and even though I haven't had the chance to actually use live ammo, the few snap caps worked fine. My issue is that when the last round is ejected, the Max-11/15 tries to load the dummy follower top round. I just figure too much spring tension on the drum, so I mag loaded it and I am letting it sit for a little while to see if that helps. Anyone experiencing this issue???

 

[strobro32]

Yes, I've used the Armatac150 Drum. It worked great for the first few times but then I get the same issue. I have taken it apart for cleaning but it usually has a stoppage or 2 every outing since, including the last round dummy strand delinking.

My 3-KCI Gen 2, 100 rd drum worked great. I'm surprised by that.

 

[Garrett]

I managed to get out and play with the gas settings today. I had initially adjusted the gas block per the instructions provided with the upper. This included loading only three rounds at a time while adjusting, presumably to avoid a runaway if the gas was set too low. This works to set the gun & ammo, but would not take into account the potentially greater pressure on the bolt carrier from a fully loaded drum.

So I started working through the gas setting procedure, but using a full Beta mag. I had initially set the gas block at 7 clicks open using the proscribed method. I worked down from there getting all the way to three clicks open before the gun started doubling and tripling.

I went to 5 clicks and that was fine for single shots, but short bursts still gave a couple failures. I ended up going back to 7, then to 9 clicks open. I only experienced 3 failures in 100 rounds, and that was while I was still at 5 & 7 clicks. Next time out I’ll leave it at 9 clicks open and see what it does.

 

[Garrett]

So I didn’t follow my own advice and I changed two things at once. I switched ammo and I put a silencer on the barrel and took it out last Saturday.

The Beta Mag ran flawlessly in semi-auto, while I was checking POI shift. Then immediately started failing the second round of every burst.

I put the mag into an AR15 and it ran fine there also.

So I brought the gun back out today and I think I have the solution. Today I ran two different 60-round D-60 mags and had zero gun or mag issues. They ran with or without the silencer, shooting two types of factory ammo or my reloads.

I think the Beta will go back on the shelf and I’ll stick with the D-60s for anything bigger than a standard box mag.

 

[stevo]

Get a Blitz mag…Blitzmag7.com. All steel construction, mine runs flawless with Silverbear 62gr hollow point. 50rd capacity.