Home AR-15 Smyth Busters: Can I Rest My AR-15 on the Mag While Shooting?

Smyth Busters: Can I Rest My AR-15 on the Mag While Shooting?

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Today, our intrepid Smyth Busters, Brownells Gun Techs Caleb Savant and Steve Ostrem, take on a nugget of wisdom frequently passed around among AR-15 shooters, namely: Resting the magazine on the ground while you’re shooting will cause your AR-15 to malfunction. Will it? The answer is…. it might or it might not. A rifle with a properly in-spec lower receiver and a good-quality mil-spec magazine will probably function just fine when you use the mag as an impromptu monopod. Steve’s done it many times, and so did Caleb when he was in the Army. But if the rifle and/or the mag are out-of-spec a little too much, putting the weight of the gun on the magazine can cause it to protrude too far into the receiver, rub on the bolt, and cause cycling problems. If you have a good-quality rifle and magazines, you’re unlikely to have a problem. Of course, the only way to be sure is to take your rifle to the range and test it before you see the elephant! So this myth is NOT entirely a myth and so it’s NOT busted.

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42 COMMENTS

  1. Me and my buddy went to the range yesterday and I fired a few magazines with no problem. Then he got sat down and started shooting and it would malfunction after every first shot. Take the mag out and rack the chamber and try again. Well after doing that like 6 or 7 times the magazine broke, you can hear a spring bouncing around in there when you shake it and it quit feeding rounds into the gun…. I thought maybe it was just that magazine so I loaded a different on and let him shoot again and he had the same problem. So I got back on the gun and I emptied the magazine with no problem so I figured it was something he was doing…. I asked him if he was resting the gun on the magazine or something and he said yes. I told him to try shooting again but don't rest the gun on the magazine and guess what, he fired 20 rounds with no problems. So in my gun you definitely can't rest the gun on the magazine.
    Oh and we were using my AR chambered in 7.62×39 using duramag stainless steel 20 round magazines.

  2. Routinely doing it can cause premature wear on the magazine latch hole in the mag. That, or a badly worn mag latch on the gun can allow the mag to slip up in the well enough to drag on the BCG and cause malfunctions. That's been my experience at least.

  3. Huh….yeah when I went to the law enforcement academy for police training they actually taught us to use the magazine as a makeshift “monopod” for long range shooting. Seemed like the most important part was to make sure you didn’t push forward or lean into the rifle to much, as it had potential for causing a Failure to feed.

  4. The question is why would you do that, with the risk of it falling over? Must be the same type of morons that put their laptops and phones at the edge of the table and cry when it falls over.

  5. People often rag on the forward assist. But one of the major (and many) reasons it was added was due to pressure from resting on the magazine causing the BCG to ride on the feed lips and not fully chamber rounds.

  6. I did this all the time when firing prone. GI 30 round mags had a stamped 'Crescent' that prevented over-insertion. I always opened it up a bit more; Just to be sure. Never had an issue on the A1 and A2 over a 36 year career.

  7. The only time ive seen malfunctions is with metal mags that were dropped and damaged to the point they would interfere with the bolt because they could ride too high in the magwell.

  8. Never had problems with mine. Spike's lower, and Gen 2 Pmags. Runs like a champ. Would bet my life on the gun running without issue, so long as I'm the one maintaining it. Only failures I've had were from some ammo where QC let some cartridges with too little powder in a case leave the factory.

  9. It's real easy- you'd better not. Marines don't for 2 reasons:
    1- Its lazy and your more stable applying better shooting fundamentals
    C- If your a sorry son of a bitch that is using a GI mag with a green, or Heaven forbid- Black follower, you will experience mag related failures and using them as a rest will increase this failure rate.
    4- Use a premium magazine
    2- Green crayons are my favorite

  10. So you tube you are blocking my comments. I can assure you that i am not scared of your punk asses and when this all get's straightened out BY THE LAWFUL PEOPLE, of which I am one, WE will find you and hold you accountable for your treasonous treachery. And everyone will be purged. No excuses like, I was just doing what I was told. That didn't work for the german prison guards in ww 2 and won't work for you. Guaranteed

  11. If you have a malfunction while resting the gun on the magazine, try using P-Mag 30 round magazines. They have a little extra room than the standard mil-spec magazines. I had this issue and solved it with P-Mags. They’re cheap online, but can be pricey at a gun shop.

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