AR-15 20RD WAFFLE MAGAZINE STEEL Reviews & Ratings

Nostalgia caught up with me so I bought one. Nice product, prompt shipping.

Love the look of these mags, straight 20rounders in any rifle is for sure a good vibe! Pricey for what it is but runs flawless.

Again, I haven't shot this yet, but it looks and fits great in my 601 replica. It's more solidly constructed than my original Armalite waffle mag. I plan on replacing this plastic follower with a metal one also and want to lighten the finish a bit, so it looks similar to my original.

These magazines are fantastic. Perfect function, size, strength, and asthetics. These are by far my favorite 20 round magazines that I have used for the AR. I really hope that Brownells makes more!

Highly recommended i bought 2 and it been over 1 year now no problem shoot out of my 4 m16a1 clone like a champ

Bought my first AR , the Civil Defense Rifle from the WWSD 2020 Project page. (Civil Defense rifle was 35% less than WWSD 2020) The CDR came w/ one mag so I know I needed more & I saw this "Waffle Style" mag that looked like the originals from the early 60's and I thought "What the.. why the hell not?" I prefer the look of the 20 round or 25 round straight magazines over the ' AK banana clip' looking 30 round things. Just an old man's perspective, ignore me if you want. I did get a few more of Brownells brand 20 round aluminum magazines as they were less than 1/3 of the price of the "Waffle Style" magazines. I like the steel construction of the retro mag, it fits the rifle well, feels good in the hand & has "Eye appeal" to it. They are just a bit pricey. Kind of like the 25 round straight wall type Brownells offers, looks good, just a bit pricey.

These are some of the best quality magazines I have ever purchased, this sates my obsession with waffle mags.

I bought this for my Colt 601 build, using a NODAK lower and it is 100% functional in mine. Iv never seen an original. does have a little bit of a rough finish at first but i just knocked it down a bit with some sand paper and feels much better. Would be great if the price wasn't so high or id buy more.

I don't write very many reviews, but I read them. Quite frankly, after reading the reviews on this magazine, I almost didn't buy any of them. I'm glad I did. All the reviews on this are more than a year old and it seems the issues being listed have been corrected so I thought an up to date review would be in good order. Other reviews, even though good star ratings, complained about the finish and being oily in the package. I initially bought one of these mags, and then bought several more after testing the first. First thing, the mags were dry when I took them out of the package, no oily mess. Next, the finish is very nice. It's smooth, even, and quite simply a quality finish. One could say the color, being black, is a detraction from being original, but that's the only thing not positive I can think of about these mags. And maybe that they are kind of pricey. They look great and I like them in my repro 601, cloned M16A1, XM177E1 and E2, CAR-15, etc. I held off writing this review until I had tested/used all of the half dozen mags I have. Besides looking great, function has been flawless. I have 6 of these mags and have used them while shooting everything mentioned above and even my A2 HBAR, A4 Competition Match Target HBAR, M4, and have loaned some to a buddy who ran them with a couple other brand carbines as well. I would say all 6 have had at least 400 rounds each run through them in multiple rifles. So far, not one single failure or performance issue of any kind. Maybe it's because 20 round mags are what I used in the military, but I prefer the look of the 20 rounders. Like others have said, it's either Brownell's retro waffle mags or originals. Personally, my originals are staying in the safe for now. Back to the finish. After quite a bit of use, the finish on mine look like normal patina from normal use, nothing unusual. Great looks, flawless performance, maybe a bit pricey, overall great little magazines. Highly recommended.

A little wipe down with some of that citrus goo gone and some Ballistol, then wipe it down with a rag and they look pretty good. The few real waffle mags I do have are pretty shiny and some are almost in the white by now. These seem to work really well. I like the 20 round Vietnam/USAF spec-ops/security vintage look, and these are right at home on any M16A1, SP1 or other vintage Armalite style rifles. The finish might be a little weird. I phosphated 10 of these for a customer, and WOW! We vapor blasted them down to bare metal on the outsides, degreased the outside, lacquered the insides and these came out beautifully! The lacquer preserves the inside coating, and cleans off easily with the proper solvent(s). We do a lot of work on vintage guns, guitars, machine tools, and electronics, so industrial coatings are part daily operations. We must doff our caps to Brownell's again, for another very nice product. I believe a lot of these early magazines were supposed to be preloaded, one time use disposable items. I don't know for sure. All I do know is original M16/AR15 waffle mags are scarce highly collectible items now. These are what I called "yard close enough". From 3 feet away, it's close enough to pass as an original, and it's not 50 years old. If you are too young to remember buying metal things wrapped in oily kraft paper or greasy wax paper, that's too bad. Some stuff was wrapped in paper and dipped in Cosmoline. Cleaning all the goo off was part of the deal. Now lots of stuff is sprayed in a clear plastic coating before being loaded on "the slow boat from China". You just don't notice it as much, but it's there. I'd rather clean Cosmoline than clear plastic coatings. I know what eats away Cosmoline without destroying the coating (paint, Cerakote, Parkerizing, PVDs, Melanites, salt bluing or other mystery coatings.) So these are pretty straight forward as far as cleaning up. I don't like buying pre-rusted goods, and oily greasy paper has worked very well in the past. These mags look and work GREAT! If you really really want super period correct, add another $50 per mag and they can be phosphated to match any original colors & textures. We can also do RF/DC VVD (radio frequency or DC {including pulsed} vacuum vapor deposits), bath and quench, or other coatings from nitride to TiN, to chrome plated. Unless it's a museum piece, Why bother? These look and work just great.