We recently picked up one of the Surefire 60 round mags for a good deal at one of our friend's companies, Minute Man Tactical, in Fayetteville NC. I have been seeing some people and instructors online and in videos using the "fat mag" as I have started calling it, and wondered how well it preformed. Unlike a lot of Gun/shooting magazines and online blogs who fill pages with how a product is made, what it's made of, yada yada. I don't see that being worth doing on most things. If you want that info go to Surefire's website and see what the word is.

Surefire's photo. Mags selling for $129 for the hundred, $95 for the sixty rounders.

Surefire 60 rounder

Comparison of a standard 30 round magazine on top of a Surefire 60

 I am going to strictly speak on how it works. I will say the thing is pretty bad ass looking. It looks a lot like a standard M16 magazine kinda. Its standard width where it inserts into the magwell. The mag then flares out and becomes twice the width of a 30 round mag. The Surefire 60 also is a bit longer than a standard mag, but not by too much. The thing does look pretty cool hanging under a AR.

The Surefire 60 in my LWRC SPR

Why it's getting called the "Fat Mag"

Now I have hear people on the error-net saying the Surefire magazines doesn't work, "jams" all the time, etc. I have had my 60 rounder for only a few days and have fired 120 rounds through it.
When I got it I ripped it out of the plastic and grabbed 3 boxes of 5.56 and started loading the Surefire. Loading the mag is easy as it is with any AR magazine. At about round 30, there is a moment where loading is a little harder, but smooths out again after a few rounds. If you can load a AR mag ( and if you can't, well) you can load the Surefire mag. I filled the mag to the full 60 rounds capacity and took it out to one of our Tac-bays. The Surefire 60, holding twice the ammo as a standard mag, is well, twice as heavy. Even though the magazine may weigh more, it is sitting in the middle of the rifle and at the balance point and was barely noticeable. The Surefire locked easily into the lower on my LWRC M6SPR. I grabbed a target and stand and set in up. Throwing the rifle up on target I started blasting. I started firing as fast as I could but started to slow down. To be honest, my finger got tired half way through the mag. After years of shooting the AR/M4 everything kept telling me to be ready for a reload, waiting for the mag to run dry. I kept pressing the trigger and the rifle kept going bang. On the last round the bolt locked to the rear and the fun was over. To my right was a pile on new once fired brass and looking over the heat mirage coming off the barrel I could see the chest of the target chewed through.
I grabbed another 3 boxes of ammo and started the task of reloading the fat mag. My friend grabbed two more targets and put them on either side of the center target. Considering I was going to burn through another 60 rounds of ammo it was a good chance to work on driving the rifle.I have been using a Vortex PST viper on the LWRC SPR for a while now, but driving target to target is a bit different, and slower, with the variable power optic. It's not the same as the Aimpoints I have been using for years and I am still trying to get used to it.As with everything in life, there is no free lunch. To have the flexibility the 1-4 Vortex offers I have to work a little harder up close, but farther targets are more easily engaged. Snapping the Surefire into place I started shooting. Bringing the rifle to bear on each target I started bursting the targets and driving to the next. The Surefire kept the rifle feed as I burned through ammo. As the brass rainbow came to a end the rifle failed to lock to the rear.To be honest I may have bumped the BAD lever on my lower or maybe not.
Like I said early it was my first 120 rounds through the Surefire 60. I plan on using it the mag more and seeing how it does. I will be reporting here on what happens. I can see lots of uses for the 60 rounder. For the Police officer who goes to his patrol rifle but may not have the time to grab a extra mag ( or isn't authorized to wear any on their duty belt as with lots of LE agencies in my area) the fat mag is a good option. A friend of mine still out in the world doing big things said he has seen them being used for aerial gunnery. I could see us using it for vehicle operations at work as well. But all these good ideas are only as good as it preforms so we'll see.

Cleanliness is OVERRATED!

Been busy and gone a while. Here is a quick article from one of your shooters Dan on his RRA AR15 and cleanliness... Chris

This has been more thoroughly documented by other individuals and trainers but I wanted to throw out another testament to help convince the end user community that in practical application the AR platform is as durable and built for hard use as any other military arm.  The gun pictured has seen, by my conservative estimate, ~3,000 rounds of 5.56 of various flavors and ~2,000 rounds of .22 via a conversion kit without any cleaning.  It was relubed with Slip 2000 EWL whenever it started to look dry.  Also worthy of note is that shortly after the photos were taken it was discovered that the gas tube was cracked, yet the gun experienced no malfunctions that were not ammo or magazine related.

Dan

Make sure to click on photos to get a real idea of how dirty this rifle was 

Slacking again!

Haven't posted in a while. Been super busy at the range. Had a TCCC course, match, and carbine class in the last 6 days and have worked about everyday since I got back from SHOT show. One day carbine class tomorrow with Raidon Tactics, where I work as a adjuct instructor and help market. Great company to work for. Our primary instructor is by far one of the most knowledgeable people I have ever met. 20 years in the Army, 17 in SF, 11 years of team time. He was the NCOIC of the army's advanced counter terrorism/ shooting course SFARTEC. Going to go get my mags loaded and gear together for the morning. Post pics and video tomorrow night.

No new guns?!

So I go back and forth with what to do next. Recently its been the idea of getting to a stop point. I want to have my collection of weapons complete. I have (multiple) great GP, general purpose, rifles. These rifles allow me to cover the most realistic needs I will have without being too focused on one. I like a 16in 556 rifle with a variable power optic. I can crank the glass down to 1x, and with the shorter barrel (still long enough to not have NFA headaches) work well in a defensive range 0-50m. Crank the glass to 4-8 depending on the optic and shoot out to the effective range of the platform 4-600m+. The 556 caliber allows be ease of finding, carrying, and shooting of the bullet. With proper ammo selection you can do a lot with the 5.56mm round. The 5.56mm round with a good bullet like a Barnes triple shock can easily be used for hunting. I have killed deer with it, coyote, ect.
Next is a good shotgun. The shotgun is much like the AK weapon family. In its basic and simplest form it works just fine, but upgrades/modifications can make it even better. I am not a shotgun guy, but I can shoot one well, and try to get a little training in with one occasionally. I don't mind a 20in barrel, which allows a long magazine tube and more rounds. There are folks who can reload  shotgun pretty quickly, but its still pretty slow. I like a side saddle mounted to the gun. I don't use it for tac-loading the gun, but for speed reloads where throwing one shell into the chamber and firing is faster than reloading from the belt (prefer a shell caddy). I haven't found a perfect (for me) light solution but the surefire integrated light foregrip seems the best solution. Shotgun is a beast of its own and if you're going to use one you better spend some time on the range with it.
The pistol, there are a hundred routes to go. Glock, M&P, 1911, etc. The biggest thing is knowing your handgun and shooting it well. I like the magazine capacity and reliability the polymer pistols provide, but there is no arguing the accuracy and grace the 1911 has. I personally do not like 3 dot sights. With a quick flash sight picture 3 dots sights can lie to you. I personally prefer a blacked out rear and front dot or fiber optic rod. I have been shooting pistols with red dot sights attached a pretty good bit recently and starting to really like the idea. We mount red dot sights on everything else why is it voodo on pistols. I don't like the style that is just a red dot sight on the slide, I do want backup iron sights that are cowitnessed. This means you're making a permanent decision on your pistol slide to have it milled down as well as paying for a red dot sight and taller suppressor sights. The one thing I do not like about these red dot sights are most have to be removed to change batteries. This again is where a shooter must know his weapons and plan ahead to take off the sight, change batteries and check zero before its an issue. Last thing I'll say about red dot sights on pistols is you better be a pretty decent shooter with iron sights first. If you cannot throw your pistol up and find your sight picture instantly a red dot sight will slow you down.  If you arent fast on your irons you'll find yourself hunting for the dot inside of a tiny little window on the pistol far away from your face. Red dot optics on pistols are kind of like how I view 1911s. Both things should be messed with once you have mastered your pistol craft. The first for reasons described above as well as many more, and the second due to its reduced magazine capacity and tendency to be picky requiring good weapons manipulation and malfunction clearance.
The last weapon would be a long distance rifle. Here again there 100 options and 50 caliber choices. This is more about want and need depending on what the shooter is doing as his GP rifle may fill that need if needed. I know so many people that own a Surgeon 300 win mag with multi $3000 S&B optics mounted on top and have never shot them over 100 yards. For all practical means would a M4 and variable 1-4 not have met that need. Long range shooting is a lot of fun and something I think a lot of shooters neglect learning. I personally have access to an 800 meter range, and going to get a rifle to play with out to those ranges.
So a good rifle, shotgun, and pistol and I'm squared away. Now for the rifle I'd like to have been an AK, AR, 7.62(308) carbine so guess I need more guns. With a shotgun I wanna pump, semi-auto, maybe an over-under too. For the pistol I want a semi auto polymer gun, 1911 in 3 calibers... okay hell I need to buy more guns. But that means I need to buy more ammo... and optics, sights, cleaning supplies and so forth and so on in this vicious circle. Whatever you purchased buy onces and buy right, train often with it, maintain it properly, and be responsible with it.

Another Glock done

Glock 17, textured and some grip modifications

Upcoming testing...

I have a LMT MWS 308, some 77gr MK262 and 69gr match for the LWRC SPR I'm going to test this weekend. Result up this weekend.

Want a battle rifle

Wanting to test out some 7.62(308) carbines... anyone know of anyone sending out T&E guns? Testing will go up on the blog and YouTube (which gets thousands of views weekly) If a company or gun shop or reader has any to send email me smctactical@gmail.com
Want to try
LWRC REPR
Larue OBR
Armalite AR10 (new Pmag compatible?)
JP LR
DPMS
ETC!