In our first look at Hera Arms magazines, things didn’t go so well. The feed lips went all French revolution on me, liberating themselves from the rest of the magazine and leaving me with a useless piece of plastic. Turns out Hera Arms heard the many, many customers reporting similarly crappy performance with their mags and have come out with an updated version that they claim actually works. Our source sent us two fresh, new magazines and testing began again . . .
Good news first: the magazines didn’t explode. They actually functioned in a real firearm, running both 5.56 and 300 AAC Blackout rounds without a problem. I was only able to run about 500 rounds through the magazine thanks to limited supplies at the secret Top Gear test track TTAG testing range (just west of Austin on highway 29, between Bertram and Liberty Hill) but I consider that to be a good initial test. Needless to say I’ll keep using and abusing them, and should the magazines start to fail you’ll be the first to know.
Now that the magazines actually work I can finally talk about the styling, and I’m really digging the window on the back. If magazines were nudie bar dancers, Lancer’s L5 transparent mags would be the equivalent of a Las Vegas stripper, a windowed PMAG would be a dancer in one of those towns where the girls are still required to wear underwear and the Hera Arms magazines would be a burlesque dancer. Just a tease, not the whole bullet, but enough of a peek and dressed in a nice looking outfit. Nice looking, but much like you wouldn’t want to wear a well used stripper’s outfit, not something you’d want to touch.
Despite the slick looking design, the magazines feel terrible. The material feels like it’s only a couple hairs thick and incredibly flimsy. There are sharp edges and burrs everywhere. And as a result I can’t load the magazine without cutting myself on the feed lips. And considering that the only place I can find that actually sells these things wants $25 a pop for them, that’s way too much. If these were $5 or $10 magazines I might be able to overlook the flaws. But when they’re $5 more than a Lancer L5 AWM, my favorite magazine to date, I can’t justify the purchase even with the excellent design.
Hera Arms, take note: fix the production issues. Make it feel nice as well as look nice. Then come hit me up and we’ll talk about raising that rating. As for now, I’m gonna pass.
Hera Arms Magazines
Price: $25.00
Ratings (out of five stars):
Feel & Function * * *
It works, but it’ feels like crap.
Overall Rating *
Heck, even H&K’s polymer 30-round mags are cheaper. When H&K makes a cheaper product, you know something went wrong.
Now this is what you will never find in a gun magazine.
A negative review!
Kudos TTAG.
I’ll split the cost with you, run it over and see if it still works. At least slap it around like an old nokia phone and get back to us if it just “feels” flimsy, or actually is.
Okay,
A) I think some other manufacturers already do this
B) there’s a real advantage to a standard length mag in terms of reloading ergonomics.
Not surprised. Must be because the 5.45 x 39 is a tapered cartridge whereas the 5.56 NATO is not. Could be an extraction issue. But who knows.
Shes probably got a pretty good taxpayer funded “pension thing that goes up”.