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’m sure American Rifleman and Guns and Ammo would give this product 2 thumbs up. As well as a mailing address where you can write to them to inquire where the product can be found in a Sears Roebuck catalog.
To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing to enquire about the automatic-feeding magazine batteries I have recently perused with mine own eyes not more than a fortnight ago in Guns, Ammo, and Covered Wagons.
Enclosed is fifty silver notes along with my pony express routing number. You may surely also write to my Lovely wife, the Miss Clara Barton regarding any dissemination your fine company may have about the magazines.
Sincerely,
Mister Andrew P. Shuckenberry
Also – LANCER L5’s ROCK.
Yet another review/reason why I like TTAG.
Thanks Nick. I’ll stick to lancers and pmags.
They marketed mags in the first place that hadn’t been tested properly, or they knew they would fail, and put them out anyway. Either way, they don’t deserve my business.
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.
All that talk of strippers. Vegas must be upcoming.
The strippers in Vegas are lame. Now, Portland Oregon, on the hand, has some high quality strippers… or so I’ve been told.
I read somewhere that portland has more strip clubs per capita than any other US city.
OK, I wrote it, then read it.
Portland does have the most strip clubs per capita, which is a selling point used by some of the (male) students at my unnamed Catholic university to prospective students.
I’m not a theology professor, but it would seem to me that, if it is only a sin to have sex with a woman that you’re not married to, then, logically speaking, it would not be a sin to ogle at a pretty naked girl provided that she’s pretty enough to make you think “damn, I’d marry her” (so long as you’re not already married, of course). So Catholics really should be okay with strippers so long as they’re hot enough.
Did someone say Casa Diablo? 🙂
If ya gotta have the window, get a PMag with the window in it.. they WORK. My only gripe with the pmags is they do not have a 20 round clip with a window.. 30’s get in my way prone, but 20’s do not.
Whats a clip — you son of a bitch
A clip is a strip of metal that is designed to hold ammo organized for quick loading into a magazine. If you want to wet your uniform, try going into battle with loose ammo.
You actually kind of have me curious about buying some Lancer mags now, bought some Promag “We Swear its not a PMAG” magazines during Gunpocalypse and I think Im gonna keep shopping around. Stripping the rounds out is a PITA compared to a Pmag but otherwise they seem to work good so far.
Unloading magazines?! You mean the bolt carrier right….. I sure hope so 😉
Get a LULA loader, they are pretty much awesome (though overpriced)
Nick,
Thanks for making me feel vindicated. I am SBRing a Glock 17 on a Mako Group KPOS platform and was worried I should have gone with the Hera Triari. Glad I didn’t.
Ever use Fusil magazines?
So who gets to be The Stig at the TTAG testing range?
Thanks for the truthful review , don’t really see that in the big name gun magazines that rely on advertisements for revenue , won’t buy these until you give newer ones a better rating . Be prepared and ready. Keep your powder dry.
hahahahaha that is so true if H&K makes cheaper products than you know you did something wrong lol.
I’ve tried the Molon Labe Industries 25-rd mag for my SCAR 17S and it sucks big time. The first time, it felt like the mag lip was very flimsy. I had only put in 5 rounds and I thought the mag was going to expand and bend the metal. So, I told the company about it. They told me to send back the two that I ordered…and they sent me three back. I tested them again about two weeks ago, and, this time, with their speedloader. The last round just does not want to cycle through and get loaded in the chamber despite my several attempts at charging the charging handle. This happened to all three mags. Now, I’m not sure on whether I should return it to get my money back.
These will be featured in Cheaper Than Dirt pretty soon. Right next to the miracle ammo brand DRT.
For 3 dollars each. Plus 75 dollars shipping and handling.
If you have something that works (say, milspec mags or pmags), why consider anything else until it’s PROVEN itself with real-world RESULTS?
Hera? Hera who?
Sounds like a knock knock joke.
John
Because it might work better. You never know until you try.
I wasn’t thrilled with the fit and finish of the l5 20rd completely clear mags I bought off aim about 2 years ago. The follower tilted, the mags felt…cheap…and overall I was sad. I sold them to a friend who has run them in his gun and he says he likes them and they haven’t given him any trouble. Maybe it was just me. Magpul mags haven’t let me down yet though…
i got my hands on some CAA MAG 17’s before everything went wackadoo crazy. admittedly, i haven’t put many rounds through them, but they seem as well built as anything else i’ve used. CAA’s stuff seems robust and well designed to me.
anyone else use them?
it looks like they don’t have the little groves to insert the spoon you use with stripper clips.
How come nobody mentions they are useless if you load your .223 via stripper clips. Of maybe I didn’t read enough..
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