Have you ever tried to use the magazine of your AR 15 as a monopod? If you have, you know that it doesn’t do a very good job of supporting your rifle. It’ll work in a pinch, but there’s some lateral movement, and generally speaking, there’s usually a better and more stable way to shoot your rifle. But if you’re hellbent on using your magazine as a shooting aid, Mag-Pod has a solution for those who seek near-monopod stability from their magazines . . .
The Mag-Pod is a single piece of plastic, formed in such a way that it easily replaces the bottom of Gen2 and older Magpul PMAGs. Installation is a snap and takes mere minutes, less if you’re familiar with the procedure. Once in place, the Mag-Pod is just as secure as the bottom of your magazine was before, but it now provides a wider and flatter footprint than the bottom of the magazine normally would. In fact, it is so stable that it allows you to do this with your rifle.
That’s right. Find a level surface and assuming that your rifle is fairly evenly balanced, the rifle will stand on its own. But it isn’t just for photo ops y’all. On the range and in the field, the Mag-Pod lives up to its claims and allows you a stable monopod from which to shoot. It is by no means a proper bipod, or set of sand bags, but it does provide a field expedient shooting solution with no real penalties in weight, form, or function.
Mag-Pod also advertises the fact that it makes a good indexing point for reloads and gripping mags and such, but I didn’t feel like I was much faster or smoother on a reload because of the Mag-Pod. Naturally, your mileage might vary.
The last time I was out in Georgia visiting my friend and awesome photographer Richard King, he took me to Chick-fil-A to meet up with Mag-Pod CEO, Shane Keng. Shane’s a nice guy with a wicked cool fox body mustang. Chick-fil-A is not the place you normally meet up with CEOs. All that to say that for the cost of three Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich Combos, you can add three stability aids to three of your PMAGs.
Specifications: Mag-Pod
- Compatible with Gen2 MOE® (or older) PMAG®
- Durable 15% Glass Fiber reinforced PA6 material
- Double injection molded TPU basepad for improved traction on hard surfaces
- Price: ~$20 for a 3 pack
Rating (out of five stars):
Overall * * * * *
While using a magazine as a monopod is certainly a debatable shooting method, I never had any failures to feed. Some might argue that if you put some stress on the mag that’ll induce a failure. What I found was that my magazine became a stability aid in the prone position. I used this to great success in one of the stages of the Pecos Run n Gun where I had to lay out prone on a downhill slope and engage four targets at ~120 yards. My rifle was stable enough to make those shots and I think the Magpod certainly helped with that.