A friend of mine started a company a little while back with the purpose of making AR style mags with a better grip texture than other current magazines. He created the company HexMag (http://hexmag.com/) in his shop here in Colorado. Using a polymer similar to other manufacturers, he designed the magazines with a few distinct improvements over other currently produced AR magazines. First, they are light weight...extremely light weight. I don't have a scale available to weigh them but in a side by side comparison it is obvious there is a difference. It feels like more than just 1 or 2 ounces. Secondly, they are durable. The staff at HexMag (and several volunteers, of course) have done lots of drop tests and other crazy tortures to them to see how well they hold up and they have withstood all reasonable impacts. On top of that, they all have a lifetime warranty if it does ever fail on you. HexMags are comparably priced to other polymer magazines on the market as well. The two most noticeable features of the magazine is the grip texture (from which they get their name) and the HexID system. The raised hexagonal pattern on the mags is large enough to allow fingers to grab and push/pull on these magazines with great ease and is a overall cool looking design as well. The HexId system is basically bright colored followers/base pad marker that allow several different features not found on other magazines: 1) the bright colored follower allows easy instant recognition of an empty magazine and 2) the matching base pad marker allows for having different calibers/types of ammunition loaded and easily identifiable (ie...green for green tip, red for tracer, yellow for .330 BLK, etc...). In addition, the magazines can be stripped and cleaned in the field without tools for disassembly. Currently they are made in black, foliage (green), and FDE with colored followers an a rainbow (yes, I said rainbow) of colors (Hex orange is standard) as well as 30 rd, 15rd, and 10rd capacities, each are normal 30rd size.
I had the opportunity to take some with me for a .gov shooting course in Moyock, NC over the last 2 weeks and was very pleased with them. Having shot over 1K rounds per day for a 10 days (and nights) straight, there were no magazine induced malfunctions the entire time. The malfunctions encountered were from just running the crap out of the guns and them being dirty and abused. We shot in 30-40 deg temperatures, with few clear days but mostly rain and just miserable conditions (good thing I wasn't paying for ammo!). Grip purchase on the magazines (wearing Oakley gloves, first 2 fingers removed) was phenomenal in all conditions, without any modification to the magazines. HexMag currently has pre cut grip tape in various colors as well to assist anyone with butterfingers. We were shooting on crushed rock and gravel surface outdoors and dropping each magazine repeatedly as required by the course. We (everyone in the course took turns) ran the magazines hard and put them through a rough workout with no hiccups. The bright followers were well appreciated by all, students and instructors, as it made observing an empty magazine much easier compared to others with dark followers. Some of them are staying here at the compound for further abuse.
The point to this review is to show that there are some local (yes, he's here in Loveland, CO!!!) entrepreneurs who have the initiative to make improvements on gear to make us more efficient shooters. On top of that, Aaron is a great person who is truly interested in making everything he touches better. I say efficient as the magazines had nothing to do with my accuracy, but did make reloads faster and even one-tenth of a second is a bonus in my field. The HexID system is better than tape or paint and will prevent inadvertent mix ups with ammo types or calibers. If you see some HexMags on the shelf, get some and run 'em hard.
-S.C.
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