Guns

HexMag Gear Review

This is a gear review of the HexMag Series 2 AR-15 30-Round polymer magazine. I first came upon these when I was shopping for new magazines for my AR pattern rifles over at GunMagWarehouse.

The price was right at $9.99, and being that they are selling at 33% less than the Magpul PMags, I decided to get a few. The magazine spring is stainless steel for corrosion resistance, and you can disassemble the magazine without using any tools. The magazine follower is safety orange, but more on that in a minute.

The construction is sturdy, and I especially like that the hex pattern on the magazine enhances grip, especially if your hands are wet. Speaking of wet hands, HexMax also makes grip tape to make the outside of the magazine easier to hold on to. The biggest flaw with this tape is that it is not available in any colors other than black or grey. The other major drawback to the tape is that it is out of stock.

One of the things that I like is the ability to order color identification kits. These kits allow you to change out the follower and dust cover of a magazine. This allows rapid identification of different loadings or calibers (say 300 Blackout, or different bullet weights). You can get them in any one of seven different colors, and they sell in packs of four for $7. I didn’t buy any, but it’s nice to know that they are available. You can see that the color code is visible from the base as well:

They engage my rifles well, and there are no problems with them at the range. The fed and operated flawlessly.

For the price, I recommend them. Keep stocking up on mags, guns, and ammo. You can resupply friends, or even resell them later. At least their value isn’t being destroyed by inflation.

As usual, the disclaimer: I don’t advertise, and receive no compensation whatsoever for my reviews. I have no relationship with any products or vendors that I review here, other than being a customer or user of those products. I pay what you would pay and don’t take any discount that is not available to the general public. I only post these things because I think that my readers would be interested.

By Divemedic, ago

Microstamping

New York now, among other things, requires that all handguns sold in the state have microstamping technology installed in them.

New York citizens buy approximately half a million firearms a year. In contrast, Floridians buy about three times that many, 1.5 million.

My prediction is that this law will do nothing for solving crime, but that isn’t the goal. The goal here is to make owning a firearm impossibly expensive.

In case you are interested, Texans buy the most guns (1.6 million), Florida the runner up (1.4 million), then California (1.1 million), Pennsylvania (1 million), and Tennessee rounding out the top 5 with 700,00 firearms sold per year.

All of this because of an average of less than 20 fatalities a year involving shootings on school campus. Not mass shootings on school campus, ALL shootings on school campus, even those that happened when no students were present (at night, summer break, weekends, etc.) and it was simply one drug dealer shooting another.

By Divemedic, ago

Antigun Republican

Florida’s District 28 contains Winter Springs and Oviedo. Your state Representative is Davis Smith, a Republican. He is also opposed to open carry.

Open carry is publicly wearing a sidearm wherever you want in the state. … And there are some states that have it. I don’t believe open carry is right for Florida. Why? Because those European tourists spend, you know, seven times as much…South American tourists spend four times as much as American.

Our economy…does everybody like not having an income tax in Florida? Yeah. So we have a sales tax and our economy is tourism. And cultures that don’t grow up with guns, don’t have the NRA and gun safety…The NRA is the single largest gun safety organization in the United States. That’s why I’m a life member of the NRA.

And so, for business reasons, I don’t think that open carry is right for Florida. Constitutional carry, or permitless carry, is different and I’ll tell you, I’m undecided on the issue. I’m open, and if the bill gets filed and we’re gonna hear it, you’re welcome to come talk to me and lobby….

Just because the Democrats are your enemy doesn’t make Republicans your friend.

By Divemedic, ago

The Clock is Ticking

So now that I have had a chance to review the new ATF gun grab, I can say that I anticipated much of what was in there. However, there is one part that I must admit not being adequately equipped for. Upper receivers are now considered to be firearms, as are 80 percent lowers. This creates a national problem for the USA, as well as a personal problem for me.

Since uppers are now firearms, and any unserialized firearm that comes into the possession of any FFL must be serialized, this is going to be a big problem. Unless an FFL holder is an 07 (manufacturer), it looks like the serial number has to come from the ATF itself. This will cause every handgun slide and every AR upper to be serialized (registered) with an ATF provided serial number. This sets up a nationwide firearm registry.

If I am correct about this, this creates a real problem for every gun owner in the country. This kind of registration has only one purpose: confiscation.

Now I anticipated 80 percent lowers becoming firearms. The uppers, I did not. Over the past year, I have managed to amass a good number of 80 percent lowers and stripped uppers of the AR15, Glock 19, and the AR308 varieties. A <classified> number of them have already been converted into firearms. Due to supply chain issues, what I have is a mismatch between the number of uppers and the number of lowers. Some of that has been corrected, but I am stuck on others. I need a few Glock uppers (slide assemblies), and a small number of AR308 uppers. I can’t find bargains right now on either one. They are all out of stock or so expensive that I just can’t justify it.

The clock is ticking. I have just a few weeks to secure what I need, create the firearms, and cache them before it becomes a crime.

By Divemedic, ago