X-Products 50 Round Magazines for AR-15, M1A, FAL, HK91, SR25, AR-10 – Gear Review

Accessories Misc. For Rifles Gear Reviews Paul Helinski


X-Products 50 Round Magazines for AR-15, M1A, FAL, HK91, SR25, AR-10 - Gear Review
X-Products 50 Round Magazines for AR-15, M1A, FAL, HK91, SR25, AR-10 - Gear Review
50 round mags from X-Products are available for the AR-15, M1A, FAL, HK91/CETME, SR25 and the AR-10. They are made in the USA and available at notable national firearms retailers.
X-Products 50 Round Magazines for AR-15, M1A, FAL, HK91, SR25, AR-10 - Gear Review
Shown here on a Colt 6920 with a SlideFire bump stock, the AR-15 version of the magazine sticks down about the same as a Beta C-Mag, but is much lighter loaded.
We tested the M1A mag on the bullpup Juggernaut Rogue chassis.
X-Products 50 Round Magazines for AR-15, M1A, FAL, HK91, SR25, AR-10 - Gear Review
One quirk is that the bolt had to be open to seat the magazine on the M1A.
X-Products 50 Round Magazines for AR-15, M1A, FAL, HK91, SR25, AR-10 - Gear Review
The AR-15 magazine is 3 lbs loaded. Compare that to the 100 round Beta C-Mag at 4 lbs 11oz loaded, and the 60 round SureFire mag at 2 lbs loaded. The 50 round .308 M1A mag is over 5 lbs loaded.
X-Products 50 Round Magazines for AR-15, M1A, FAL, HK91, SR25, AR-10 - Gear Review
Loading the .308 magazine is harder even though the spring is the same as the .223, but easier because it has finger grabs instead of a rough surface.

X-Products
https://www.xproducts.com/

If you have already attempted to buy “high capacity” magazines at a gun show, you already know that all magazines are not created alike. If you haven’t, let us save you the trouble. If you don’t see big, reputable, American companies selling magazines other than standard capacity, for example, 7 rounds in a 1911, 30 rounds in an AR-15, or 20 rounds in an M1A, FAL or AR-10, STAY AWAY. Standard capacity mags are standard capacity for a reason. It is difficult to get more bullets of that caliber to reliably function in a magazine meant for that weapon. It isn’t like anyone ever said, “eh, I think 30 rounds is enough for an AR-15. It was simply the closest round number to get the mags to work as expected, and in the case of the AR-15, even those mags didn’t originally work so good.

In the aftermarket high capacity magazine market there are very few companies that have gotten it right, and that are sold by mainstream firearm retailers next to the guns themselves. X-Products, according to the website was “Formed by four gun loving Hillbilly’s with college educations.” They make a 50 round drum magazine in the USA for not only the AR-15, but also nearly every major battle rifle in the Western world. For the AR-15 you may say big deal. The 60 round Surefire mag is Made in USA, as is the original double drum 100 round Beta C-Mag, but the X-Products mag is an entirely different animal, and if you happen to own an M1A, FAL, HK91/CETME, or an Armalite AR-10, or other .308 AR-15, you have probably never used an actual working magazine that held more than 20 rounds. We were able to test both the AR-15 and M1A versions of the X-Products mags and they work great. There is nothing like them in the market. At $239-$280, the X-Products mags aren’t cheap, but as a one time investment, you couldn’t ask for a better mag to take into battle.

The AR-15 mag we tested is very different from both the M1A mag, as well as the Beta C-Mag. There is no loading tool like a Beta C. You turn that knurled disk and drop the rounds in. It is a little tiring, because you can only do a few at a time, then you have to re-position your hand, but who would ever thing that loading a 50 round mag wouldn’t be time consuming? Functionally the X-Products AR-15 mag worked perfectly, but the big question is of course, is it as good or better than the SureFire 60 rounder? My answer is no. In fact, it isn’t better than the C-Mag either. What it is, is different. The X-Products mag will not interfere with a bipod like the SureFire mag will. The SureFire mag is slightly longer than a standard AR-15 mag. The 100 round C-Mag also doesn’t interfere with a bipod, but it is almost 5 pounds loaded, compared to the X-Products 50 rounder which is 3 pounds loaded. So between the three mags for the AR, there is an honest tradeoff, and the winner is your preference.

Not so with all of the 7.62/.308 guns. X-Products wins, because there are few if any viable competitors that are so good that a company like Brownells will carry them. The most important thing that our tests showed was that the big and clunky .308 mags are definitely more finicky than the AR version, and you have to develop a system to load and shoot them. Fortunately X-Products puts finger grooves in the winder wheel for loading the .308 mags. It makes it so you can use your thumb as a brake, and with a little bit of finger bending, 50 rounds does indeed go into the magazine. But don’t try to put more than 3 rounds in at a time, because the guide system seems to only be in the top of the magazine. If you backwind it too much, rounds get get stuck in it and you end up trying to hold this big heavy piece of metal upside down while clutching the spring loaded wheel hoping the loaded round will fall out. It’s…awkward, and I personally did it three times.

As you can see from the video and the pictures, we used our M1A that has been converted to a bullpup configuration with the Juggernaut Rogue chassis. Coincidentally X-Products actually sells the Rogue, and it is probably because it works well with their mag. You have to lock the bolt open to get the mag in. That is an annoying quirk, and there is no last round hold open on the X-Products mags at all, which would also be a peeve of mine. But honestly, what do you want when there is no other 50 round mag for the M1A that is reliable, period, and this one is a reputable US company with all of their products made in the USA.

At over 5 pounds loaded, the .308 mag is a formidable chunk of weight to add to a rifle, but if you are carrying a .308 battle rifle you probably aren’t dainty to begin with. That will help with both loading and carrying the magazine. We didn’t try the other .308 mags, but there is no reason to assume them to be any different than the M1A mag. There is a quote from Heckler & Koch on the website that they haven’t used a better mag for their rifle. Note by the way that the CETME is listed here because it is the progenetor to the HK91/G3, but we didn’t check with the company to make sure the mag does also indeed fit a CETME. I would also not assume that the FAL mags fit both inch and metric guns. I won’t get into the difference here, but you should ask if you plan to buy one. And in case you don’t know this, the standard Armalite AR-10 is not compatible with P-Mags or the SR-25 version from X-Products. There are Armalite AR-10s that take P-Mags now, but you should make sure you order the right mag for your gun.

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  • Chuck Green June 9, 2015, 9:25 pm

    I bought both the AR15/.223 magazine and the X25 magazine for the Ruger 7.62 carbine. I like both mags and consider them a valuable asset to my armory. I had a glitch with the X25 mag and both called and emailed Xproducts about the issue. I’m sorry to say I never received a reply from either method of contact. I had to download the assembly manual and figure the problem out for myself. My assessment is a good product with weak support.

  • Abe November 4, 2014, 5:25 pm

    Would like to know if you make rim fire drums ? 22winmag! Wouldn’t it be awsome!

  • James Malarkey August 28, 2013, 1:21 pm

    Great review on our product, I’m glad you didn’t take a biased approach to it. There was one or two small errors I noticed. One in particular is the spring used for the X-15 and the X-14 are actually the same size spring, the only difference is the loading/operating wheel. The knurled version is a little harder to load as it requires more grip, where as the fingered version is easier. Other than that it looks great, I really enjoyed the article and the video.

    • Administrator August 28, 2013, 2:12 pm

      Awesome James we’ll fix it.

  • Brenboy August 28, 2013, 8:39 am

    Not that “milspec” means anything anymore but maybe a minimum standard to judge various quality aspects of a product. I have seen many commercial market products that are far better than military. Begs the question; what “battle” is the review talking about? I prefer “recreational” shooting… so if it’s fun for that, I’m in.

  • H2O MAN August 27, 2013, 10:09 pm

    I own an X-14 & X-15. Excellent products, and outstanding customer service!

  • Mike August 27, 2013, 3:32 pm

    Any spec ops using this? Doubt it. HK-Germany made and perhaps this makes a 50 round metal .308 drum mag that is annoyingly labeled for military or law enforcement use only (extremely rarely on sale on gun boards for something like 1.5 to 2K, as scarce as HK23E parts :). It would be interesting to know if any of German military customers used or still use this particular magazine.

    It seems to be that all of these high capacity nonstandard devices have some significant drawbacks (weight, clumsy size like the AR snail drum, hard or finicky to load, can badly jam and be very hard to clear, some plastic ones are fragile, if you drop a load mag, it can crack or ruin feeding lips).

    I will take 3 Steyr 42 round mags over a Beta drum 100 round mag any day and they are vastly more reliable. Also no big clumsy bulges on both sides of the bullpup stock.

  • Brenboy August 27, 2013, 12:22 pm

    “you couldn’t ask for a better mag to take into battle.” Are these military issue?

    • Administrator August 27, 2013, 12:43 pm

      Not that I know of but the spec ops guys can pretty much write their own order.

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