Oversized magwells for pistols are very common, but for some reason have never really caught on with rifles. And why, I don’t know. Perhaps the word hasn’t gotten out as well that they even exist. Perhaps it is because a few models don’t actually work all that well. Or perhaps it is just that it’s a thing many shooters never realized they needed. Fortunately, I have a model I have been recommending for years that I am going to share with you today.
First of all, the why. And that is pretty easy on this one. If I offered you the chance to shoot a basketball for one shot at a million dollars, would you rather toss that ball at a regulation hoop or a dumpster? Dumpster, hands down. Because the enlarged opening ups your odds of success. The same thing is true with a magwell on a gun. The oversized opening acts as a funnel, giving you more surface area with which to potentially hit that reload fast. It doesn’t matter if you hit your reloads perfectly every time, true. But I have yet to meet that person.
The model I have always preferred is from GB custom accessories, a device I was introduced to back on the 3-gun circuit. GB learned from the mistakes of others and produces to this day what I see as the Gold standard mag well for AR-15s. The GB is aluminum, not plastic, for enhanced durability. It is bigger enough than a factory opening to be very forgiving, but not so big as to get in your way while patrolling or whatever. And the big win is how it attaches combined with overall “skirt length”.
Many of the magwells on the market extend way below the trigger guard, which leads to problems. Why? Because we grip a rifle reload different than a pistol reload. With a pistol, we grab the magazine by the bottom, since the entire magazine (usually) fits inside the pistol. With an AR, not so. We grab an AR magazine by the middle. Why? Two reasons. First, only the top quarter or so of the mag fits inside the gun. So we can. And second, leverage. A rifle magazine is longer than a pistol magazine by a wide margin. In the same way, we don’t grab a shovel by its furthest end, we don’t grab a long magazine. We have more control if we grab it by its middle, very near the bottom of the part that fits inside the rifle ideally.
Which is why the GB is awesome. With its minimal new hang, you are unlikely to have to retrain how you grab a rifle magazine. The GB is precision machined to slip over a mil-spec receiver mag well, and extends about a quarter-inch below it. It doesn’t work on certain cuts, including the Aero M4E1, but it works on anything standard.
At $64.99, you are going to have to have a little faith in me. For my money, it is absolutely worth that and more. The forgiveness on a sloppy reload is awesome, much less potentially lifesaving. When I get a new AR, this is one of my first add-ons, and I recommend you give it a shot.
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Done.
Have you tried the Sylvan one?