Are you looking for the best magazine for 300 Blackout?
You are at the right place. We will list out all the top magazines for 300 blackouts in this post. It will be also about writing about the basic compatibility issues and performance ratings. We will try to answer out everything related to magazines for 300 blackout.
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Can't I Just Use 556 Magazine with 300 Blackout?
Yes, you can use your existing 5.56 AR-15 magazines with the 300 blackout but you won’t get the best performance with the rifle of 300 blackout. If you will use the magazines for 300 blackout that are designed and developed to get the best performance with your rifle chambered in 300 BLK, You will get the best experience and performance for your rifle. You can easily cut down on reliability issues by using the magazines available for 300 blackout.
There is no doubt saying that using 5.56 magazines chambered with another rifle with 300 BLK can led to catastrophic failure. You won’t get the up to the mark performance and you’ll end up regretting your decision. It is always recommended to designate and mark magazines specifically for 300 BLK so as to avoid accidentally loading them into the wrong rifle.
That’s why we recommend you to always use the best available magazines for 300 Blackout.
List Of Best Blackout Magazine Options In 2020
We have listed out the best 5 blackout magazines in 2020 which are specifically designed for this cartridge.
1) Lancer L5AWM 300 BLK Magazines
The most popular magazine for 300 blackout in our list is the Lancer L5AWM. It has been our favorite and bests 5.56 AR-15 magazine from the last couple of years. We were really happy when they launched their series for the 300 Blackout back in 2018.
It is almost similar to the 5.56 AR-15 magazines, It has also the same ultra-durable polymer construction and steel feed lips. You must be thinking what are the changes they made in the cartridge for 300 Blackout?
Well, The internal geometry was designed and developed to help you with the heavier grain 300 BLK subsonic ammo (200gr +) stack properly.
With this, you will experience better performance and reliability while firing. You will be able to fit the full number of rounds intended to fit in a given mag. It will lot easier to load close to 30 rounds in an L5AWM 30 round 300 BLK magazine than that of 5.56 mag.
You can easily recognize these 300 BLK cartridges as they are labeled with “300 Blackout” markings on their outer layer. You can distinguish them with their dark tan floor plates than black in the 5.56 Lancer mags.
Though Lancer recommends you use their 5.56 magazines for supersonic ammo of 150 grain or lighter we recommend you experiment with the 300 BLK mags if and only if you are facing any issues with the lighter cartridges.
You can get the Lancer 300 Blackout magazines in translucent smoke and opaque black colors with capacities of 10,20 and 30 rounds. We love Lancer’s translucent magazines as they look quite good and have the ability to very quick;y estimate the remaining round count.
2) Magpul PMAG 300 BLK Gen M3
Magpul is known for its high-quality firearm magazines. They are one of the most popular manufacturers of polymer firearm magazines and accessories. Magpul has everything you need from the Glock mags to AR-15 mags.
They also launched a PMAG before Lancer introduced their mags that are designed specifically for the 300 Blackout.
With every 300 Blackout Magazine, You will see there is an optimized internal geometry specifically to be used for 300 blackout just like in the Lancer 300 BLK mags.
You can find a great explanation video of the PMAG 300 B compared to the standard 5.56 mags by YouTuber Mrgunsngear. He has also explained the problems of using 5.56 mags in the 300 BLK
You can clearly see it in the video at 4:55, the difference in the internal geometry that will reduce the “pinching” problems that are found in the 5.56 mags. It is the reason why rounds are slowly loaded from the magazine.
You will also be able to distinguish between 300 B PMAGS’s and 5.56 PMAGs with their unique markings and rib designs. Also, they have a black follower than that of blueish-grey ones that you found on 5.56 PMAGs/
We consider Magpul’s PMAG 300 B Gen M3 as a great choice but there are certain reasons that We recommend the Lancer L5AWM as the best blackout magazine.
- We love the round count feature that can let us know the round of bullets fire through the L5AQM. Unlike the 5.56 option, Magpul doesn’t offer windowed PMAG in 300 blackout.
- PMAG 300 BS comes in a 30 round capacity option only, and Lancers are available in 10,20 and even 30 as well.
- L5AWM is more durable and reliable.
3) D&H Industries 300 Blackout Magazines
D&H Industries are offering 300 Blackout Magazines way before Lancer & Magpul have introduced magazines for 300 blackout. D&H Industries offered aluminum magazines for cartridges. It was the time when polymer magaziner was not introduced. We know the newer polymer offerings are way superior.
Still, The D&H Industries aluminum magazines for 300 blackout can be the primary option for those who are new or have yet to embrace polymer.
The internal geometry of these magazines are specifically designed for 300 BLK, they also have a proprietary red limited tilt follower to help the rounds from getting stuck. It’s quite strange that the follower is oriented totally opposite of all the other AR-15 magazines we have used till now.
Based on our experience, these are less reliable specifically when they are used with heavier and longer bullets. On having a quick look at the customer reviews on this magazine, it sounds like they have this as the most common issue with their magazines.
We’ve tried covering all the options for the best magazine available for 300 blackout, but we also consider using standard 5.56 AR-15 magazines that you can use with the 300 blackout. what you say?
4) Lancer L5AWM 5.56
If you are not going to choose the 300 BLK specific magazines, then the best alternative to that is the standard 5.56 L5AWM. You will get a great number of color options available than of the 300 BLK version.
Some of the variants available are:
- Translucent Smoke
- Opaque Flat Dark Earth
- Translucent Clear
- Opaque Black
- Translucent Purple & Red
- Translucent Flat Dark Earth
The best part about the Lancer L5AWM5.56 is that they’re also available in capacities of:
- 5 Rounds
- 10 Rounds
- 20 Rounds
- 30 Rounds
- 10/30 Rounds
5) Hexmag 5.56
Listing out a brand which is yet to be covered on the list of best magazines for 300 blackout. To be honest, they don’t offer magazines designed for 300 blackout, but Hemax 5.56 AE-15 standard magazines are considered a great budget option for your 300 BLK.
Most of the time, They will cost you half of the price of Lancers & PMAG’s. In such a budget-oriented price, you can consider it as a very reliable option based on our experience. They also have the HexID color identification system and that’s why We thought of including it in our list.
You can go for the cheap packs of HexID followers in a variety of different colors which will allow you to set a specific color for 300 blackout to make it different from 5.56
Conclusion
We are wrapping up our recommended list of the best magazine for 300 blackout and hope our guide may have helped you in finding a suitable magazine.
We recommend you the Lancer L5AWM 300 BLK Magazines. Also, you don’t specifically need a cartridge for 300 Blackout but using them will surely improve the performance when firing heavier subsonic loads.
You can also give a try to Magpul PMAG 300.
Do check out our List of Best AR-15.