M4 Airsoft mag brands

[Biggie-Banana264]

Do any m4 mags fit any weapon thinking specna arms ? providing the base item is that type base of weapon ?

Also what are the most common faults which are easier to fix on the fly

[BigStew]

No some guns will feed from any mag, some will only feed from their own brand, some will require the mag to be modified. There is absolutely no hard and fast rule and varies from gun to gun even made by the same manufacture. Only thing that can be fixed on the fly with out real knowledge and experience is barrel blockages. Even if you are technically proficient I would highly recommend not trying to open up your gun and site, that's asking for a part to ping off in a random direction never to be seen again 

Edited August 6, 2024 by BigStew

[Dan Robinson]

I have had to shim the back of my baby Specna's mag well with layers of electrical tape to help some of my mags sit forward enough to feed.  My ICS L85, DE M904 seem happy with anything.  Our big Specna seems less fussy.

 

The boy's ICS L85 is a little fussy, btu all he does it take the mag out and reinsert it.

[Colin Allen]

26 minutes ago, Dan Robinson said:

I have had to shim the back of my baby Specna's mag well with layers of electrical tape to help some of my mags sit forward enough to feed.  My ICS L85, DE M904 seem happy with anything.  Our big Specna seems less fussy.

 

The boy's ICS L85 is a little fussy, btu all he does it take the mag out and reinsert it.

Specna use more than one OEM; consequently, not all Specna branded mags work in all Specna branded guns.

[Dan Robinson]

9 minutes ago, Colin Allen said:

Specna use more than one OEM; consequently, not all Specna branded mags work in all Specna branded guns.

 

We have loads of different brands for our mags... I think the only Specna mags are the two that came with mine out of the box.... The rest are whatever I've bought from the classifieds here and Amazon.

[Colin Allen]

44 minutes ago, Dan Robinson said:

 

We have loads of different brands for our mags... I think the only Specna mags are the two that came with mine out of the box.... The rest are whatever I've bought from the classifieds here and Amazon.

Fair enough; I was just making the point that one cannot even rely on Specna mags to work in Specna guns.

[Cannonfodder]

11 hours ago, Colin Allen said:

Specna use more than one OEM; consequently, not all Specna branded mags work in all Specna branded guns.

Of all my m4 mags the one that came with my SA gun feeds the worst 

[Rogerborg]

Yup, Specnas are one of the worst brands for mag compatibility, except for all the other brands.

 

Issues can usually be ameliorated in the field by wiggling and slamming the mag in, but you might get some mags that just wont fit or feed. This can almost always be sorted by either filing/sanding, or shimming, the mag as appropriate to line it up with the feed tube.  Or if you have a lot of mags that need sorted, it can make more sense to shim inside the magwell instead.  The fuzzy side of self-adhesive velcro tape is popular for this, or just use duct or electrical tape in a pinch - you could also stick a strip of plastic on if you need a big adjustment, e.g. piece of cable tie.

 

If you do run into problems, then find a mag that does feed, and put it side-by-side with the bad ones. Eyeball and measure them up, and note how the feeds in the top of the magazines align (or don't align) - that will tell you whether you need to remove or add material to or from the front or back or the bad mags to make them match up and feed gooderer.  Examples:

 

 

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Waffle mags don't always fit rifs with fancy magwell grips.  Shame as a plain mag in a fat grip looks like a bodybuilder who always skips leg day.

[Caj109]

I use Battle Axe mid caps in my specna and all has been fine

[hitmanNo2]

I hear pretty much universal praise for Nuprol AR mags surprisingly.  I imagine 99% of Nuprol stuff is crap but it seems the mags are decent.

[DanBow]

53 minutes ago, hitmanNo2 said:

I hear pretty much universal praise for Nuprol AR mags surprisingly.  I imagine 99% of Nuprol stuff is crap but it seems the mags are decent.

 

I was just going to say something similar. My G&G is very fussy but the Nuprol metal ones bloody fantastic. 

[Colin Allen]

1 hour ago, hitmanNo2 said:

I hear pretty much universal praise for Nuprol AR mags surprisingly.  I imagine 99% of Nuprol stuff is crap but it seems the mags are decent.

The Nuprol metal M4 mags work in all of our M4 based AEGs.

[Lozart]

14 hours ago, hitmanNo2 said:

I hear pretty much universal praise for Nuprol AR mags surprisingly.  I imagine 99% of Nuprol stuff is crap but it seems the mags are decent.

 

Nuprol make very little. They tend to just rebrand other peoples stuff. Every once in a while they rebrand something good.

 

Even a broken clock is right twice a day!

[Biggie-Banana264]

What dose shimming mean though ? Just standing down top groves ? Also what do people put tape round them 

[Dan Robinson]

Shimming just means putting something inside the mag well to hold the mags in the best position for feeding.  Much like you shim your gearbox with various thicknesses of washer to get the gears to mesh nicely.

 

I've got half a dozen layers of leccie tape on the rear wall of my mag well to push the top of the magazines forward as I found that I was having to push the magazines forwards with my hand when firing to get them working reliably.

[Rogerborg]

What Dan said. If you find that you have a problem, you can generally fix it with whatever you have to hand.

 

It's not worth worrying about though. I get the desire to to make an informed choice about what to get and what to do with it, but there are no guarantees in airsoft, you'll just have to commit and then deal with the reality of what you get.  The Specna EDGE 2.0 that you've been considering are fine, just clean the barrel and play, you'll have a blast.