"30rnd" Mags in NY

[Camper4lyfe]

I'm sorting through and keeping an eye out for mags as I wait for the money to flow in to buy my parts for my AR. I'm wondering something about the mags. I know NY has a 10rnd capacity limit, but what about modifying a 30rd so that it can only hold 10rnds? 30rnd mags are a dime a dozen, whereas 10rnds, or even the 10/30's are not entirely easy to find.

My brother-in-law has informed me that he's got a bunch of 30rnd mags from his Marine brother, ready to give me for Christmas. my fear is that these mags will land be in jail for Christmas if they can't be modified.

Thoughts?

[usmcveteran]

If they aren't preban mags and are permanently modified to only hold 10 rounds your fine. Just remember they have to be modified before they are brought into the state or have them shipped to a FFL to modify them before you take possession.

[BUCKrub91]

get prebans.... Or Allstar Tactical just started making 30 rounders that are pined to 10

https://www.allstartactical.com/cata...inum-magazines

[Camper4lyfe]

If they aren't preban mags and are permanently modified to only hold 10 rounds your fine. Just remember they have to be modified before they are brought into the state or have them shipped to a FFL to modify them before you take possession.

That does complicate things a touch. Thanks a bunch for the info.

[Camper4lyfe]

get prebans.... Or Allstar Tactical just started making 30 rounders that are pined to 10

https://www.allstartactical.com/cata...inum-magazines

I really need to get over to Allstar one of these days.

[Rustrtal]

I would suggest that you check them out before pinning them. There may be some/all prebans in there. It would suck to pin a preban.

[Camper4lyfe]

I would suggest that you check them out before pinning them. There may be some/all prebans in there. It would suck to pin a preban.

The hard part is that they're sitting outside Camp Lejeune, NC.

I know it's a dumb question, and I'm going this backwards (ask, then google), but how do you tell a pre-ban from post-ban?

[PY-Tactical]

Preban AR-15 magazine guide | NY Firearms

Link to Pre-ban magazine guide blog on the NYFirearms wecsite

[Camper4lyfe]

Preban AR-15 magazine guide | NY Firearms

Link to Pre-ban magazine guide blog on the NYFirearms wecsite

I've seen that a few times. Problem being, it doesn't tell what specifically denotes pre-ban, nor does it compare pre- vs. post-ban.

[Rustrtal]

The general consensus is that if it is date stamped after the ban, then it is post ban. If it is stamped before or not stamped at all, then it is considered pre-ban. I am sure this line of thought is technically flawed but as long as you are shooting in a responsible manner, there will not be any issues. There are lots and lots of people that have post ban mags and collapseable stocks that never have issues. Get pulled over for doing a 100 mph in a school zone and you may have some trouble when "Evil" features are discovered on the AR in your trunk. Good advice (Dave from RPD) is "Never break more than one law at a time."

Basically, don't be stupid and regardless of what your mags are you won't get into any trouble. Most LEO's don't know the difference in them anyway. My Dad has been a Police Chief for 30+ years and he has no idea how to tell the difference and couldn't care less unless there is some other problem.

[Camper4lyfe]

That's the most straight forward answer I've gotten to day. Thanks!

The general consensus is that if it is date stamped after the ban, then it is post ban. If it is stamped before or not stamped at all, then it is considered pre-ban. I am sure this line of thought is technically flawed but as long as you are shooting in a responsible manner, there will not be any issues. There are lots and lots of people that have post ban mags and collapseable stocks that never have issues. Get pulled over for doing a 100 mph in a school zone and you may have some trouble when "Evil" features are discovered on the AR in your trunk. Good advice (Dave from RPD) is "Never break more than one law at a time."

Basically, don't be stupid and regardless of what your mags are you won't get into any trouble. Most LEO's don't know the difference in them anyway. My Dad has been a Police Chief for 30+ years and he has no idea how to tell the difference and couldn't care less unless there is some other problem.

[PY-Tactical]

I have preban mags manufactured by companies that stopped doing business years before the ban in '94. They are not date stamped anywhere but I believe they are pretty safe as far as being legal.

[Transporter7220]

LDD on here will also hook you up with some pre-ban mags for cheap. Just shoot him a PM.

[sitdwnandhngon]

Are new mags, P-Mags for instance, stamped each production run?

I have a few pistol mags, made well after '94 that have no date on them.

[ROCity Holsters]

get prebans.... Or Allstar Tactical just started making 30 rounders that are pined to 10

https://www.allstartactical.com/cata...inum-magazines

I was in AST a couple and took a look at these new mags. They're top quality.

Keep an eye out for LDD's listings of prebans for sale. He also only sells top quality stuff.

[PDRob77]

i say just get prebans

[LDD]

I've seen that a few times. Problem being, it doesn't tell what specifically denotes pre-ban, nor does it compare pre- vs. post-ban.

That guide was never supposed to be an exhaustive comparison between pre and post ban magazines.

Something like that is going to be hard to keep up since there are new "players" in the magazine market every month--or at least that's what it seems like.

The following companies either weren't around before the ban or did not make preban AR magazines:

Mapgul (pmags have stamping, but since they are all postban, it's moot)
Lancer
Brownells
C-Products
Tango Down
Heckler & Koch
Cammenga
Tapco
iTac

I'm sure there are more, but that's a pretty good list right there.

All the magazines that appear in the guide are preban (it is called the "preban" magazine guide for a reason). There are a few very rare makes of USGI mag that did not make it in there, and the orlites and thermolds didn't either (all orlites are preban, some thermolds are preban). Besides that, there are the ultra-rare 40 round Precision Mag Industries that didn't make it in and then certain Beta-C mags (don't know the exact serial number range yet).

This comes up from time-to-time so I'll address it here. Not all preban magazines are date-coded. Nor was or is there such a requirement in the NY AWB. Magazines manufactured after 1994 (for the duration of the federal ban) were required to be marked "Restricted; Gov't LEO only..." It would be preposterous to make a law that a magazine made in 1982 had to be date marked because some law written in 1993 would require it. That would require companies like Adventureline and Parsons Precision (that had gone out of business by 1993) to have prescient knowledge of not only future legislative intent, but legislative language.

Certain preban magazines are date-coded, but this was probably either a contract requirement or just the manufacturer's way of keeping track of batches for the purpose of QA. For instance, both Okay and Center industries began externally date stamping their magazines in 1991 and continued this practice. With that being said, I have never seen an externally date stamped magazine from either manufacturer for the year 1993, or preban 1994 stampings. So either the date stamping requirement went away, or there simply were no magazines manufactured during those years (unlikely).

Speaking only of USGI mags:

Start sorting by the color of the follower. Put all the mags with black followers in a pile, put all mags with green followers in a different pile. If you have mags with orange followers, put those in a third pile.

The mags with black followers are most likely going to be preban (though I have seen postbans with black followers--probably the result of some PFC swapping followers and not knowing the difference).

The mags with green follows are less likely to be prebans, but it does happen (particularly with DSL Sanchez mags, that are preban and were issued with green followers).

Mags with orange followers are least likely to be prebans.

Now go through each pile and check for body stamping. If there is any stamping on the body that is not a date code (LEO stamping or branding), it's a postban. Check for external date coding--refer to the guide to see what this looks like. Discard anything with the a date that is post 9/13/94.

This will leave you, possibly, with two kinds of potentially preban magazines (and one pile of postban, which you can ignore). One will be externally date coded prebans--very rare, probably less than 8% of all preban magazines are preban-ext-date-stamped.

The other pile will be magazines that are potentially preban, but not externally date stamped at all.

Now comes the fun part. Get bucket and fill it with warm water (add a bit of handsoap if you like) and a rod with a slotted patch holder.

Take off the baseplates one at a time. Start with any magazine that has "Okay" on the baseplates. Dunk the mag body, and swab out inside of the mag body. Let the mag body dry, and keep the spring and baseplate with the body. Once they are all dry check for internal date stamping: again, refer to the mag guide to see what this looks like. Most of these bodies will be with Okay baseplates, but you never know when a private numb-nuts came along and swapped the plates with someone else's baseplate.

With that done, you could have as many as three piles of magazines: ext dated, int date, and undated. For preban undated magazines, the mag is assumed to be preban since it does not have the required date stamping verbiage on it. Refer to the magazine guide for companies that made undated prebans (FN, Labelle, Adventureline, etc).

There are companies that do make unstamped postban magazines, like Bushmaster and C-products. If I see a BM with a grey follower, I assume it to be postban even if it doesn't have stampings. All C-products mags are postban.

If you are really concerned about preban/postban, use the USGI unstamped magazines as your ready-reserve stash and use your date stamped mags for your range/social magazines. For internally date stamped mags, I put a piece of tape on the outside of the magazine, with the date stamp written on that tape (you can see what this looks like in my ads). My customers are free to remove the tape if they'd like, but it's there for their convenience if they want to keep it (and helps me sort the mags I've already IDed as internal stamped). I guess if you wanted to be fancy, you could spray paint stencil the mags.

Good luck.

[AndyB]

I know this question may be out of place, but in all seriousness is the magazine law really enforced? I would think that if everything else on your rifle is under NY compliances, is a magazine really going to be secrutinized? With that said I don't take any chances, and always find pre ban mags i'd rather be safe than sorry and possibly end up in prison and loose my 2nd amendment rights. Alot of people use post ban mags but in all honesty i'd rather be cautious and follow the letter of the law no matter how bogus or redic the law/laws may be.

[Camper4lyfe]

That guide was never supposed to be an exhaustive comparison between pre and post ban magazines.


Good luck.

That was really helpful. Thanks LDD!

[KSB]

I just purchased some prebans for my Ruger SR-556. But going to require a 5 round one to hunt with. Did not know that Allstar pinned them. Guess I need to stop by there.

[Camper4lyfe]

I just purchased some prebans for my Ruger SR-556. But going to require a 5 round one to hunt with. Did not know that Allstar pinned them. Guess I need to stop by there.

I plan on picking up some 5rnd mags as well for the same purpose, once all is built, that is. They're not terribly common, that's for sure.

[PY-Tactical]

I plan on picking up some 5rnd mags as well for the same purpose, once all is built, that is. They're not terribly common, that's for sure.

Just got a 5rd Stoner mag from Midway for 14 bucks, on sale. They are hard to find and always seem to be out of stock. Figured would be good to have available in case I wanted to use the AR to hunt with.

[KSB]

Just got a 5rd Stoner mag from Midway for 14 bucks, on sale. They are hard to find and always seem to be out of stock. Figured would be good to have available in case I wanted to use the AR to hunt with.

Cool. I will have to check them out. If I found any at all before they were over $25.

[nawtbird]

Like others have said buy 30 round pre bans from LDD or the pinned from AST. I've bought from LDD and his stuff is nice and I'm waiting for him to list more! The AST ones are really nice, great finish