Sometimes the status quo isn’t enough. In the rifle industry, 30 round magazines are the status quo. They work and work well. They are a good compromise between size and capacity. In most situations, 30 rounds will see you through. However, in other situations, the TorkMag is what you go to. TorkMag produces two magazines a 35 rounder and a 50 rounder. The 35 rounder is impressive since its the same size as the standard 30 rounder. Now 35 rounds is better than 30, but whats better than 35 rounds? How about 50?
A Big Boom Womb
The TorkMag 50 rounder is one big beast, but would you have it any other way? Now I know what you’re thinking, this thing must be a pain in the ass to load. I thought so too and was thinking of some funny way to express that. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes past 30 rounds the magazine gets a little harder to load, but far from difficult. Even past 40 rounds it never gets thumb blistering tough. So far I’ve loaded it from zero to completion four times and I never thought it was a pain.
Let’s face it extended magazines don’t have the best reputation. People enter into them with a bit of caution, and rightly so. The bigger magazines mean bigger springs and introducing unproven variables with an unproven design. TorkMag went a different route when they designed their magazine. They incorporate what they call a dual spring balanced torque system. This supposedly equalizes the force on the nose and tail of loaded rounds. This supposedly solved the problems with bullet nose diving malfunctions.
The big question is does this work? Well, after two hundred rounds I can happily say it does. If you take a long hard look at the lifeline of a magazine 200 rounds is very little. 200 rounds does give me a good idea if something is going to fly or fail. The TorkMag chugged through all 200 rounds without issue in an AR 15.
Who is this For?
The presence of more rounds in a gun can be useful for just about anyone. In a home defense situation, you aren’t exactly going to be carrying a plate carrier with extra ammo. So 20 extra rounds on tap is never a bad thing. We can’t forget about our gamer friends in multi-gun events. When you’re rocking and rolling the open division you might as well go full idiot.
If the TorkMag 50 rounder proves to be dependable there could be military applications. With the Marines running the Infantry Automatic Rifle a bigger magazine is perfect for those situations where a little extra suppression is needed. The TorkMag 50 rounder is long, wide, and yeah it gets heavy. To me, the TorkMag isn’t the magazine I’m filling every mag pouch with. I keep one or two on standby for special occasions. It’s like fine China I only break it out when hell comes to town. (Hell is what I call my mother in law.)
Downsides
So it’s an AR magazine, and not an “every gun that takes AR magazines” magazine. For example, it ran fine in the SCAR and in my AR rifles, it did not however run at all in my NATO AUG. With the AUG it choked over and over again. To the point where 5 rounds in I gave up on it. Will it work with other STANAG guns? That I can’t answer.
Also, the magazine is almost entirely untextured. This is likely to keep the costs down, and the magazines are affordable. At only 30 bucks a pop for the 50 rounders its hard to complain. I’m seeing it being pretty slick if my hands are wet or sweaty. Some grip tape would be a quick fix though.
Oh, and good luck getting into a low prone position. This bad boy is not easy in the prone position. It’s a long magazine, and you feel every inch when you are trying to hug the ground.
Lastly, when it comes to magazine changes you have to do more than shove it in there. When its fully loaded you need to slam it home, and I mean slam the hell out of it to make sure it’s in place.
Final Thoughts
Its a ton of fun. Seriously, the TorkMag 50 round magazine runs and it feels like I’m never going to run out of ammo. Running drills is a blast, especially drills like the 1-5 AR drill. The TorkMag 50 round magazine is a great little piece of gear, and its less than half the price of Magpul’s D-60 drum. If you have a high capacity itch the TorkMag is the scratch.
