Tag Archives | Magpul

HB-1224 Passes CO Senate

Colorado House Bill 1224 has passed the Colorado State Senate. Those of you who have been following HB-1224 know that it is a bill that restricts the magazine capacity of Colorado residents to 15 rounds and it has been getting a lot of press because of Magpul’s residency in Colorado and moral stand to leave the state if the bill passes.

The bill will now head back to the house since there was a modification surrounding shotgun capacity in the senate. It will almost certainly pass there a second time before being sent to Governor John Hickenlooper for his signature – the last step before HB-1224 becomes law in Colorado. The governor has already stated that he will sign the bill if it makes it to his desk.

Cases of PMAGS

Photo credit: Magpul

Magpul “Boulder Airlift”

Magpul has released details of the plan to put full capacity PMAGs in the hands of Coloradans that we mentioned yesterday. They are calling it “Boulder Airlift” and here are the details:

Magpul is proud to announce the “Boulder Airlift”, our program to make sure that responsible Colorado citizens have the opportunity to own standard capacity PMAGs prior to the potential implementation of pending legislation that would infringe on their Second Amendment Rights. The program will be open to all responsible CO residents, (with both billing and shipping addresses inside CO) and provide access to a limited quantity of PMAGs. Remember to contact members of the Senate and the Governor prior to ordering and urge them to oppose HB 1224.

Full details at http://www.magpul.com/Colorado

Similar to the Berlin Airlift, the Boulder Airlift will bring much needed supplies to freedom-loving residents trapped inside occupied territory. While we plan to initially use FedEx or UPS instead of aerial delivery, we figure that $5 flat rate shipping will make up for any loss of “style points.”

The increases we have made and continue to make in production capacity will allow us to open this program with very minimal impact on the number of PMAGs we are shipping to our dealers and distributors out of the state. We are also aware that Colorado is not the only state with existing or pending magazine capacity restrictions; we are working on programs for other affected states as well.

Magpul Boulder Airlift

Magpul Makes Putting PMAGS in CO Resident’s Hands a Priority

The entire firearm industry is waiting on pins and needles to see how everything plays out in Colorado but Magpul isn’t sitting idle. They are instituting a new program to make sure that the residents of the state that they love can have access to full capacity magazines before illegal and ineffective gun control legislation denies their right to own such items.

Hopefully this isn’t one of their last acts before they are forced to leave the state of CO but if it is… what a way to go. This is a firm thumb in the eye of gun control advocates.

Cases of PMAGS

Here is the latest from Magpul via their Facebook Page:

We are proud to announce that within a matter of days we will be going live with a new program. Due to a bill currently moving through the Colorado legislature, there is the possibility that Colorado residents’ ability to purchase standard capacity magazines will soon be infringed. Before that happens, and Magpul is forced to leave the state in order to keep to our principles, we will be doing our best to get standard capacity PMAGs into the hands of any Colorado resident that wants them.

Verified Colorado residents will be able to purchase up to ten (10) standard capacity AR/M4 magazines directly from Magpul, and will be given immediate flat-rate $5 shipping, bypassing our current order queue.

Our customers outside of Colorado, please know that our PMAG production will continue at an ever-increasing rate until we do relocate, shipments to our distributors in other states will continue, and that we do not expect relocation to significantly impact PMAG production. We are also aware that Colorado is not the only state with existing or pending magazine capacity restrictions; we are working on programs for other affected states as well.

Full details and instructions will be announced when we are able to go live; please watch here for the coming announcement.

Magpul Update [UPDATED]

Magpul continues to fight the good fight against the proposed 2nd Amendment encroachments in Colorado. HB1224, a Colorado House Bill to limit magazine capacity, is still on its way to becoming law, and, as many of you know, Magpul has stated that they will leave Colorado if it does.

From Magpul:

MAGPUL INDUSTRIES ANNOUNCES IT WILL LEAVE COLORADO IF GUN BILL PASSES

MOVE WOULD COST STATE 600 JOBS, $85 MILLION

Denver, Colorado – February 15th, 2013 – Magpul Industries, an Erie, Colorado, based manufacturer of firearms accessories, announced today that it will be forced to leave the state if House Bill 1224, which would ban standard capacity magazines, becomes law. The announcement was made to Governor Hickenlooper, state legislators, members of the media, and in a full-page advertisement to appear in the Denver Post on Sunday.

Richard Fitzpatrick, Founder, President, and CEO of Magpul Industries, said that regardless of any amendments that may be worked into the bill, he will no longer be able to continue to do business in Colorado if his core product is made illegal.

“Our company could not, in good conscience, continue to manufacture our products in a state where law-abiding citizens are prohibited from purchasing and owning them. ” Fitzpatrick said. “The passage of this bill will do nothing to enhance public safety, but will force us to immediately begin taking our business to another state.”

A proponent of the bill argued that with the amendment language, the choice to stay or leave was up to Magpul. Fitzpatrick responded, “Our relationship with our customers across the country would be severely damaged if this bill passes and we stay. We’ve already heard word of potential boycotts if that happens. They (legislators) really need to understand that our customer base is as passionate about freedoms as we are, and staying here if this bill passes would cripple the company. Make no doubt about it…we have no choice, and would be forced to leave in order to save the business.”

Magpul cited the example of the Eastern Sports and Outdoors Show, which was canceled earlier this year after the organizers announced that it would not permit a popular category of firearm, like the ones Magpul makes accessories for, in the show. Public outcry from the customer base forced exhibitors to withdraw from participation, causing the cancellation of the show, and an estimated loss of $70 million of show revenue for hotels, restaurants, merchants, and other businesses in Pennsylvania, where the show was to be held.

Magpul Industries directly employs 200 people, supports another 400 supply-chain jobs, and contributes over $85 million annually to Colorado’s economy. Doug Smith, Chief Operating Officer for Magpul, says that it is a difficult position to be in. “We could choose to stay in a state that wants our jobs and revenue, but not our products, and lose half the jobs we are fighting to save, or potentially the entire business, when our customers stop buying. Or, we can take the company and those 600 jobs out of Colorado to continue our growth and the growth of American manufacturing in a state that shares our values. This is not really a choice. It’s an unfortunate and inevitable result of the actions of the Legislature if this bill passes.”

Magpul was started over a decade ago by Fitzpatrick, a former U.S. Marine. It has become one of Colorado’s fastest growing businesses, successfully marketing its products to American and allied military forces, police departments, sporting goods stores, and thousands of responsible private citizens. Fitzpatrick says that the rich western culture and strong values of individual freedom and responsibility, traditionally found in Colorado, were one of the reasons the company chose to remain in the state.

“It is heartbreaking to me, my employees, and their families, to think that we will be forced to leave,” Fitzpatrick said. “But if HB13-1224 passes, we will simply have no choice.”

They even took out a full page ad in the Denver Post.

Magpul Full Page Ad

This has become a national story. Do what you can to oppose the passage of HB1224. If you are a resident of CO, you must contact your representatives now!

UPDATE:

HB1224 has passed in Colorado State House. It still has to pass the CO State Senate and be signed by their Governor.

Review: SexyWeapon Hydro-Coating

Several months ago, I was sent a set of A-TACS hydro-coated AR-15 furniture by SexyWeapon with instructions to use it for a while and then share my experiences with how well the coating held up. I installed everything on a new Dissipator style carbine that I built for a potential article since I knew I would be using it a lot. Now, just short of 1000 rounds later, I have a better idea of how these coatings will hold up with typical range use.

This is what the furniture looked like when it was brand new.

This is what the furniture looked like when it was brand new.

More on Hydro-Coating

Hydro-coating is called hydro-coating because a special film that contains the desired pattern is floated on top of water. The part that is being coated can them be passed through the film, transferring the film to the part. It sounds easy but…

We have all seen hydro-coating that is just poorly executed. You can usually spot it a mile away because the coating is flaking of in chunks and the coated surface is left shiny which indicates that there is likely no clear coat over the hydro-coating. If you want the coating to hold up well, it takes work, and work is something that not everyone is willing to do.

The bottom of the grip shows some wear all the way down to the black plastic.

The bottom of the grip shows some wear all the way down to the black plastic.

SexyWeapon starts by choosing the best color of the furniture that they will be coating to work well with the pattern that they are applying. Ideally, they want to minimize how obvious it is when the coating does wear off because, like all coatings, it will wear off eventually. This means they start with black for dark patterns like their Reaper pattern and something like FDE for their more brown patterns like A-TACS AU. My sample parts are A-TACS AU coated over black furniture. Due to this, the wear shown is more dramatic than it typically would be but it was helpful to me in my review so that I could highlight the wear.

The next step is prepping the surface. SexyWeapon preps with a solid color coating that, like the color of the furniture itself, is chosen to compliment the hydro-coating. This base coat is important in that will play a large role in how the final hydro-coating appears. If you try to put A-TACS AU over a green background, the pattern will have a green tinge to it. The color pallets in modern camo patterns are chosen very carefully. SexyWeapon does their best to make sure their coatings are rendered as faithfully as possible and that starts with a proper base coat.

Wear can be seen along the high spots on the hand guards. Like any coating, the "corners" seem to wear first.

Wear can be seen along the high spots on the hand guards. Like any coating, the “corners” seem to wear first.

Once the furniture color is chosen and the surface is prepped with a solid color coating, SexyWeapon dips the part to minimize the presence of seams in the coating. The goal is to have as much uninterrupted camo as possible and for the seams to end up in places where they will most be unnoticed.

The final step is one of the keys to the durability and good looks of the SexyWeapon parts. They apply a clear coat using a technique that gives the part a non-glare matte finish. There is no shine whatsoever (at first – more on this later) and the parts are left with a fine, pebbled texture that is fairly grippy.

Observations from Use

My main goal in using this furniture was to see how the coating held up to typical and some non-typical use. I wanted to observe how the wear progressed through the various coatings in additional to how well the entire product holds up over time.

The leading edge of the stock shows wear from being rubbed by the charging handle. The oily finger print is courtesy of me. It is not in the coating.

The leading edge of the stock shows wear from being rubbed by the charging handle. The oily finger print is courtesy of me. It is not in the coating.

I found the coating to have better wear resistance than spray paint and similar wear resistance to DuraCoat. That should give you some frame of reference for how durable the coating is. You will eventually start to wear it off, but it will be very localized and less noticeable thanks to the upfront diligence of SexyWeapon.

The wear seems to progress through stages over time. First, you will notice that some higher traffic areas wear smooth but they never really become as obnoxiously shiny as low quality coatings. It is more of a dull luster that you can feel more than you can see. Next, the coating starts to wear away so that the base coat shows through. This only happened on my sample furniture in places where there is fairly frequent contact with something hard like my wedding ring on the vertical grip or the charging handle on the leading edge of the stock. Finally, I did manage to wear through the base coating in the places that receive the most abuse like the bottom of the magazine where it contacts the ground when using it as a mono-pod.

Keep in mind that my carbine gets unpacked at the range, used, and then packed up again. If your typical usage involves something different, the wear patterns may be different. I suspect that bouncing around in the trunk of a cop car or being carried on long foot patrols will accelerate the wear considerably. Also, all of the parts that I tested were plastic and I am not sure if the durability would be the same on metal parts.

The wear is most dramatic on the bottom of the magazine where it contact the ground when being used as a mono-pod.

The wear is most dramatic on the bottom of the magazine where it contact the ground when being used as a mono-pod.

One thing that you may need to keep in mind when deciding whether or not to purchase coated parts is how the coatings will affect the fit of all the various parts. For instance, the coated Magpul MOE Hand Guards are marginally harder to install than not coated ones. Those three extra layers of coating (base, hydro-coating, clear coat) can make a noticeable difference. This is especially true if you know that the magazine well on your carbine is tight. If it is, you may find that magazines don’t drop free. In my case, the magazine that SexyWeapon provided for the test was double coated and it would not drop free (I was told about this before I ever received the parts). However, this should be a non-issue with in spec lowers and single coated magazines.

SexyWeapon A-TACS Furniture Mag Notch

This magazine was double coated so a normal one is likely to show more wear from being inserted and removed from the magazine well.

Wrap Up

I found that the hydro-coated parts from SexyWeapon were of very good quality – better than what you typically see. SexyWeapon gets the details right and it shows in how well their coatings hold up to use.

Check out their ever growing lineup of coated parts SexyWeapon.com.

Disclosure: SexyWeapon provided these parts to me, free of charge, for review.

I installed an IWC QD Micro MOUNT-N-SLOT in the hand guard. The coating did not chip or crack when drilled.

I installed an IWC QD Micro MOUNT-N-SLOT in the hand guard. The coating did not chip or crack when drilled.

The leading edge of the vertical grip is worn from constant contact with my wedding ring.

The leading edge of the vertical grip is worn from constant contact with my wedding ring.

 

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