Brownells shipping M16 magazines with anti-tilt follower to military

In March Brownells were awarded a contact for 1.4 million M16 magazines. They have just shipped the first 60,000. Interestingly these have a new propriety anti-tilt follower, instead of the normal green follower.

Cc
The new military magazine manufactured by Brownells

Larry, from Brownells, told me that the follower will unfortunately not be available to the civilian market as part of the contact prohibits them from using the design for any other purpose than the military.

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Steve Jun 13th 2009 rifles Tags: , , , , , , 22 Comments

22 Responses to “Brownells shipping M16 magazines with anti-tilt follower to military”

  1. Steveon 13 Jun 2009 at 6:10 pm link comment

    It must be some new sooper sekret follower design that no other manufacturer has come up with. I find it hard to believe it could be military specific.

  2. R.A.W.on 13 Jun 2009 at 7:58 pm link comment

    I wonder whose follower design it is. I know Picatinny Arsenal was working on an anti-tilt design way back when.

  3. Wynbonifaceon 14 Jun 2009 at 4:44 am link comment

    I will stick with MagPul.

  4. Foxon 14 Jun 2009 at 5:29 am link comment

    Probably a magpul.

  5. Heathon 14 Jun 2009 at 5:46 am link comment

    Is it just me, or is preventing an anti-tilt follower from getting into civilian hands just silly?

  6. Valhallaon 14 Jun 2009 at 6:50 am link comment

    what does that do exactly?

  7. By the wayon 14 Jun 2009 at 9:12 am link comment

    What is an “anti-tilt follower” ?

  8. Carlon 14 Jun 2009 at 11:15 am link comment

    So, a government is making silly rules.
    How very unusual…

  9. alexon 14 Jun 2009 at 11:25 am link comment

    whats anti tilt mean?

  10. Daniel E. Watterson 14 Jun 2009 at 11:44 am link comment

    When the military makes such a contract restriction, it is generally because someone else owns the design to the part in question. A typical license agreement only allows the licensed part to be reproduced for government use. For instance, the Army has acquired the license rights to reproduce the various Knight’s Armament RAS/MWS parts, but the companies contracted to make these parts for the Army can’t turn around and sell the same items commercially.

  11. jdun1911on 14 Jun 2009 at 11:52 am link comment

    An anti-tilt follower is when the follower doesn’t tilt. Well it does tilt a little.

    You get the most benefit out of them on GI magazines. It will improve the reliability of the magazine.

    Magazines like Lancer L5 that have a constant radius geometry will see little benefit from anti-tilt follower.

    Most GI mags that is being sold comes with anti-tilt follower. Magpul was the first one to produce anti-follower, since then other have created their own.

    Price jumped. It use to be $1.50 for three. WTF?
    http://www.aimsurplus.com/acatalog/AR_Magpul_Gen_III_Enhanced_Self_Leveling_Follower.html

    http://www.aimsurplus.com/acatalog/AR_C_Products_AR15_30rd_.223_mag.html

    http://www.aimsurplus.com/acatalog/AR_Lancer_L5_.223_AR15_M16_30rd_Polymer_Magazine.html

  12. jdun1911on 14 Jun 2009 at 12:08 pm link comment

    So I assumed that the standard green follower on GI mag will be phased out in the US military.

    BTW there nothing wrong with the green follower. However the anti-tilt follower improve the performance of GI mag greatly.

  13. By the wayon 14 Jun 2009 at 1:39 pm link comment

    I expected such answers…

    Actually english is not my mother language and i am not used to english terminology about firearms, so a “following thing used to avoid tilting” sounds a bit strange for me.

    If someone have a link on english terminology about firearms it would be great.

  14. jdun1911on 14 Jun 2009 at 5:24 pm link comment

    Tilt Follower, Lancer L5 Magazine.
    http://rpginn.com/xgalleryx/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=37336&g2_serialNumber=1

    Anti-Tilt Follwer, GI Magazine. Magpul Gen III follower.
    http://rpginn.com/xgalleryx/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=37338&g2_serialNumber=1

    My Lowers
    A2 Lower. Old grip.
    http://rpginn.com/xgalleryx/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=37340&g2_serialNumber=1

    Standard M4 Lower with CAA Saddle. Standard A2 grip.
    http://rpginn.com/xgalleryx/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=37342&g2_serialNumber=1

    CAA CBS Lower with magazine holder. Standard A2 grip.
    http://rpginn.com/xgalleryx/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=37344&g2_serialNumber=1

    Magapul CTR Lower. Ergo grip.
    http://rpginn.com/xgalleryx/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=37346&g2_serialNumber=1

    ACE Ultra Light Stock Lower. Magpul MIAD
    http://rpginn.com/xgalleryx/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=37348&g2_serialNumber=1

    Vltor Rifle Stock Lower. Hogue rubber grip
    http://rpginn.com/xgalleryx/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=37350&g2_serialNumber=1

    Took two stripped lower out of storage. Going to put Vltor Emod and Magpul ACS stock on them. The shiny one is a 0% forged lower. I use it as a paper weight.
    http://rpginn.com/xgalleryx/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=37352&g2_serialNumber=1

    I used the A2 for over 12 years. Then went to the M4 stock for 4 years. I am currently using the ACE ultra Light since last year.

  15. Leifon 25 Jun 2009 at 7:13 pm link comment

    Just dump the M-16 and all probs will be over. That lil’ black gun has killed more of our own troops than anything previous. Vietnam was not a lesson, so we still have it. Even the A2 sucks. (more)
    Get RID of the blasted M-16 rifle!!!

  16. Alexon 25 Jun 2009 at 11:57 pm link comment

    What the heck! Ok leif, I dont know where your coming from on this, but the m-16 is one of the best rifles ever made! And where the heck did you get the idea that it’s killed more of our own troops then “anything previous”??

  17. larry weekson 12 Dec 2009 at 11:27 am link comment

    Daniel Watters is correct. It is part of the contract because someone else created the design for the military. It is not a Magpul follower but is anti-tilt, although the green follower is called anti-tilt, too. Actually our first contract with the green follower also contained the language that prohibited us from using the information in the specification packet to build a commercial product. I assume since there were so many copies being built DOD just kind of winked at everyone that was doing it. There are only two suppliers making the new follower and if it turned up in a civilian mag Uncle Sam would kinda know where it came from. If a mag doesn’t come from Okay Ind, Center Ind (that’s not C-Products) or Brownells it isn’t true, current, GI spec. Center is the first choice primary supplier, if for some reason they can’t deliver enough, Brownells or Okay gets the contract. There are more than 120 critical dimensions on the follower alone and ALL MUST be met.

    As far as the reliabilty of the M16, we don’t think Uncle Sam will let us film a live fire test but we’d love to. We just finished testing 750 mags from six production lots in just about 5 hours. Test took place in 15 degree temps with light snow falling. Among the 10 tired, govt issue M16s and M4s we didn’t have ONE gun failure, and no mag failures. The standard is zero mag failure. If one fails, the entire lot has to be scrapped. Those guns take an incredible beating and keep running. Gas tubes glow cherry red after about 3, 30 round mags are run through them, and they we run another 3 or 4 through before changing guns. Even in the cold you can’t lift the gun out of the fixture without wearing gloves. Seven mags gets risky, rounds can cook off in the chamber before you pull the trigger. That’s 2200+ rounds through EACH gun as fast as the crew can rotate them and fire them.

  18. Daniel E. Watterson 14 Dec 2009 at 2:59 pm link comment

    PEO-Soldier’s Flickr page has additional photos of the new magazine and its follower, along with a bunch of other photos of interest.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/peosoldier/

  19. Steveon 14 Dec 2009 at 3:34 pm link comment

    Daniel, thanks!

  20. Daniel E. Watterson 15 Dec 2009 at 2:01 pm link comment

    This afternoon, the PEO-Soldier blog added a new post on the improved magazine. They have also uploaded a computer simulation of the improved magazine to Flickr.

    http://peosoldier.armylive.dodlive.mil/2009/12/14/armys-improved-magazine-increases-weapons-reliability-“tan-is-the-plan”-for-the-new-magazine/

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/peosoldier/4184964248/

  21. Steveon 15 Dec 2009 at 2:57 pm link comment

    Daniel, thanks, will blog that

  22. Williamon 28 Feb 2010 at 6:54 am link comment

    Yes, no specific reason other than contractual obligations for people’s patents and commercial considerations.

    I have green, orange, black, etc. followers and they all work fine. Never had a tilting or non-tilting issue with any of them in my light shooting and since I will never be in the sandbox, I don’t get too worked up about having the latest everything in the military arsenal.

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