Custom AR Magazines

Today we browse some aftermarket options for bringing that personal touch to your magazines.

Cerakoting or painting your firearm can bring a fresh look with the added benefit of a protective coating. Why not also bring that style to your magazines? After all, the magazine is a key feature to your firearm's overall profile. Finding a magazine to match that Kryptek camo pattern or some shade of multicam can be difficult when popular brands only offer their magazines in black, flat dark earth, and green. Other magazine manufacturers typically only go as far as to make magazines in singular solid colors — no options for patterns or graphics.

How to Paint Magazines

Photo Credit:  M4carbine.net

Ready to paint some happy trees with your inner Bob Ross? If you're up for the challenge to hand paint your magazines or to simply give it a solid coat or rattle canned pattern then Aluma-Hyde, Rust-Oleum, Krylon will get the job done for a nice base coat. Be sure to degrease the surface with a degreaser such as VM&P Naphtha and sand the surface with a sandpaper grit of 320+ to prepare for the first coat. Aluminum magazine users may want to skip this step to avoid taking off their cerakote finish. If you use duracoat in this process, be prepared to allow 3 to 6 weeks for each layer to fully cure.

Try having as few layers as possible on the magazine surface area that makes contact with the magwell. Having any layer of paint on this section can interfere with the tolerance and introduce problems with freeing the magazine during a reload. Moreover, as the paint wears off the flakes can be introduced into the magwell and the action. A quick way of taping off this area is to simply insert the magazine into the magwell with the masking tape applied. Reapply onto the magazine as needed until the edge of the masking tape is just barely visible with the magazine inserted. The original finish of the magazine won’t be visible when in use, and this way you won’t have dropping issues.

If you'll be making detailed artwork on your magazines, begin with one of the mentioned base coats of the darkest color that you will use. Once you've finished the rest of the design, protect the surface with a layer of Solid Film Lubricant or your choice of a clear coat.

What Patterns To Rattlecan Magazine With?

Photo Credit:  Primary Arms

If you have a painted AR or an AR cerakote job made to blend with its surroundings, you’ll want the magazines to match. After you’ve gotten the darkest color applied as the base, select patterns based on your environment. Branches, leaves, stems, and meshes are popular stencils to use for this purpose. Grabbing these from your backyard and laundry room is going to be the easiest part of this process. Lay them on your magazine in the desired silhouette orientation and get to work. Make sure to avoid arches and circles when making a pass. Light parallel passes are ideal. Make sure to use colors lighter than the base coat and colors that are naturally found in environmental proximity to each other.

How to Remove Paint From Gear?

While acetone and mineral spirits are commonly used for removing paint, it will be much harder to reapply paint afterward. Keep this in mind if you’re stripping the paint for a do-over. Depending on your material, the two named solvents may not be effective. If you encounter this, Goof-off Graffiti Remover is a specialized aerosol meant for stripping rattle canned surfaces.

Magazine Vinyl Wrap

Photo Credit: US Night Vision

Similar to a car wrap, a vinyl wrap surrounding the PMAG helps to protect the magazine surface while adding some color to make your PMAGs stand out. It is a simple, low stake method to have a design that can easily be reverted by peeling it off. A proper vinyl wrap is 100% water resistant and great for customizing magazines that you already have on hand. You just might need to use a hair dryer or heat gun to properly apply it to your magazine of choice.

Engraving Magazines

Photo Credit:   TF Defense

You might have seen laser engraving machine kits pop up every now and then in novel gadget shops for under $200. These are typically CO2 laser engravers meant for working with non-metallic, organic materials such as wood, paper, and leather. While PMags’ construction is polymer, any attempts to use a carbon laser engraver with under 30 watts on PMags will leave messy melted streaks and scarrings on the surface of your magazine. What you want for the clean high-contrast detailed engravement on your magazine calls for a fiber laser engraving setup.

Fiber laser engravers are expensive and easily cost as much as a set of dual tubed unfilmed white-phosphor PVS-14s. But for those who are in it for the long run and see their future with ample engraving, fiber engravers will be more economical and efficient to operate and maintain than carbon engravers. Fiber engravers operate with a lower electrical consumption than their older CO2 counterparts and unlike carbon lasers - they don’t need time to warm up before use.

The fiber laser engravings on a pmag will typically yield a white-gray color. This is due to the nature of the fiber engravers vaporizing the surface to bleach the material rather than removing material and making deep etches like a carbon laser would.

Is Laser Engraving Magazines Better Than Wrapping and Rattle-canning?

Photo Credit: Quick Violent Over

Paint and vinyl wraps can be worn away much easier than plastic material. To remove laser engravings would mean having to take off material from the magazine surface. By marking your magazines with fiber laser engravings, you'll have more customizability and longer lasting personal touches.

Then again, if you're not too sure about a particular design and would like to change it later this could be counter productive towards your needs.

Arm Yourselves With Magazines and A Build Today!

Want to get started on adding a personal touch to some magazines? You can do all these customizations with Glock magazines as well! Get started with a new build today to put some magazines to work. While you're at it check out our 80 lowers and jigs for them too!