I went off on a bit of a tangent with this post. Short story, I picked up a British SA80 magazine very, very cheap. I found the differences between it and a U.S. GI magazine interesting.

The British magazine is more user- friendly in that it has a ‘push button’ release on the magazine floor plate.

The ‘push button’ on the bottom of the magazine spring base has an ‘RG’ molded into it. That is supposed to be a production mark for the Royal Ordnance Radway Green…RG for short. Some of their M855 ‘green tip’ ammo has been on the U.S. market over the years.

The magazine floor plate has a retention groove on each side that interlocks with the magazine body. This enables the floor plate to easily slide on and off when the lock button is depressed.

The spot weld quality on the U.S. magazine looks better.

To stay true to my page, the U.S. Stanag magazine used in these photos is Colt branded.

I will do a quick video to show the magazine a little better.