KEL-TEC PMR30 / CMR30 Stainless Steel Magazine

KEL-TEC PMR30 / CMR30 Speed Loader for Stainless Steel Magazine

MCARBO removed my 01/21/24 detailed negative review of their stainless steel magazine.

I provided MCARBO the photos and videos to confirm my findings.
MCARBO's stainless Steel design engineer email confirming my review.

Why did you do this MCARBO?
Why are you fudging your raiting numbers MCARBO?

Based on my previous informative review and now its removal, one star.

Shows MCARBO's total lack of business ethics and lack of integrity.

So, these mags are a huge fix to most of the issues going on with the firearm.

However, it is a new mag and you will get jamming and binding in these magazine if you don’t brake it in properly! The problem being that the springs are new and way too stiff. With that said, they need to be this stiff at the beginning so that after they’re broken in the spring tension will be the correct tolerance to feed all 30 rounds properly.
Advice: to start with just load 10-12 rounds at a time while taping the mag down on the side of the mag, between 5th round. After firing the magazine with only 10-12rds doing that 10x then you should be able to graduate to 20-25rds and follow the same steps. Shoot the magazine at least 10-15x’s w/ only 20-25rds. Then the spring should be breaking in now to were you can load all 30rds at a time. But you’re going to have to purchase bulk 22WMR and a range membership with a whole lot patience. It’s going to take some time and firing rounds to break in the magazines.

I highly recommend at purchasing 2-4 mags for starting with a little bit of patience and a whole lot of Repetition for this magazine. I’d rather have these mags than not have them and need them!

You won’t see a huge Instantaneous improvement, but you will see a huge improvement over “an along of time.” I did, but again this isn’t an instant going to be instant gravitas. You may get that joy of being able to extract and insert the mag without irritation instantly but until you break in the magazines correctly you’re still going to experience smashed and cycling issues with the rounds.

To make it easy I load the first round that that makes it easy to catch the follower. AND IT WORKS PERFECTLY

So, I like this magazine. Definitely an improvement over the original, however it did not fix my feed problems completely - improved yes. I have determined the feed problems are a reflection of how the magazine itself is loaded as these 22 mag rounds can get a little "out of stack" in the magazine causing a feed problem. Now that I know what to look for, this magazine comes with the side slots (windows) and allows you to see if you have loaded the magazine correctly, and where a problem is going to occur. To correct the feed stack the new speed loader allows you to manipulate the spring and ammo stack in the magazine to correct it. You could not do this with the old mag, you were pretty much at the mercy of the magazine and would have to unload the mag one round at a time to find where your stack had bunched up. What I have described works, not perfect but a lot less mis-feeds. I chucked the old mags and the MCarbo speed loader after I discovered this. Just so you know MCarbo upgraded my P30 with all improved parts before I tried these new mags.

II wanted this to work so badly. My CMR-30 periodically doesn't strip a round off the top of the mag. Tap rack restores operation. MCarbo's enhanced mag release reduced, but did not eliminate, this problem. The steel mag fits looser than the plastic factory mags. The frequency of failures to feed increased with the MCarbo mag and some of the jams were crooked in the magwell, causing a full stoppage that tap/rack would not fix. Some of the casings also were dented in the jam. Best performance was 8 in a row without failure. I fired 40 gr Maxi Mags, 50 Federal Game Shock and 45 gr Hornady FTX. All experienced failures. I was using MCarbo's mag loading accessory.

Used them first time last week and only had one misfeed out of 100. Much etter than the plastic ones that came with the pistol Expensive but I think worth it. It was frustrating with the plastic ones misfeeding aot every 5 ot 6 feed.

I think the magazine is far superior to the original I gave it 4 stars because of the price point. I bought two at 75.00 dollars and you show them reduced from a 100 dollar level. I wouldn't buy any at that level and figure 2 clips are enough at the 75.00 level. However I have 8 original clips and like your product so well I would replace them all @ a 50 or even 60 dollar level.
I really appreciate the upgrades to the PMR & CMR i now have 2 guns that are are now 100% reliable but from my perspective I question Why Kel-Tec doesn't adopt your fix doing the math 500-600 for the purchase,250 for the clambering fix, and 159.00 dollars for the 2 new clips. It put the guns at around the 1000 dollar level, which I would have gladly paid to avoid the 4 year long frustration. Now I understand that mabye the small volume of sales justifies your price. So my thanks to your company for the magazines and the fixes, evidently your company cares more than kel-tec.

For context: my PMR30 has all of Mcarbo's internal parts installed, including the mag catch & feed ramp. My feed ramp is mirror polished.

Just received today, so haven't been to the range.

First impression, it's a thick gauge of steel, not cheap and thin.

The baseplate is 5/8" thick. 3/8" of that hangs below the lowest point of the of the grip @ the mag release. For only +1 capacity, losing the flush fit by this much doesn't make sense to me.

My gun does not want to strip rounds. FTF each time I rack, even taking care to make a full extension slingshot. This isn't just the first couple rounds. I've cycled a bunch through the chamber and it's this way for every one. Maybe when I shoot it it'll run. Again my feed ramp is polished & my gun is clean and greased.

First loading it the follower and spring got stuck at round 27. Suddenly the magazine was full of loose rounds that I had to shake out. Couldn't get them to unstick in spite of manipulating the follower, which is accessible from both sides typical of 22 mags. With 9 rounds left to shake out it suddenly sprung free and moved back into place. I reloaded and it didn't happen again. Haven't unloaded and reloaded to test further.

I think this needs improvement, especially at this price point.