Mean Arms

Mean, LLC (Mean Arms. com, is a small manufacturer specializing in custom firearm development and products developed in-house, engineering items ranging from complete firearms to custom-designed parts. The company’s staff boasts over four decades of manufacturing experience as providers of custom injection molding services, mold design, and part fabrication for other companies worldwide.

Wanting to take their manufacturing experience and enter the firearms industry, the MEAN company name is an acronym of the initials of the company’s founder, his wife, and their two children. The company specializes in magazine conversions, especially for those in less permissive legal environments where standard capacity and functioning magazines are restricted against peaceable, lawabiding citizens.

MA Lock The first product useful to shooters living in restrictive jurisdictions is the ability to convert banned firearms due to having detachable magazines to a fixed magazine without having to permanently modify or damage the normal workings of the firearm.

California states laws under Senate Bill No. 880 and Section 30515 of the Penal Code and the New York Safe Act defined certain so-called "assault" features and Firearms with fixed ten-round magazines aren’t as restricted, even if they have other features labelled "assault" in the law. The MA Lock is an inexpensive, fast way to create a fixed magazine that does not damage or permanently modify the firearm. firearms having them are banned.

However, these features are allowed on firearms with a fixed magazine of a capacity of ten rounds or less. The Mean Arms MA Lock is a shear bolt mechanism designed to lock standard AR-15 and AR-10 magazines in place. This makes restricted firearms legal and compliant while retaining any other useful features and not needing to comply with any government registration scheme. Designed with the California law in mind, the Lock fixes a ten-round magazine in place by replacing the magazine release button and spring.

After removing the normal magazine release parts, the lock sleeve is secured in place with a hex-shaped bolt that is tightened until it shears off. The magazine is then inserted as normal but the MA Lock locks it in place with no magazine catch release provision. Once fixed in place, the magazine can be removed without removing the MA Lock but only after disassembly and with tools. This would normally only be done for repair, such as replacing a faulty

This is not a magazine, it is a ten-round fixed magazine filling device. This rifle is pictured with the options MA Feed Ramp. magazine. Begin by clearing the rifle completely and disassembling the lower receiver from the upper. Disassemble the fixed magazine by removing the base plate and then the spring and follower. The magazine body and MA Lock taper in the insertion direction. Insert a thin tool as a wedge on the magazine catch side (left) of the magazine from the top of the lower receiver.

A polymer putty knife works well. Avoid using a metal tool for this. Gently squeeze the magazine just enough to slide it past the MA Lock and out of the magazine well. Once maintenance is complete, reassemble the magazine (or replace with anew one) and insert as normal to reset a fixed magazine. Because the MA Lock does not modify the receiver, it can be removed and the normal magazine release parts replaced without damage to the rifle when the owner moves to a jurisdiction with less ridiculous legal restrictions.

MA Loader The MA Loader is a California compliant, 10-round cartridge loading device that allows the efficient reloading of fixed magazines without the need to break down the firearm. The device harkens back to the 1880s when fixed magazines were the norm and rifles reloaded with chargers or stripper clips to hold and position the cartridges. Detachable box magazines that can be pre-filled and swapped at will would later be patented and become the norm for their efficiency.

Being safe, common, reliable, and efficient, this century-old development has since caught the ire of elected representatives and have been placed under restriction. Unlike the elected officials that wrote this legislation, Mean Arms is actually aware of how firearms operate. They’re also knowledgeable of their historical use. The MA Loader is essentially a throwback to a good idea from the 19th Century that overcomes overzealous legal restrictions in freedom-reduced jurisdictions.

First designed for compliant AR-15s, the MA Loader is a ten round charger device that fills a fixed magazine through the ejection port. With the cartridges held in place inside the MA Loader, the fixed magazine is filled with ten rounds with a press of the thumbring slider. While not required for operation, the Feed Ramp can aid in reloading with the MA Loader. The MA Loader does not require a special or modified upper receiver and works with any standard or mil spec pattern.

Using this charger with a fixed ten-round magazine installed in the rifle, owners are not required to register the rifle under California law. An unintended potential consequence of the California laws is safety. Unlike 19th Century rifles that were designed with fixed magazines and readily filled even with loose cartridges and could be cleared by with a release to open the bottom metal and clear the magazine, a fixed magazine AR-15 was not having been a product benefiting from a half century of later development.

Given this legal restriction is requiring rifle owners to fiddle loose cartridges through the ejection port, many may be tempted to leave the fixed magazine filled, which now has no provision to readily clear. A MA Loader can help prevent issues with this. Some particulars. Being designed for standard receivers, the MA Loader doesn’t work with

left-handed upper receivers, however, the company is planning anew mold for left hand MA Loaders if there is sufficient customer demand. The MA Loader does not automatically release the bolt upon removal after loading. The company recommends holding the bolt stop during loading to eliminate a chance of misloading and then releasing the bolt with the stop.

However, some customers have used an "auto advance" technique allowing the bolt to release immediately with success. 300 AAC Blackout was designed to fit standard receivers and magazines. Not surprisingly, MA Loader customers have reported mostly good results with it.

However, the profile of the bullets in these cartridges area little different and depending on ammo specifics cartridges may not fully retain when loading as the MA Loader was designed to retain a cartridge with a neck holding a .22 caliber instead of .30 caliber. Depending on customer demand, a specific version for the 300 AAC Blackout may be offered. The same is true for an AK- 47 variant. One variant currently available is for the AR-10 for those interested in shooting "grown up" ammunition.

The MA Feed Ramp is an optional accessory for the MA Loader. Like a flared or extended magazine well popular in some practical shooting competitions to aid reloading speed, the Feed Ramp does the same thing for Loaders. The Feed Ramp uses the hinge 56 PMAG into a 9mm magazine. This allows putting a 9mm upper receiver using a Glock or Colt bolt carrier group on a standard AR-15 lower receiver with no mag well adapter. pin of the ejection port cover and mounts in place of the cover.

Other than swapping parts, no modification to the rifle is required. The Feed Ramp is currently only available for the AR-15 and does not fit AR-10 receivers, however, as with their other parts, Mean Arms will consider it if customer demand is there. Endo Mag The Endo Mag is a magazine insert that converts a Magpul Gen 2 or Gen 3 5.56 PMAG housing into a 9mm magazine to use with a standard AR-15 lower and 9mm upper that uses a Glock or Colt 9mm bolt carrier group variant.

The Endo- Mag allows PMAGs to be converted back to 5.56 or 9mm as needed. It functions as a normal fitting magazine so no magazine well adapter is needed. Reports on reliability have been very good. The Endo Mag handles all sorts of 9mm ammunition, including hollow points. A version specific to the CMMG Guard is offered as a package. Because of their experience working with accessories in restricted states, the Endo Mag is also offered to comply as well.

The Restricted State Endo Mag comes from the factory pre-installed in an already-compliant PMAG. Mean Arms offers a 30-day full refund policy and limited lifetime warranty and everything they make. While dealing with useless legislation is always a hassle, it’s good that smart companies in our industry have stepped up to provide solutions for shooters. AG American Gunsmith Reader Services 1.