Compression Mag Followers from Home Front Defensive Devices

[Synchronizor]

Looking through Ebay yesterday evening, I came across a posting for an interesting new type of magazine follower manufactured by Home Front Defensive Devices LLC. Described as "Compression Followers", and sold as a limited-production first-run versions, these incorporate some unique features.

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One is the generous fluting intended to reduce sealing effects and bearing surface; but the real party piece here is a spring-loaded alignment tail that can retract into the body. This prevents the tail from limiting capacity when paired with magazine springs that are shorter than the tail when fully compressed.

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Any thoughts or (on the off chance) experiences regarding this idea? A spring-loaded retractable tail seems like it would serve better than a standard monolithic tailed follower with a shortened tail, while providing the same or better maximum capacity. On the other hand, a cup-style follower would free up more space than any solid-bodied follower, while being far simpler. There is an alternate Defender model that is cut out to allow the spring to coil up inside the body, but the narrower tail necessitated by this modification might not do much to stabilize the follower.

Also, while I think this axial fluting could allow for more reliable operation with magazine extensions than the more common bearing-band concept, I'm concerned about how it might impact long-term durability. These followers are reportedly manufactured from 6061 aluminum (the temper is not specified), which is not particularly hard or strong as far as aluminum alloys go. Standard cup-style aluminum followers have been known to peen themselves severely with heavy use, and this follower's added mass and reduced leading contact area could make it even more prone to this sort of wear.

[72Cheyenne]

Did you purchase one? I'm curious myself. I'd like to know how heavy use would affect it.

[badboybeeson]

not even sure where to start on this one...

[Synchronizor]

No, I don't have one of these. I'd like to get my hands on one at some point just out of curiosity, but it's not really a priority right now.

[stereo joe]

That's very interesting… I've been thinking a lot about followers recently. I'm planning on turning myself a follower from a chunk of delrin I have and have been trying to come up with ways to improve on the standard cup-style design.

I like the fluting on the compression follower but I'm not seeing much advantage to that retractable tail. It adds an extra layer of complexity to a normally simple part. In the pictures on the website, it looks as if the tail cants slightly when fully extended, which would seem to reduce any added stability from the tail. The Defender model would seem to further reduce the stability with a smaller diameter tail that wouldn't be very snug against the spring (which would open up further under compression) .

I agree with your thoughts that 6061 aluminum isn't an ideal follower material for metal-on-metal contact. Maybe a Type III hard anodization would reduce galling. In my spring airguns, moly paste is great where metal slides against metal but I don't think I'd want to put that in a magazine tube.

The $25 price is attractive, though… Might be worth it to check it out in person and see how these things are actually put together.

[Synchronizor]

Anodizing helps with wear resistance, but given how my "hard-anodized" snap caps stand up, I don't see that thin oxide coating providing enough added strength to prevent long-term damage to a heavily-used magazine follower that is slammed into the steel stop at the rear of the magazine tube over and over.

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As for price, $25 may not be a ton of money, but it's a lot to pay for a magazine follower. Even high-priced aftermarket followers don't get much more than $20, and there are plenty of decent options in the low teens. Heck, the factory plastic followers are perfectly serviceable, take up less space in the magazine tube than anything with a tail, and I can get six of them for less than $25.

[stereo joe]

Good points. I have those same snap caps and they show a lot of wear already after only a month or so of occasional use.

And I guess you're right about the pricing… Compared to other options they are more expensive, although the difference isn't as much as I would have thought given how much more complicated these compression mag followers must be to make.

I think I'll stick to a one piece acetal follower but it would be interesting to hear about some actual experience with these. Who knows, maybe they are great...