>Anyone remember being told to bang the freshly loaded mag against
>something to seat the rounds, Old Wives tale or not ?

I don't remember being told that, but I remember that I did it because I saw
someone else do it at the Keesler AFB, MS range where we received M-16 training
(we had M-14's prior to that -- training courtesy of USMC - Camp LeJeune, NC).
It made sense to me . . . as long as you hit the back of the mag, not the
front!

And I sure do remember that red dirt. We called it laterite. Hard as a rock
when dry; clingy slop when wet.



"Vene! Vene! Vene!" -- Viagras the Elder