The Kalashnikov Magazine Primer
Let me preface this by saying that this primer is specific to 7.62x39 magazines only. Although most of these guidelines apply to other calibers (such as 5.45 and 5.56) not everything is consistent across the board.
There are many options for AK magazines these days. Every company that makes them makes big promises about producing never-failing, ever-lasting magazines for your AK. Guess what? Most of those companies are full of shit.
Whenever you shop for an AK magazine, you should look for three things first:
-Metal-lined (or metal!) feed lips
-Metal-lined (or metal!) locking lugs
and
-Metal-lined (or metal!) magazine bodies
(Anyone else see a trend here?)
Why?
Part 1: Feed Lips
Let’s not pussy-foot around this: If you are properly training, you are putting your gear (which includes your rig, weapon, and magazines) through hell. Yes, magazines are consumable (liable to be used up or depleted) but that doesn’t mean you should pick a loser from the start (unless you have a reason, more on this later).
AK magazines without metal-lined feed lips can develop cracks (or breaks!) on the feed lips themselves when doing nothing but just sitting around loaded! The pressure from the spring (and an AK spring is very large), provides sufficient pressure to crack and break feed-lips that are not metal-lined.
If the feed-lips do not break outright, they can do something less visible and just as catastrophic: They can bend. The pressure from the spring on non-metal lined feed-lips can be enough to spread the feed-lips outward (please, refrain from any sexual innuendo on this part) and bestow feeding malfunctions. Yes, even the venerable AK can malfunction if you put a shitty magazine into the system (the very best mag-fed weapon in the world is just a paper-weight if you use garbage magazines).
Part 2: Locking Lugs
Magazines with plastic locking lugs have been known to break from simple, rapid insertion, let alone withstanding any falls. Sure, sure, I can hear it now, “I’ll never fall on my magazine”. In ideal circumstances, like shooting from a bench at a range on a sunny day, this probably won’t happen—that said, this isn’t the situation we’re talking about nor preparing for.
Here’s the question: If you fall down, be it from an inner-ear problem or from slipping on ice, and land on your magazine, will it hold up? The magazine is the part you’re likely to fall on, as it protrudes farther down to the rear than your buttstock or pistol grip. Ignore the, ‘pushup’ test videos—a pushup is nothing compared to a falling body transferring all of the weight onto a magazine during a fall. It’s not just falling either. When you drop quickly into a prone position, your magazine can hit the ground. Do not construe that I am advocating using your magazine to break your fall—I’m not. I am just saying that when you drop into prone dynamically, odds are that your magazine is going to hit the ground in the process.
Magazines with completely polymer locking lugs usually fail when introduced to this test. The two most common outcomes with these magazines is: Breaking off the front or rear locking lug or breaking the magazine body in half (to be covered in the next section).
Additionally, polymer locking lugs are more prone to breakage after doing multiple aggressive magazine changes. Just one more reason to rotate these magazines out of your fighting rig and into your training rig.
Part 3: Magazine Bodies
Many types of modern polymers are more elastic than steel. They have a much higher elastic limit and therefore can accept more stress. No AK magazine completely made of polymer that currently exists in the market can rightfully make that claim.
In test after test, metal-lined polymer magazines can take more stress on the body from multiple directions than straight polymer magazines. Sure sure, some you have seen the ‘test’ where a truck rides over a polymer AK magazine and it still functions perfectly (no no, not the magpul PMag test—that was for ARs, remember?) but when it comes to an actually fall a user is likely to experience (like a slip), they, ‘fall’ short (har har).
Now that the nuts and bolts are finished, what magazines actually fulfill these requirements?
If you want a synthetic magazine (and there are many reasons to want one, weight and durability being at the top of the list), look no further than genuine black Bulgarian waffle magazines.. This is arguably the toughest and most durable of all AK-series magazines. They will hold up when an all-metal magazine will crush or dent (impeding proper function) and they weigh less to boot.
To ensure that you have a genuine Bulgarian waffle magazine, simply look for the ‘circle-10’ marking on the left side of the magazine
I specify black Bulgarian magazines because some of the other colors (specifically the ‘smoke’ or ‘clear’ versions) do not have metal-lined locking lugs, feedlips, or magazine bodies for aesthetic purposes. If you have some of these, that’s okay but please take them out of your ‘go-to’ rig. Even some of the opaque colored magazines are not as strong (even though they are metal-lined) due to the process of making the polymer in a different color. Olive drab and plum magazines are probably usable but I will say this: just stick to the proven black magazine and simply paint them if you want another color.
There are some downsides to these magazines though: They have a larger OD than standard surplus magazines and as such, may not fit readily into all magazine wells (specifically Wasr-10’s which come in country with single stack magwells and are later opened up by Century Arms, with sometimes dubious and inconsistent results). If they don’t fit, fit your rifle to them and not the magazine itself. The second downside is cost. Currently, Bulgarian waffle mags go for over $30. Yes, that is a lot of money to pay for the upsides of this magazine. However, you can be confident that no other magazine in existence can hold a candle to the longevity and durability of it. If you want to pay less for surplus mags that’s fine and I’ll cover them further down in this article.
There is another magazine produced in Bulgaria that should only be for show or range purposes and that is the Bulgarian, ‘Bullet’ magazine
This magazine is very weak compared to the waffle magazine and cracks easily. Once again, if you want synthetic mags, just go with the black Bulgarian waffles.
Yes, there is a US company that produces an aesthetically similar magazine (ProMag) but what the cheap US copy does not include is ----you guessed it--- any of the three features I mentioned from the very start.
I have heard time and time again, “but my ProMag magazines work great!”. This is often from the mouths of those that do not even shoot their weapons often and certainly do not train with them. If you think your ProMags are, “great” try putting them through the paces at a decent shooting school and see what happens. You will not like the results, that I will say.
Other common synthetic AK magazines on the market include:
-Tapco
-Master Molder (Thermold)
-ProMag
If you view the following videos (yes, the audio tracks suck) you will see why the black Bulgarian waffle magazine is the clear winner:
http://www.k-var.com/shop/pages.php?pageid=15
(No, I do not work for K-Var but I appreciate them doing the Russian military drop tests with competitor’s magazines so I don’t have to do the same myself)
Surplus Magazines
These are normally the cheapest bet for usable magazines. Whether they are from Romania, Russia, China, or any country in between, they are usually good magazines (with a few caveats).
These can be found for $15 or less apiece currently. When selecting surplus magazines there are a couple things you should look for right off the bat:
-Avoid any magazine with excessive cosmoline or other preservative.
When you purchase surplus magazines, the condition can sometimes be dubious. Excessive cosmoline can prevent you from noticing any physical problems (such as dents) that prevent the follower from fully constricting under load. Let’s be honest here, cosmoline can be (easily is the first word that comes to mind but is not always the case) cleaned out but a dent in the magazine can he harder to fix. If a magazine has been in storage for a long period of time, cosmoline can prevent the function of the magazine follower. One of the better ways I have found to clean cosmoline off is to heat the magazine in the oven at 150 degrees and use a solvent (such as diesel fuel) to remove the cosmoline. You might be surprised at the size of a dent that can impede proper follower function.
-Avoid ‘bolt hold open’ followers
These are very common with Yugoslavian surplus magazines. The bolt of the rifle hits an extended follower, stopping the forward motion of the bolt.
At the end of a magazine, the bolt will, ‘hold open’ and instead of getting the, ‘Kalashnikov click’, you get a squishy trigger. Since the follower physically holds the bolt to the rear, as soon as you remove the magazine the bolt will ride home. There is not tactical advantage (since a squishy trigger indicates a malfunction and not an empty magazine) nor a speed advantage (since the bolt releases as soon as the magazine releases) to bolt hold-open followers.
I have heard others argue that the pseudo bolt hold-open is an advantage. While I do not agree with this, if you think they have an advantage, ensure all of your magazines have bolt hold-open followers. You want everything to be exactly the same, all of the time, whenever possible.
Here’s an easy way to identify a bolt hold-open follower:
The bolt hold-open follower is on the left, the standard follower on the right. The extra hump on the follower is what holds the bolt to the rear.
-Inspect for any dents or imperfections
Since we’re talking about surplus magazines, yes, they likely have been used and abused throughout their lives. Even a small dent can impede proper follower movement and any magazine with dents that can be seen with the naked eye should be avoided. You can test follower movement with a pencil or other straight tool. Simply push the follower down and ensure that it does not hang-up at any point in its travel downwards or upwards.
There are generally two types of surplus magazines: Chinese, and everything else.
Most Eastern European magazines have a spine that runs along the back, as shown here:
whereas most Chinese magazines are smooth backed, as shown here:
Although it doesn’t look like much, that spine can be the difference between blood and comfort. I do not joke when I say that I have seen hands bleed from practicing reloads too much in one day using Eastern European surplus magazines.
When you grab a magazine for a reload, the webbing of your hand rests against the spine in this fashion:
After many drills, this portion of your hand can become raw and actually bleed. If you use Chinese smooth-backed magazines, this can be prevented, at least bleeding from simple aggressive reloads. All is not lost if you run Eastern European surplus mags exclusively though, as wearing gloves greatly protects you from this.
In Summary:
My recommendations for AK magazines are the following (and in order)
-Black Bulgarian waffle magazines
-Chinese smooth-back magazines
-Eastern European surplus magazines
I do not currently advocate any US-made synthetic magazine for any purpose other than a malfunction/range magazine. Perhaps in the future someone will produce an American magazine worth a damn—today is not that day.
Further notes:
When talking about 922r compliance parts (google it) magazines invariably come up since US magazines consist of three compliance parts (Body, follower, and floorplate). My recommendation is to have legal compliance without the magazine even being considered.
Why? Well the last thing you want is for your rifle to be compliant with one magazine and not another. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to have proper 922r compliance on the rifle itself.
If you have a threaded barrel, you need six compliance parts and if the barrel is unthreaded, only five. The cheapest and easiest way is to ensure you have the following US parts:
-Fire Control Group (3 US parts- trigger, hammer, and disconnecter)
-Pistol grip (1 US part)
-Buttstock or forend (1 US part)
-Muzzle device (if that applies if you have a threaded barrel, 1 US part)
It should be known that CAI guns (such as the WASR-10/63 or the SAR-1) come standard with the following US parts:
-Fire control group (3 parts)
-Pistol Grip (1 part)
-Gas piston (1 US part)
-Muzzle device (1 US part—WASR-10/63 only. The SAR series was imported without a thread barrel)
Parts count on build rifles can be dubious and they generally depend on the builder. It is also a good idea to inquire and then inspect for the proper number of US parts on any AK-series rifle purchased.
More at http://milcopptactical.com/blog.htm
Final Comments
I did not include the Tango Down/US Palm magazine for two reasons: I have not used one yet and I haven’t seen a military drop-test. It’s fairly apparent that Tango Down did their research before they ever dropped polymer into the mold, which is always nice to see.
It does look very promising since it has metal-lined feed lips, locking lugs, and body. However, I’m not completely sold on the concept of a magazine that cannot be disassembled. The price point is the same as the Bulgarian waffle (~$30 new) so I’m currently not seeing an advantage (other than the 1oz lighter weight). So the Tango Down is a ‘time will tell’ magazine to me.
I will update as needed.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Moose-Knuckle
Bookmarks