How much play is too much?

[PA PATRIOT]

Several of my shooting buddies have jumped on the AK owner bandwagon recently and we all finally got together to have a look see at what everybody purchased. Other then just same minor differences such as muzzle breaks and stocks all the guns appeared to be in really good shape with no obvious issues. Now the one thing I did notice was that the difference in side to side play of seated magazines seemed a bit much on a few of the guns. Granted we are talking about AK's here but I have to wonder how much movement is too much even for this platform? Now on cycling the actions with dummy rounds all the guns with what I considered slop did feed dummy rounds without issue but those magazines looked like they were doing the Irish jig with just fast hand cycling.

So the question here is what is considered normal play with a seated AK magazine?

[Flankenstein]

If the magazine feeds the rounds it is not too much "play".

Front to back "play" is also of more concern than side to side.

[m4brian]

As long as it feeds well, its GTG. Play does make one feel queezy/cheap - that's all.

[JusticeM4]

Its more prevalent with steel mags. Using Polymer mags will eliminate some of the mag wobble.

As long as the rifle fires reliably with the mags, the 'play' is a non-issue.

[Moose-Knuckle]

I'd say as long as you feel and hear the "lock" of the tabs in the well your are G2G. Polymer mags can "wear" over time and can develope wobble but still function fine.

[Flankenstein]

I'd say as long as you feel and hear the "lock" of the tabs in the well your are G2G. Polymer mags can "wear" over time and can develope wobble but still function fine.

Non reinforced polymer mags are also a bit of a joke.

[Moose-Knuckle]

Non reinforced polymer mags are also a bit of a joke.

Yeah, I don't even really mess with those.