5.45x39 mags

[RyanS]

Last I heard, my SLR-105 is shipping today. With that in mind, I figure that I had better get some mags to load up all that 7N6 that will be arriving about the same time as my rifle. I've been looking around and I'm seeing quite a selection of mags, but I don't know what to look for. Bulgarian, German, Russian, Steel, Polymer, Plastic(?), Bakelite, Circle 21, Circle 10, black, brown, brick, saddle, etc. the list goes on. Does anyone have any input as to what to get and/or what to avoid? From your experience, are most of these mags used? Should I be looking for new? Thanks.

[miserai]

i have a CUR-2 and i have 4 german bakelite mags and they work great. i havnt had any problems with them.

[M4arc]

Well since you're getting a Bulgarian I would stick with the Circle 10 mags.

If you can find the Russian ones for a decent price jump all over them! Other than that get whatever you can find as the 5.45 seems to be plentiful and cheap right now.

[Boom]

Go with the Bulgarian mags. IIRC I purchased 10 mags from OhioRapidfire for 40 bucks plus shipping.

[RyanS]

Checked out ORF and have 10 Brown Bulgy's on the way. Thanks for the directions. They had some Russian mags but they were a bit spendy. I suppose I need to bone up on my AK trivia but I have to ask what may be a dumb question...why are there so many colors of mags?

[TigerStripe]

Checked out ORF and have 10 Brown Bulgy's on the way. Thanks for the directions. They had some Russian mags but they were a bit spendy. I suppose I need to bone up on my AK trivia but I have to ask what may be a dumb question...why are there so many colors of mags?

Mostly to match the furniture. The original orange bakelite were somewhat of a match with the wood. The plum and black were made to match the Russian plum furniture and the black was to match Bulgarian furniture.


TS

[Pat_Rogers]

I strongly doubt that the former Soviet Union had the same amount of fashion "correctness" that exists on the errornet forums....

I worked in a unit called Foreign Material Acquisition and Exploitation during a turbulent period of the Cold War.
Our interviews and sources stated that the original light brown /orange color on the AK74 series was to
1. Visually distinguish it from the 7.62x39 AK47/ AKM magazine
2. Blend with natural surroundings

When the Bakelite 7.62x39 mags first came out, that sorta' shot down #1, but made sense as far as #2.

Later information was that the light brown/ orange had too much red in it to be useful as camouflage.
Plum is a more shaded color, and while there are some shades of plum in nature, it is clearly not as dominant as browns and greens.
Certainly black is the most useless color for camouflage, and is better known as a target indicator.
There is a theory that they went to black to save money, but that is anecdotal only.

Re magazines in general.
The vast majority of hobby shooters are more concerned with material things vice ability to use these same things. Sometimes i believe that there should be mandatory trigger time and less talk time.

My experience in exploiting and teaching AK's over the long term is that the quality of the guns are dependent on country of manufacture and time of manufacture. The magazines are pretty much like AR magazines- the individual mag works or it doesn't work.
The endless and mindless discussions on some boards re "Colt mags are the best" when Colt doesn't make magazines gets carried into the AK world too.
If your desire is to collect magazines- have at it. If you want certain mags for period display or aesthetic reasons, have at it.
If you want to actually use the AK, buy a lot of magazines and ensure that they work. Keep the good ones and 86 the ones that consistently fail.
Don't get hung up on which factory the magazine was made in. From a practical point of view, it isn't worth the time spent obsessing about it.

As i have never had an original thought in my life, i'm going to shamelessly plagiarize Jeff Cahill.
He stated that to him an AK was like looking at a row of drills on the wall at Lowe's. He is interested in them as far as performance is concerned- that is, when he presses the trigger that it works, but after it is finished, he puts it back on the wall and gets on with his life.
I feel pretty much the same about AR's as AK's. They are tools. Tools are meant to be used.
I like the idea that people have representative articles to trace history, and i know that i have spent a small fortune on books (I hate you Collector Grade Publications!) to learn about esoteric minutiae.
However, what i do as a vocation is teach fighting, and one has very little to do with the other.

[TigerStripe]

I strongly doubt that the former Soviet Union had the same amount of fashion "correctness" that exists on the errornet forums....

I worked in a unit called Foreign Material Acquisition and Exploitation during a turbulent period of the Cold War.
Our interviews and sources stated that the original light brown /orange color on the AK74 series was to
1. Visually distinguish it from the 7.62x39 AK47/ AKM magazine
2. Blend with natural surroundings

When the Bakelite 7.62x39 mags first came out, that sorta' shot down #1, but made sense as far as #2.

Later information was that the light brown/ orange had too much red in it to be useful as camouflage.
Plum is a more shaded color, and while there are some shades of plum in nature, it is clearly not as dominant as browns and greens.
Certainly black is the most useless color for camouflage, and is better known as a target indicator.
There is a theory that they went to black to save money, but that is anecdotal only.

I didn't state why the colors of the mags and furniture was changed, just that the mags were switched along with the color of the furniture. Just as you stated each change in both mags and furniture was an attempt to make both fit it with the environment.

TS

[RyanS]

Thank's Pat for providing this information. I certainly hope that my posts didn't come across as inquiries as to the collectability of various mags or anything else for that matter. I don't have the time, money, or energy to get into that. My son is growing too quickly to devote any unnecessary resources to such a hobby. My initial question was geared toward trying to avoid the shot gun approach in acquiring magazines for my new rifle. Being that I'm new to this particular round and the round dispenser, I was not sure as to whether there were any particular manufacturers or styles that were generally more reliable or of higher quality than others, hoping that I would have to deep six fewer due to being unreliable. My question regarding magazine color was simply a follow up to my first and was more for the sake of curiousity than anything else. You have answered both. Again, thank you.

[Pat_Rogers]

TS- Understood. Just filling in blanks. Note however that black doesn't fit in with any environment. Again, the reasons for adopting black are beyond me...

Ryan- Good for you-the family always comes first!
I never did address your question directly. My experience is that by and large, offshore manufactured issue magazines, 7.62x39 or 5.45x39, work well in general.
Certainly you'll find individual magazines that work or don't, but having gone through several thousand magazines i'd be hard pressed to cite one as being better or worse then any other.
I have seen a few commercialy purchased magazines at class (again, issue mags) from different sources, and they all worked well.
The mags are relatively cheap, and the odds of finding good mags high.
Enjoy your 105. I have one and it is a very cool tool.