AK mags

They're fine.

Any Eastern European military surplus AK mag is fine.

+1 on Eastern European mags. I have 50+ AK mags and have never had a mag problem with eastern european mags. The only AK mags I would be wary of are the .223 modified east german mags for the SAR3.

Kino74 said:

The only AK mags I would be wary of are the .223 modified east german mags for the SAR3.

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The mags Kino refers to are the orange bakelite AK74 mags, not the mighty fine steel Weigers (which are actually designed for East Germanys .223 Weiger weapon system [based on the AK])

I bought a bunch of those mags a couple months ago, and they're just fine. I've always had good experiences with AIM.

44mag.com has Hungarian AK47 mags. I got 10 of these last month and they are the best steel AK mags I've ever seen. They were NIW with no storage or handling damage. The finish is parkerized, not blued like the Romanian mags.

The absolute best AK mags are the Bulgarian 'waffle' pattern plastic mags. They have extensive steel reenforcement + the mag bodies are dent resistant and can't rust. They usually run $20-$25 ea but will last a lifetime.

Romanian mags will work ok, but they consistently have the worst finish, most storage damage, and shoddiest manufacturing. I actually had to send a Romanian 40 round back that came with a rifle as is was too dented to work. An AK mag that wouldn't work, what the world coming to? BSW

briansmithwins said:

I actually had to send a Romanian 40 round back that came with a rifle as is was too dented to work. An AK mag that wouldn't work, what the world coming to?

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It wasn't manufactured with a dent.

The AK -no matter where it came from or what it looks like- is going to reliably go bang every time.

The same goes for the magazines that feed the beast. I bought a box of the rustiest, nastiest, mixed origin AK mags from a fellow who didn't want 'em cuz they were "icky".

A bath in big-box-mart cola, and no more rust. All work just fine, but aren't much to look at.

If you're buying it to look at, somewhere your priorities are askew.

A bath in big-box-mart cola, and no more rust.

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Interesting! I used Naval Jelly on one of mine. It removed the rust, but it also removed all the bluing.

All work just fine, but aren't much to look at.

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I ended up putting a coat of Rustoleum Clean Metal Primer and a coat of Rustoleum Satin Black paint on the one I mentioned above. It's the best-looking AK magazine I own now.

It wasn't the cola itself, it's the phosphoric acid IN the cola. Major active ingredient in rust converters used in metal painting.

Nice to know we drink that, eh?

As for the original poster-

Yes, those are good mags.

Ben Shepherd said:

It wasn't the cola itself, it's the phosphoric acid IN the cola. Major active ingredient in rust converters used in metal painting.

Nice to know we drink that, eh?

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Yes, it's the phosphoric acid. A lengthy bath is required, as the potency of the acid isn't as great as in Naval Jelly (but not over an hour before you check it).

As another item of interest, 18-wheelers carrying dark soft drink syrups are required to carry these Hazardous Material warning labels:


Now, what do you think of your favorite drink?

I actually had to send a Romanian 40 round back that came with a rifle as is was too dented to work. An AK mag that wouldn't work, what the world coming to?

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Ditto. I ordered 12 mags from AIM and 5 were badly dented (mag follower would jam-up at the dent). I exchanged them for 5 more mags and sure enough, AIM sent me 5 mags and 2 had bad dents and were unusable. I did have good luck with them when purchasing thier ammo.

I've also had bad luck with dented AIM mags, Dansammo has 10/$129 that are like new.

I received 6 of them yesterday. They are greasy, a few rust spots. No dents, a little clean up, and they'll be fine.