AK 75 Round Drum Value?

[The Last Confederate]

Ok, I am interested in a 75 round drum for the AK. I am just curious though, which are the quality working ones? Which ones should I avoid? And what is the standard cost of such drums?

What are the pros and cons of drums versus mag use? Thank you.

 

[jobu07]

Well, the Norinco drums are neat because the back opens up and you can load the rounds in from behind so you dont' get that sore red thumb. You can also store that drum fully loaded without any spring tension on it. I'm not sure if you can do that of the others, but, I think all the others, russian, romanian (the most common), etc all load from the top and it takes a while to gett'er full. But hey, they all function and look awesome!

 

[The Last Confederate]

So there are no real "bad" drums? What is the average price for one? $75?

 

[jobu07]

Well, bad is a general term I suppose. If someone loaded up thier romanian drum and left it sit for 5 years fully loaded, the spring might be a lil' weak on it and what not. But that's true of any mag. I haven't heard bad things about any AK drums to be truthful with you. I see the romanian 75 rounders in every shotgun news and at every gun show. They run from 60 to 100 depending on how good you haggle and who is selling it. The norinco drum does tend to go for a higher price tag though. The norinco is somewhat noisey when loaded and hanging from the rifle though as the ammo tends to rattle around. I'm told that the romanian and russian versions don't have the rattling problem. They are fun, look neat, make good conversation pieces, but I prefer 30 and 20 rounders in my AK. She gets heavy with the drum. Now if you had one of those RPK clones....

 

[The Last Confederate]

I thought that loading a magazine to capacity won't cause spring problems, but constantly loading and unloading the mag will?

 

[natedog]

That is correct. I read a gun rag article on Luger and 1911 magazines that were found stored loaded since WWI that functioned perfectly. I've also witnessed a .22 pump rifle that had been left loaded for the better part of 50 years function fine.

 

[The Last Confederate]

So if someone is offering to sell one for $50, would that be a good deal, or will the price drop even more due to the expiration of the AWB?

 

[glocksman]

$50 isn't a bad price at all.

 

[armoredman]

Pre ban, prohibition era, and post ban prices are "fluctuating" right now, as the market comes to grips with the death of the AWB. See what you can find, as some will dump thier high cost mags cheaper, and other hold outs will insist on the same price to try not to lose money.

 

[The Last Confederate]

Are some drum mags worth less than others? Such as the chinese versus the Russian? The guy is offering to sell the chinese for $50, however, can high cap mags be imported into this country, or is that a seperate law? Not sure how much the price of drums will come down to if new production ones are allowed into this country.

 

[Med 10]

Just hafta jump in here for a sec.

2 words regarding a Chinese drum for 50.00.

GET IT!

 

[The Last Confederate]

I suppose I'll get both of the drums he has, then.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Drums were going for about $37.95 back in the days before the ban. @ $50 today it still wouldn't be a bad price. Hopefully those greedy communists Chinese with strong capitalistic drive export some more musical instruments to us. I like the music they play.

Blam
blam
blam
blam
blam
blam
blam
blam
blam
blam

 

[The Last Confederate]

So you think the price could drop back down to around $40, eh?

 

[wasrjoe]

Get the Chinese ones. I don't think 40 is coming soon.

 

[dustind]

Considering ten years of inflation, no.

 

[c_yeager]

So if someone is offering to sell one for $50, would that be a good deal, or will the price drop even more due to the expiration of the AWB?

I would snap it up for $50. I dont see the prices really going down anytime soon. We still have a trade sanction on Norinco so there will be no new drums from there. And i dont even know that the Russians and Romanians are even still making the 7.62x39 drums. Just because they are legal doesnt mean the market is going to be flooded with them.

All of the current drums on the market seem to be pretty well made and I havent heard much negative about any of them. They were all made either for the military or to the same specs. If someone starts making them commercially there is no guarantee of quality.

 

[BryanP]

Let's put it this way - if you're not going to buy them let me know immediately where I can contact him.

 

[Kamicosmos]

I saw them all over the place for $75, so $50 is good. Get it.

That said, allow me to relate a bit of unfortunate AWB Sunset price gouging.

One of my favorite gun stores has a few of the drum mags...they were at $75 like everyone else. Weekend after the ban.....same drum, tag now says $189. yeah....One Hundred Eight Nine Dollars. I almost held it up and yelled ***? I decided not to cause I like the store, they have good prices and pretty good guys, and there were lots of people in the store at the time. If it's still marked that high next time I'm there, I plan on asking the owner what the deal is.

 

[BryanP]

Kamicosmos, he didn't price it that way for you. He priced it because of all the people coming in who think "Hey, I can get those now and they may outlaw them again!" not realizing they could have bought them all along.

I stopped in my local gun shop two days after the AWB ended. The guy behind the counter I usually BS with told me they had one guy come in that day who saw the AR's hanging on the wall behind the counter and said "Wow! You've got them in stock already!" He's the guy who would buy the $189 drum.