Ak47 drum magazine question

[Superfly3176]

This is my first post here so I hope you guys will take it easy. I bought a WASR-10 a few months back. It's my first firearm and first ak47 variant. I really love the rifle. She performs flawlessly has over 1000's round through her and never a jam.

So I was all excited last weekend when I had the chance to goto a gun show in harrisburg. I ended up buying a pistol grip, some 30rd magazines and drum magazine (romanian I believe either way non-chinese).

So here's my problem. I start to load this magazine and get about 5 or 6 bullets in and no more will go in. Yes I did work the spring. So being the intelligent person I am I decided to open it up and maybe be able to fix it. Well I was unable to. I actually found that two bullets spilled out over the drum magazine.







So anyway there is like 3 make-shift bullet type things that go in the drum. One has something sticking out of it. Which way do they go in? Pictures would be a plus. Thanks alot I hope you all can help me.

 

[Shazam]

This is a link that I used to figure out how to load a drum magazine for the ak47

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jfreeman246/page_6.htm

Hope it helps

 

[beerslurpy]

Shazam, you fail at reading comprehension. Those are instructions for a chinese drum- he has a romanian.

I've never taken apart a romanian drum before, but those 3 bullet things are the follower. The bit in the middle rotates around under spring pressure and pushes those 3 bullet things, which in turn push bullets into the gun.

You have to find the bit that rotates and then find the attachment point for the follower and then attach them. Dunno what an undamaged follower looks like though.

 

[Shazam]

 

[jobu07]

Shazam, you fail at reading comprehension. Those are instructions for a chinese drum- he has a romanian.

That was a little harsh.

http://www.ak-47.net/ak47/comp/mag.html This website may be able to help you out. The picture you'll find when you open it is of a standard 30 round box mag, but if you look around, you may be able to find instructions on a 75 rounder.

 

[Nick1911]

Shazam, you fail at reading comprehension.

That was a little harsh.

+1

Politeness is what makes The High Road such a special place.
This is a great first impression of THR for Superfly3176.

Nick

 

[chestnut ridge]

Since we are more or less on the suject of AK drum magazines-
I have seen some chinese 75 round drums lately for 150 or so.
My question- is this the start of cheap and plenty, or is this some
old stock being cleared out at post-ban prices?

 

[RecoilRob]

The way I understand the Romanian drums, you must ease the spring a bit to insert each round. But, I would only relax it enough to get each one in and no farther until ready to insert the next one...and so forth.

Looks like the follower isn't attatched to the winding hub. Kind of weird but it should work if you do it right.

Would suggest trying to wind the hub a bit until you can stick the follower rounds into the magwell and when the hub is released, one of the wings will hold it there under some spring pressure.

If that works, you should be able to load rounds and keep things stacked up tightly enough to prevent rounds from falling over and jamming the thing if you only make enough room for each single round at a time as you load.

I have read that the Romanian drums can be a bitch to load. Maybe what you are experiencing is what they meant. Best of luck.

 

[hksw]

I've never taken apart a romanian drum before, but those 3 bullet things are the follower. The bit in the middle rotates around under spring pressure and pushes those 3 bullet things, which in turn push bullets into the gun.

Cartridges.

 

[Superfly3176]

Well I fit about 20 round into it this last time so maybe its just me. I did wind it up a little better though. Anyway I figure I'd post pictures of my rifle.

 

[doubleaes2]

I have a Romanian drum for my RPK. I do not think they are supposed to come apart. The chinese models are the drums that are made to be opened and loaded, kind of like a Thompson drum. You load the Romy drum by depressing the front lever and adding one round, repeated 75 times.

 

[clange]

Since we are more or less on the suject of AK drum magazines-
I have seen some chinese 75 round drums lately for 150 or so.
My question- is this the start of cheap and plenty, or is this some
old stock being cleared out at post-ban prices?

Cheap and plenty? I dont follow.

Chinese drums are still well under $150 online, most are around 120 now. Oddly enough I'm seeing them at gunshows for $100. I bought a new one a couple weeks ago for $100 and passed up one for $100 today. If I had the cash I would have got it and made a few bucks.

 

[3rdpig]

Superfly, the Romanian drums come apart easily and it's not bad to do it as long as you're careful about the spring, sharp edges and your fingers. The three linked "bullets" go in pointy end towards the part of the drum that will face the muzzel (obviously) and the little link part that sticks out goes down into the drum and it sticks toward the center. It's really the only way it will go in and work.

Now, that being said, I had a Romanian drum that did exactly what you're describing. I found, after disassembling and figuring out how it works, that some monkey in the factory put the ratchet link and spring in facing the wrong way so that the spring was pulling the lever in the WRONG direction.

If you don't understand what I'm saying PM me and I'll send you pics or a better description. The Romanian drums are cheap and work well when they're assembled properly.

 

[3 weelin geezer]

Ok, I don't have that type so I can't tell you how to load it but those 3 bullet things are a follower of sorts. It looks like they are broken off of somewhere. Thats so you can get all your live bullets out of there and none are left in the part that attaches to the gun.

 

[Texfire]

The three faux bullets are not broken. They are the follower that is inserted in the drum first. Partly this is to assure enough spring tension when fully unloaded. I had some real trouble with mine when I first got it, but a little TLC (Tender loving cleaning) and it operated alot more reliably.

I fixed most of the problems by disassembling it and cleaning out all the cosmoline. It looks like you still have some in there. When you reinsert the follower you will have to wind the spring by hand before doing so. Make sure you have enough tension on the spring that it will push the live rounds to the top of the magazine tower, but not so much that the spring gets too tight when fully loaded. This will take some experimentation. After you get it where you think it's right try loading about 10-15 dummy rounds and make sure that it advances each hand cycle. If you use live rounds instead of dummies then make sure your AK is in another room to keep Murphy at bay.

After you have the spring tension right reassemble the drum. To load the drum you turn the ratchet it's travel distance. This tensions the spring enough to drop two or three rounds into the tower. Release the ratchet and turn again to load the next rounds. It is the only way I have discovered to load the drum and have it be even close to reliable. Needless to say you will probably only fire the drum once per range session as reloading it is time consuming.

Hope that this helps.

Tex