Drum Magazines

[JD_White]

I am collecting drum magazines. It is my intent to buy two more Romanian drums, two Chinese drums, four MWG drums, and two Beta drums. The saying goes "a fool and his money are soon departed," right? Well, being the smart consumer that I am, I decided to research all of these products. It turns out there are actually a few gems to be found on YouTube if you do not let all the bump-fire videos distract you.

This video shows a cool pouch for the MWG 90-round drum. The guy who posted the video seems to have it out for the Beta C-Mag:

Since C-MAGs jam, the baby (good capability) is tossed with bath water (unreliable drums). The benefits of a drum over a belt-fed machine gun or assault rifle/carbine is that if you are moving vigorously in individual movement techniques (IMT) there's no belt to get kinked and snagged on that has to be gingerly worked around when running n' gunning. A drum is in essence a giant box magazine in a circle. The problem is that to carry a large number of rounds the spring has to be very stiff and most drums are loaded with the spring held off and then you release the spring to press the rounds up the follower adding lots of mechanical complication. The MWG employs the "KISS" principle and leaves the stiff spring alone and invests in a loading tool to exert more force to load all 90 rounds. With the SKEDCO Assault Pack, the loading tool is kept in an outer pouchette and dummy corded so it cannot be lost during field use. A small price to pay up-front for simplicity and reliability.

There is more information about the SKEDCO pouch here. It looks cool and I have e-mailed SKEDCO to see if the pouch is still in production. I also asked if it came in black.

Do you have any experience with drums? Are they awesome? Do they suck? Do you like the Chinese drum better than the Romanian drum? Or is the Romanian drum more to your liking? How do you like the MWG drum? What do you think about the Beta C-Mag?

Please indulge me.

 

[Jeff White]

What do you think about the Beta C-Mag?

Not long after the beginning of the current Global War on Terror the Army issued a Safety of Use message forbidding the use of the Beta C Mag in combat....That says all that needs to be said about it. The only good thing about a Beta C Mag is the loader. You can use it to load real magazines and it works great!

 

[rcmodel]

Drum magazines went out of style for military use about 1945.

IMO: Drums suck!
They weigh more & take up more room then the ammo they carry, and take forever to reload with fresh ammo.
Same goes for the packing & shipping containers they have to be resupplied in.
And drums are also tempermintal, and often just don't work right.


For the price of one 100-round C-Mag, you could buy 20 30-round GI mags holding 600 rounds!

Not withstanding the cost, 20 GI mags will fit in many places six C-Mags will not. Like a Molly vest, rucksack, or two .50 cal ammo cans.

And if one of them gets stepped on and smashed, or just wears out, you are only out 12 bucks!

rcmodel

 

[Realbigo]

never used a drum except one time fam firing an Ultimax 2000 in Thailand. But there dosen't seem to be any happy medium. you either love 'em or hate them

 

[surveyor]

not a real big fan, prefer stick magazines as they are easier to carry, less weight. etc..

as far as diffrences between romanian & chineese AK drums, the romanians load from the top, through the feed tower, 1 round at a time, put a round in, flip the lever, put another in..spring stays under tension.www.centuryarms.com/manuals/ak75.pdf
here is the instructions in text

"Place the drum on a hard surface with the lever side up. While pushing down on the
drum, index the lever fully counter-clockwise.
Insert the cartridge into the magazine opening and release lever. Repeat above procedure
until the magazine is loaded – up to 75 rounds.
To unload, index the level fully counter-clockwise, and remove the cartridge."

while it works, it kind of reminds me of stirring soup with your elbow, it can be done, just not to productive.

the chineese drum has a button to take all the tension off the spring, the back cover opens with a hings, and the rounds can be placed in it, cover secured, and left loaded long term. for use turn the key 4 times to put tension on the spring, this is why they are about 2x as expensive as romanian drums. a lot easier to load.

given the choice of using between 3-30 rd ak mags & a romanian drum, I'd take the 3-30's..
given the choice of using between the chineese drum & 3-30 rd Ak mags, I'd take the drum. but probabally not by much.

given the choice of buying a romanian drum or buying 10-11 30 rd ak mags, I'd take the 30 rd mags.. (300 rds vs 75)
given the choice of buying a chineese drum or buying 20-22 30 rd mags, I'd take the 30 rd mags. (600 rds vs 75-100)

mag change is quick in an ak anyway.

here is some instructions for chineese drums..
http://www.ak-47.us/Article_Detail.php?g=content1146682611

while you're at it on a drum collection, get one for the saiga 12 ga..
http://http://www.mdarms.com/scripts/openExtra.asp?extra=18

10 rd stick mags are 50$, or the unobtanium 8 rd russian mags are 135$ so this makes more sense.