Extended mags for SKS not so bad afterall?

[Dr_2_B]

I recently came across several posts that indicated that, contrary to popular belief, those extended magazines (20 or 30 rounds) do function in SKS rifles.

Can I hear from some of you guys (only people with personal experience please) about the veracity of this?

 

[EdLaver]

I have witnessed the cheap duck bill ones not working too well but the Tapco ones do. Give one a try and let us all know.

 

[Proinsias]

Tapco 20 rounders are the only ones I've heard anything decent about.

 

[HJ857]

Tapco 20's work great. Read and follow the instructions that come with them.

 

[gvnwst]

My friend has a converted SKS, and uses Tapco mags, they function fine, i have not seen, experianced, or heard from him of any malfunctions.

 

[BUGUDY]

I have no problems with my Tapco 20rd. A little bit of fitting, but very satisfied.

 

[rcmodel]

When I had a Chinese SKS years ago, the only extended mags were the steel 30-round Duck-Bills.

They functioned fine.

But the problem was, you needed two people to change one in a hurry when it ran dry.

No bolt hold-open on an SKS after you take the factory mag off, and they won't go in the gun with the bolt closed.

I quickly found I could keep stuffing 10-round stripper clips in the factory fixed mag faster then I could stuggle with changing out an empty Duck-Bill.

rc

 

[rcmodel]

Zactly.

But you can't use it until the duck-bill is out of the gun, and you have to hold the bolt open with your third hand to get it out of the gun.

The feed lips straddle the bolt on the bottom and you will bend the feed lips if you remove the mag with the bolt closed.

rc

 

[Storm]

By the time that someone gets the detachable out of the gun, with my standard ten round fixed mag I will have reloaded with a stripper clip, put ten down range, and will probably have loaded ten more before their bolt chambers a fresh round out of a new mag.

 

[FEG63ISFINE]

Mine works and it's an older steel one
My thoughts are why not start off with 20 or 30 rnds and then stripper clip 10 rnds as you need them instead of starting off with 10 rounds.

 

[rklessdriver]

I have a Norinco that I traded into about 15yrs ago. It had a steel duckbill 40rnd mag when I got it and it still has it. Yes it looks ridiculous, but since it has never failed to function (few cases of ammo thru it), I figure why mess with a good thing. It is PITA slow to remove/insert but when the day comes that I have a problem that can't be solved with 40rnds of 7.62X39, I worry about how hard it is to change.
Will

 

[zoom6zoom]

Never had any luck with them. Stripper clips are faster anyway.

 

[WVleo]

20 round Tapco mags

Or You could just modify the bolt to be able to load the magazines with the bolt closed. Took about 1/2 hour with My trusty dremel tool. Now both My Sino-Soviet and My Yugo SKS accept magazine changes with the bolt closed and both are 100% reliable. .....WVleo

 

[TNThomas]

I have had experience with 30rd steel mags, Tapco 20rd mags, and the standard 10rd box mag that is originally issued on the gun. The 30 rounders tend to jam, and are a haslte to insert. The 20rd tapcos are more reliable, but once again are a pain to insert into the gun. The original 10 round box mag is reliable, and is not hard to insert into the gun (because that is the way it was meat to be, its fixed to the gun, just like the manufatures inteded) if it were me, and the SHTF, i would much rather have a bone stock sks with a bayonette than have some wickid looking black sks with huge clips sticking out of the bottom (they get in the way also). But as the question states, you asked which is more reliable, and i would have to say the 20 rd tapco if you must put one on your rifle

 

[mljdeckard]

I did my homework and heard that the ONLY aftermarket extended mag setup that works well in an SKS (Yugo in my case) is the TAPCO setup. Remember that when doodling with SKSs, you have to make sure that you are in compliance with 922r. (Replacing at least ten parts with USA made ones. The magazine counts as three.)

 

[tomh1426]

I never had a problem with any of the Tapco 20 round magazines.