When we they the guns they used to be?
As far as I know, they've always been hammered together by Century Into what looks about like an AK.
I had early WASR10's that looked like the earlier SAR1's. The WASR's, like the SAR's, were made in Romainia and were imported (not made by Century) and the result of one of the "bans" and did come in with a 10 round mag and the mag well to fit so you couldn't use a standard mag. Century simply opened the mag wells up to take a standard mag. Mine were reasonably well done and while they had a little wobble, compared to my SAR anyway, it wasnt an issue as far as function goes. The rifles were accurate too.
The only real difference between the WASR and the SAR (besides the cock eyes front sights on some of the SAR's) is, the SAR had the "dimple" in the receiver at the mag well, that stabilizes the mag some in the well and limits the wobble. The WASR doesn't have that, and usually has shims inside the receiver to stiffen things. You can see the difference here. The WASR is on top. You can also kinda see where they opened the well by the bare metal left from the process.....
I only ever used metal AK mags with all my AK's. Mostly surplus Bulgarian, but a mix of a few others as well.
One thing I had to do with all my AK's was, take a file to the mag releases and break the sharp edges left over from the manufacturing/stamping process. This made the lever a lot easier to work, and the mags will drop free when released. If you leave the sharp edges in place, they tend to grab the mags and not always want to release them, at least smoothly anyway.
If it were my gun, I would deal with the mag well, assuming that is the issue. If you have mags that work, what kind are they and how are they different than the ones that wont? It may be something very simple and might only take a bit of judicious filing in the right place to get things working. The few plastic AK mags Ive seen were kind of "swollen" at the top, and a bit fatter than the steel mags, but they were early plastic mags and that was a long time ago, They also werent MagPul mags. Maybe Tapco.
One other thing AK owners really need to be aware of, especially if they are planning on using the guns for anything serious. There is a mag related malfunction that will tie the gun up and while it appears the mag is seated properly, its not, and it wont be seated in the gun properly, and the bolt wont strip rounds off the mag. It will also lock up the release so you cant get the mag back out, at least by hand, and you have to put the butt on the ground and kick it out with your boot.
The issue here is, if you dont get the front of the mag rocked up into the well properly, it binds up on the front of the well, but just a tad low, and will still allow the tail on the back to lock into the latch. Whats happening is, the mag looks like its in the gun right, but is actually too low, so the bolt cant strip the rounds off the mag. You really need to have the mag reload drill well ingrained into your muscle memory, so you get it rocked into the well right.
I found out about this from someone who was trained to work and reload the AK's based on the Russian doctrine at the time, and that was to hold the rifle in your left hand and use your right to load the mag (if you look at pics of Russian soldiers of the 50's/60's era, they carried their mag pouches on their right side, and used their right hands to reload). I always used my left hand to load the mag, and I never take my right hand off the grip. Once I was made aware of it and trying to see what the deal was, it happened almost right away, and very easily, especially if youre trying to do it quickly. And it really sucks!
Just an FYI there, so if it should ever happen.....
Ive had a couple of both the SAR's and WASR's, and they all worked and shot well. The SAR's were pretty rough fit and finish wise, but they seemed to have taken care of that by the time they got to the WASR's. Mine were really pretty decent guns.
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