No Magazine Commonality!?

[Evil Monkey]

What's up with AK rifles in 5.56mm? Why is it that NONE of them can share magazines with each other?

Arsenal uses Bulgarian waffle mags.
WASR3 and SAR3 uses weigers.
Vepr uses modified ak74 mags.
Yugo M95 uses Yugo 5.56mm mags.
Chinese 5.56 AK's use thier own 5.56mm mags.
Saiga uses thier own mags, but you can convert the mag well to take a certain magazine.
Galil uses Galil 5.56mm mags.

It's retarded. How are you going to have the SAME rifle, SAME round, SAME family,......but different magazines.
That's like having Bushmaster, Colt, Armalite, Oly Arms, and DPMS all using different magazines. Sounds stupid doesn't it.

/rant

 

[Nightcrawler]

The difference is, all of the AR-15 clones were made in the same country and sold at the same time. That's not true of the .223 AKs. They've been only sporadically available and have never been especailly popular. So each country uses its own magazine.

Irritating all the same, I'm sure.

 

[MechAg94]

Also, they were not based on a Russian military standard. The 7.62X39 and 5.45X39 were developed with the Soviet standard and everyone else followed it. There was never a military standard for the 5.56 AK rifles.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Overheard some quotes on 5.56 (.223) Ak magazines
at the gunshow Sunday. Yikes!!

 

[Drue]

What MechAg94 said. Unlike the 7.62 and 5.45, the .223 AKs were developed commercially and there was no standard to adhere to. Each manufacturer went their own way.

This may change though. The Russians are producing the AK-101 for export in .223 and that might set a standard that others will follow. Also, there are a number of former eastern bloc countries that now belong to NATO. There are rearming with .223 AK varients. A "NATO Standard" 5.56 AK mag may result from this.

A .223 AK is a neat gun but a buyer has to be careful with the mag issue.

Drue

 

[Evil Monkey]

When I decided to get into collecting rifles, I thought that I should stick to NATO calibers like 5.56mm and 7.62mm NATO. But then I looked at AK's and thought, I'm sure through out my life I will end up with multiples of some firearms like 2-4 AK's, or AR's, etc, but I don't want to end up chasing after magazines that are rare, expensive, and just down-right impossible to find.

Wouldn't it be economical to keep soviet calibers to soviet weapons and NATO cailbers to NATO weapons?

 

[Lonestar]

Thanks for bringing that up, I did not know that. I assumed since that all the 7.62 AKs used mag same mags it was the same for 5.56.

 

[MechAg94]

Wouldn't it be economical to keep soviet calibers to soviet weapons and NATO cailbers to NATO weapons?

That is what I have done so far, but I have branched out a little. Right now I need to find a good 5.45 rifle. I already have some ammo and I might buy more from AIM if I can get a good rifle. Another M1 might be in line ahead of that though.

 

[Correia]

There's economics, and then there's those of us who just really like .223 AKs.

I can use an .223 AK, no recoil, dirt simple, more accurate than 7.62x39, and a lot of fun. I'm only going to buy magazines once.

I use Bulgarian poly waffles for our Tromix conversions. It is really the only mag to go with right now. The Weigers are great mags, but are no longer in production. The Bulgarians are still being made and imported, so they just make more sense.