Why 5.45x39 mag may not work in AK .223 guns.

[wally]

I've heard people claim that 5.45x39 AK mags will work in .223 caliber AK guns.

I'm here to say its maybe, maybe not, depending on how low your bolt/carrier rides.

Photo shows the problem. The taper of the rounds doesn't match the curve of the mag so the base of the rounds don't come up to the top of the mag which can lead to failures to feed. Loading five rounds or less seems to work as the taper mismatch doesn't seem to be noticable until round 7 is loaded.

Black mag is Norinco/Polytech AK .223 mag. Both mags work in my Polytech AK .223
Only the black one works in my SAR3.

--wally.

 

[MAKOwner]

Which is why RobArm sells .223 followers to use in 5.45 mags. Some people also dremil/file on the feed lips some I believe for certain rifles...

http://www.robarm.com/ however they've changed their sight around (for the worse), probably have to call if you're interested. Used to be around $5 a piece...

 

[wally]

I guess its just my skeptical nature, but...

It's not clear to me how a new follower could solve the problem -- the 5.45x39 mag body curves more than the AK .223 mag body does. Maybe it pivots to drop the nose and thereby raise the base as it lowers into the more curved region. Seems to me that if this is the case it'd give a nice place for dirt and grit to get in and cause the follower to bind.

If they take small orders and charge reasonable shipping I may try one just for grins. Thanks for the info.

Mucking with the feed lips may solve the problem in one particular gun, but I prefer to have mag interchangablity left intact. Plus there is not a lot of metal in the lips of the "plastic" 5.45x39 mags to play with.


Have you actually replaced the follower in a 5.45x39 mag that didn't feed in your .223 AK and then have it work?

--wally.

 

[jrobb45]

Mag followers.

I have a .223 SAR-3 that came with the orange bakelite mags(5.45x39) and I bought 4 more for $16. They wouldn't run with the .223, so I carefully dremeled 2 of them and got them to run MOST of the time with 20 rds., or less. Got tired of that nonsense and ordered 5 of the .223 followers from Robinson Arms(they had a $25 order minimum). The undremeled mags. that I put the Robinson Arms followers have never missed a lick when I load 25 rounds, or less, in them. Had problems a couple of times when I had a full 30 rounds in them. I also bought a couple of the steel 30 rd. Weiger mags. and they have run flawlessly fully loaded.

jrobb

 

[IM Rugerman]

I took the 30 rd. bakelite mags from my Bulgarian AK-74 and use them in my Romanian .223 PAR3 pump,they work just great.Bought some extra 5.45x39 mags from Centerfire Systems for spares,they also work great,I did NO modifications/didn't change followers or anything,used them right out of the box. Dan

 

[Bwana John]

I have a pre-ban(ha) M84 Chinese .223 AK. It will not even work with the present E. Europian .223 mags, never mind 5.45 mags.

 

[wally]

Thanks for the info, I'm not intrested in making 25 round mags, or even trying with a $25 minimum order.

I'm not aware of any E European AK .223 other than the somewhat hard to find steel "Weigar" mags.

As I said, may not work, If your bolt drops low enough and the carrier is tight enough to not let it come up above the top of the lower than normal base, it'll feed fine. Mine is loose enough that it rides over way too often to be fun or useful.

--wally.