If I stumbled into an AK in the near future which mags should I be looking for? Anything to stay away from? Any insight would be appreciate thanks folks!
Steel not Korean like the others have posted. I have two tapco mags and can say I do not like them. They fit very tightly in my rifle (too tight) and are bulky. If you want something interesting, look for bakelite, or Russian slab side magazines.
The Chinese mags are extra hard to find, but they are great magazines. They also have a different follower then most the euro mags, and are the only thing that will properly feed an SKS-M or SKS-D. You can tell the Chinese mags because they don't have a raised spine on the back of them like all the euro steel mags have.
Your best bet as far as availability and that work are any Eastern European mags. Such as East German,Romanian,Bulgarian,etc. I have a good assortment of many different kinds and those are the ones that work best. Polish are good too and FWIW I have a couple of Tapcos...they work ok but Im not sure how durable they are.
So does anyone have 2 Eastern European type metal ak mags they would be willing to trade for some black no window pmags? I have 5.56,.308 and 5.7x28 to trade as well if there isn't a demand for ar mags from my end.