Sunday, January 16, 2011

AK47 Drums

Aim Surplus is now selling both Korean and Romanian AK47 75rd drum magazines ($55 and $65). 

The design is a copy of the Chinese rear loading drums.  Minor differences in the construction can been seen in the pictures below.  The Korea made drums have a rougher finish where as the Romanian's are nicely blued.  The difference in welds is noticeable between the two with the Romanian appearing to be stronger.

However the biggest difference is in the rear locking lug.  The Korean is wider at the tip with a shallower ramp.  Out of the five AK's (draco, wasr, yugo, norinco, polish) I could not insert the mag into the CAI 1960 Polish milled AK and on the Draco I could insert but removing was extremely difficult.  The Romanian both inserted and removed easily in all AK's.  Both drums exhibt slight wobble in all the guns with the exception of the Norinco.

Bottom line for only $10 more I would spend my money on the Romanian. 
Korea (left) and Romania (right)

Korea

Romania

Korea (left) and Romania (right)

Korea


Romania (right)

Korea (left) and Romania (right)

Korea (left) and Romania (right)

Korea

Romania