No markings of any sort anywhere and I haven't found a reference to this style spine welds anywhere. The floor plate retainer kinds looks Hungarian (gray parkerized), but otherwise it's a basic, black painted 30 round AK with a single witness hole on the back.

Anyone know what this is?

1st gen euro, looks polish to me but could be hungarian, the floorplate may be a mismatch.

Here's a pic of the follower, it looks refinished, and the shape seems like from the later style Euro mags?

Possibly, i've got some 1st and 2nd gen polish and hungarians in my stash, i'll see if I can dig them out later and compare to your pics, those spine welds are different for sure, but that's kind of a sign of a very early mag sometimes.

Except for lack of maker marks and the spine welds, it would pass for Hungarian. But I can't find any reference to those two peculiarities anywhere. Maybe it's just really early like you said, or a rebuilt mix master.

They look Polish. Aim sold a ton of these about 10-15 years ago. Many were refinshed and looked new.

Polish mags typically have an "L" shaped termination at the top of the rearmost rib: seen here near the bottom of the page https://thinlineweapons.com/47magguide/

That's not a Polish-specific trait, that's all first-gen euro mags, 2nd gen are all right angle like that except for Bulgarian which have a 45 degree angled termination.

Got busy last night with a knife display case project, let me go dig those mags out here after i've had coffee and i'll report back.

I remember those, but I remember them being refinished with some crappy super-glossy paint that was laid on super thick, his doesn't look like one.

Hungarians unless they have a stamp, look a lot like polish, I have one batch that I just labeled mixed polish/hungarian because I can't figure out the difference. Nice mags both of them typically, a big step-up from Romy's.

Okay, just went through two boxes of 1st gen Hungarians and none have those spine weld marks, in fact you can't really see any marks at all, they are seriously well done, i'd forgotten how nice they are, almost EG quality.

The originals I think all had the same type of follower as you have in that one, followers with the drain hole came later (and some were stuck in older mags as part of re-furbishing).

Found some 2nd gen polish but can't find my first gen, but just looking at them re-inforces my thought that your mag is Polish, spine welds are very visible unlike the Hungy's.

Right, but haven't found a single pic online of a Polish mag without the 90 degree termination in the rearmost rib, and zero pics of any mags with those spine markings.

ETA: Lack of any makers mark is also very odd.

I have some, promise you, somewhere. We just moved and I have boxes of stuff still to go through, hopefully can finally build shelves for AK mags and such instead of just storing them in boxes.



Me too, but i'd swear i'd seen at least one mag like that before, but may have sold it at some point.



None of my first gen Hungarians have any spine stamps at all, at least the two boxes I just went through, 60 mags in all. They are very generic looking but very nice. Not only are the spine welds clean as hell, but also the rest of the welds are super nice, ground flat so you can't see them on most. The floor plates are stamped super crisp too as are the ribs, almost as crisp as an EG.

Plus a nice bonus, just found an actual EG mixed in with them! Came with a batch I got from Clearview back in the day.

ETA: Just gotta say, I love these kinds of discussions, the sheer variety of AK variants has always been one of the things that fascinates me about AK's, and trying to nail down what an item is and where it came from is pretty fun to me, does that make sense?

A new friend asked me not long ago if I knew anything about AK's, my reply was that I know a LOT, but there is so much to know that i'm not even halfway there, I learn new things still even after 30 plus years of messing with them.

Absolutely, that's why I started the thread! . And, whatever this mag may be, it's actually a pretty nice one. Most of my steel AK mags are Hungarian and Polish, and this one is equal to either in construction.

Found this while hunting the web earlier for info, an ad for the above mentioned Polish mags Aim was selling a dozen years ago. Couldn't help but notice they have the L-shaped (90 degree, right angle) termination of the rearmost rib.

https://www.xdtalk.com/threads/factory-refinished-polish-ak-47-mags-for-10-95-at-aimsurplus.282891/

https://smallarmsreview.com/identifying-and-collecting-the-7-62x39mm-ak-47-akm-magazine/

"...Poland received its license to build the AK-47 in 1956 and probably started production shortly afterwards. The earliest Polish 30-round mags are of the First European Ribbed Type and bear a strong resemblance to the earliest Russian and Bulgarian Ribbed mags. The follower’s bulge, however, more closely resembles that of the earliest Bulgarian mag. Unfortunately, no factory mark will be found on these...."



From that same article though, about Hungarian mags: "... The takedown plate’s button also stands out as it is clearly flattened when viewed through the hole in the floorplate."

Yours seems clearly to be that type, but again, sometimes there's mix-n-match fiestas going on before you get 'em, i've seen a lot of mags where the importer bought pallets of the things, and some being trashed in various ways they pulled the useful parts and used them to complete others.

But, the writer immediately went on to describe the various inspector stamps often found on the early Polish mags. But, you're right regarding the rearmost rib termination, and he did repeatedly use the word 'often' when describing the inspector marks found leaving room to think they're not always present either. I think you're probably right on the Polish origin, and the guts maybe not being original. Perhaps the weird stab welds on the spine are from the rebuild process as well.

I dunno, now i'm leaning towards Hungarian, the floorplate is obviously Hungy as is the floorplate retainer. The follower could be either one as the late ones for both are almost identical.

Maybe take it apart and check this info from the later commercial mags:

"...Only a few of the late Hungarian AK mags present a challenge to identify. These mags were generally made for commercial sale in the U.S. and are unmarked. An easy way to identify these mags, as well as any Hungarian mag, is to disassemble the mag and look at its keeper. Hungarian AK mag keepers are unique among the European and Egyptian steel mags in that it lacks a spring guide protruding from it...."

Hahaha.

Well that seals the deal it seems, been a nice refresher for me though, been a while since i've gone through a lot of this info, maybe now I can figure out what's what in my box I labeled "mixed Polish/Hungarian don't know for sure", lol!