Hello:
I thought maybe I was the only one seeing this issue, but did some searching and found others mentioning it as well. The Magpul AKM handguards (with the sling loop cutout) are too fat at the sling loop area to allow a standard AK sling clip to fit without poking out to the side. The plastic is beveled there, but it sticks out too far and closes up half of the sling loop opening. A MASH hook won't fit, an HK hook barely fits but stick out to the side, and the standard AK slings I tried (Russian, Romanian, East German, Yugo, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Chinese - I tried every one I had on hand) all barely fit, stick out to the side, and scrape the plastic. When I say scrape, I mean like you jam it in there, and it is up against the plastic 100% of the time - there is no gap for it to move. The Chinese one has a leather tab, so at least it doesn't scrape the plastic, but it's not exactly the sling I want to be stuck having to use. It looks like I'm going to have to file/dremel the handguard to get the sling to work right.
Someone here on ARFCOM speculated it was a "design feature" to allow us to not cut off our sling loops but force us to use an M-LOK sling point accessory. But I think there's not enough room on the handguard for your hands and an M-LOK sling point. Is this something that will be addressed in a future iteration of the product? Did y'all try a normal AK sling with the AKM handguards with success?
ETA: I took the MOE AKM handguards off my Saiga SGL36 and put them on my WASR2, and they are a little better (sling has a little more room and doesn't stick out as far on the side) but still not right.