Fairly new to AK world, have bunch of commbloc steel 30s, but like 20 round mags best for AK, just as I do for the AR and Mini14.  I have 5 or 6 Tapco 20 rounders and they work fine, at least till maybe they get worn, but like steel better.

What Hungarian used ones I've seen have gone full tilt bozo crazy expensive, so wondered about the newly manufactured Korean 20 round steel ones that CDNN and others sell for 10 clams? Are they junk, "okay", or just fine, or what?

TIA

- OS

The 20's are the best Korean mags I have tried. I had some of the gray 30's that were junk and my buddy had a 40 that he got at a gunshow that would cause FTF's. I bought a 20 on a whim as the Tankers are just way too expensive to amass a huge collection. After putting it thru it's paces, I went and bought 20 more and sold off my tankers to help fund them. The one's I got are a gloss black and have been very good. I would put them against my tankers any day. Hence the reason I sold the tankers for a profit and have no regrets. I would have been the guy bad mouthing these had I not actually put one in hand. The 20's are a different animal than all the rest of the Korean mags IMHO.

Here's a Korean 20 in the 556R



Korean 20 follower



Korean on the right and tanker on the left



Korean on the bottom tanker on the top



Koreans are the 3 on the right and tankers are the 3 on the left

Wow, thanks for the extensive review! Think I'll go ahead and try maybe five of them on the basis of that.

- OS

Are the 20 rounders still being imported?

Update: got the 5 Korean 20 rounders in, and only thing on them, inside or out, is "made in Korea".

Seem as heavy steel as say a Romanian surplus mag, weight is commensurate too, 9.2 oz compared to 11.7 for the Romy 30.

No issues loading or locking into WASR, no more wobbly than any others.

However, not even going to field test them, can't even get them to hand cycle reliably. Left side cartridges sit too low to be picked up, or if picked up are engaged on tip top of shell and jam rather than feed. Hard to tell exactly what prob is, seems maybe that the back locking tab is actually a bit low plus must have something to do with follower not being right either. Whatever, these are a clear no go.

Morning_Would, obviously "these" are not "yours". Though they have the ribs in same place, the floor plate is different for one thing.

- OS

Man. What a bummer. Maybe it depends on where you get them from? Mine specifically say they are imported by "red, white and blue, llc". Not on the mag, but in the ad where I grabbed them from. I am very sorry if I lead you astray. It was not my intention. I will not reccomend these again if they are going to be spotty in qc. I do not want anyone else to waste their money because I got lucky. Stick with the tankers. They are 100% reliable.

Since you have them you should try at least one of them out.  What do have to lose now?

No worries, man... these are obviously just not from same manufacturer, no way for you to know.

- OS

Well, have to get RMA from CDNN within 3 days of receipt to return according to their faq, but maybe I will run over to range tomorrow just to make sure.

But I've never had any mag that failed simple hand cycling actually work with live fire either with AR or Mini14 or handgun, and indeed I have had some with all three, so I think they are a no go.

At best, I'm gonna take a 15% restocking hit plus shipping on my end btw. And maybe they're gonna carp about two of them being "used", dunno. Never had to return anything to them before.

- OS

If you are able to return them then go ahead and get your money back.  I returned to CDNN the 5.45 mags that showed a military surplus photo but they sent cheaper commercial mags.  CDNN wasn't the easiest to return to, had to complain enough for them to agree to do it but they ended up giving me a full refund.

I did get out briefly today, and sure enough, mags failed just same as with hand cycling, as I was pretty certain they would.

I've gotta pay shipping back, but CDNN said they'd take 'em back without restocking fee or anything, so I'll only be out 5 clams or less for the whole learning experience.

So guess I'll use Tapco for my 20 rounders and call it a day with the search for steel ones. Hell, they do work 100% and all, just sorta wanted some forever real man steel ones. :)

- OS

Well you were right, they didn't work.  I too have had good luck with my Tapco 20s and have several of them.  Hungarian 20s are in short supply now, but that can change quickly.  I consider normal price on the Hungarians is around $50 for a 3 pack, usually with a pouch.

Yeah, I'd probably pay that, but no reason to be looking anytime soon seems.

- OS

I got two of the Korean mags from CDNN. They won't feed the last couple rounds and lean so far out to the left that the underfolder won't clear them. They kind of remind me of the old USA Magizines during the ban years.

I wonder why I ended up with different one's? How many South Koreans are making 20 rounders? Can someone post a pic of the POS's you got from CDNN for comparison to mine please?

Mine are already shipped back. Here's CDNN pic. Thing is they "seem" to be pretty well made.



- OS

I tried pics but they were crappy. The mags are shinny and say Made in Korea on the floor plate. The look well built but aren't,

Yeah, near as I can tell, the back locking tab is not at correct angle or height placement. Plus there's something going on with spring/follower, to where the rounds on the left side sit too low to be picked up at all. You note it doesn't happen until last couple of rounds, but mine start doing that at round 6 or 8. Also, the ones on the right start jamming into area above the chamber...near as I can tell that's from them being also just barely stripped which somehow forces them downward then back up.

Or something, or a combo effect of all that. I found if I held back and up on the mags with left hand they would generally feed okay, but that's just not an option for real world use.

When I called CDNN first guy said, "oh we've sold thousands of those with no prob", said would have someone call me back regarding return. Nobody did, so called back, and got right through to returns, and the lady there sounded like she'd heard it all before, not surprised at all wanted to return them.

I forgot how much postal rates have gone up on stuff over 13 oz though, cost me $10.60 for the failed experiment.

- OS

I'm not going to try to send them. Lesson learned, a $20 lesson but that's fine.

Check out SG AMMO....they have mil-surp mags in good to excellent condition for 8 bucks.

http://www.sgammo.com/product/surplus/30-round-ak-47-mag-used-condition-varies-good-new-eastern-european-military-surplus-

I bought 3 of the Korean 20rd mags from CDNN and all three function fine in my PAP M92 pistol.  The one seems to lock in a little tight, but functions fine.

I bough 2 for my m92. They fit and hand cycle fine.
Modded 1 for bolt hold open. Won't get to shoot it till next week