Is there a way to tell the newly made Korean mags from military surplus mags.


                                                                     thanks

Well I'll give it a try.

These?
http://www.surplusammo.com/korean-ak47-magazine-30-round-steel-7-62x39-surplus/

I have them. They are grey, your military surplus are black. Look at the feed lips, they are two pieces of metal folded over. A combloc will be a single piece of bent steel like this:
http://www.surplusammo.com/romanian-ak47-magazine-30-round-steel-7-62x39-surplus/

(the people at surplusammo are great, I used their links to show pictures)

Also the Korean mags I have, they blew it copying the combloc follower, the dimensions are wrong. The rear of the follower sits lower than the front. Sometimes you get a failure to feed, the rear of the round sits too low to be picked up by the bolt. This can be fixed by removing the Korean follower and put a combloc follower in the Korean mag. But if you're going thru that trouble and cost, you're way ahead buying combloc to start with.

(some people say they have no issues with the grey Korean mags, my WASR hates them, my Yugo handles them well.

In searching around, this is the best deal I would buy today if it was me:
http://whatacountry.com/ak-47-30-round-magazine-hungarian.aspx
Under condition, click and a choice of a ten pack appears.

With few exceptions, you get what you pay for....except I've never had an issue with the cheapo Tapcos. They run in everything I have, never an issue.
http://tapco.com/products/ak/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=9

Good luck

As stated above, the Korean 30rd mags are grey in color, while surplus will be black. The exception is the Korean 20rd mag, which is black rather than grey.

Or add a dimple on the follower at the rear to raise a bit. Done that to my 10 rnd mags, works great.

That's an idea. Got a pic? I hate to spend any more money on this junk.

I have seen newer Korean mags that are blue . The other difference is small pinprick sized spot welds