With this new drum, It raises up in the front and has lots of play in it. This issue occurs on my converted Saiga as the bullet guide does not prevent the front from raising up like it does on my Yugo. The yugo's bullet guide doesn't allow the drum to raise up.

I'm including a pic to show how the sides of the front of the drum have an extra cutout step that standard magazines do not have. I do not have this issue on the Saiga with standard AK magazines as they do not have this extra cutout.

It looks like one option would be for me to order a Russian top loader as they don't have this cutout area. then I'd have to use the Romanian on the Yugo and Russian on the Saiga.

The other option is I can weld on the missing material. Thoughts?

Does it work in a normal AK ?

Problem Solved

Got the welder out this weekend and Custom Fitted the drum to both AKs. Left a small tiny bit of play to allow for heat expansion. My recommendation is for anyone planning on converting a Saiga and welding up the holes and plans to use one of the read loading drums, is to go ahead and weld this up at the same time. The Saiga Conversion Bullet Guides are not long enough to prevent the excessive "play" in these drum magazines as they solely rely on the bullet guide and not the trunion like standard AK mags do. Even if theses add-on bullet guides were long enough, you wouldn't want the drum to put pressure on a non permanent bullet guide and risk ripping out the screw/rivet.

The Romanian back loading drums are made by Korea. The true Romanian drums are top loading like the Russians. That's why you find the back loading drums under $100 and the top loading for $150 - up. The Romania military only used the top loading drums, I've been told.

I believe you have been misinformed. Back loading drums are made in Korea, Romania and China.

Romanian back loading drums are made for the commercial market and Romanian top loading drums are made for military.

Thanks for the heads up.

Welcome