About a week ago I took advantage of the Gunmagwarehouse's sale on current production bulgarian steel magazines. They were 15$ vs 20$. I had heard very little about them except "GTG" and some people had said they used thinner steel and cheaper components since they were commercially made. I only had 2 AK magazines so I ordered 15 and smiled on my good fortune.

Okay, let's examine that.

For this comparison I used a Hungarian combloc magazine I bought a few weeks earlier from Apex.

First comparison by hand. They both sound the same, both are made of stamped steel, no difference in function. They appear to be the same thickness with typical exterior differences when it comes to the welding style, placement of ribs and supporting stamped steel reinforcements, Both lock in fine to a SAM7SF with no issues.

First, have to clean both mags to remove excess oil and grease. The Bulgarians come dipped in it.





Bulgarian on the left, Hungarian on the right.



Hungarian



Now the follower, spring, and baseplate insert. First off, the Bulgarian is lighter by a few grams. No big surprise here. The Bulgarian utilizes a polymer follower and baseplate insert.




The Hungarian uses a metal follower and baseplate insert. As a result it is heavier by a few grams.



Next, the base plates.





Both the same.


Now the reassemblied magazines





The Hungarian magazine is heavier by a few grams due to the metal follower and baseplate insert.

Conclusion: there is no difference between current production Bulgarian mags and combloc, save for a few grams of weight due to the polymer baseplate inserts and followers on the Bulgarian mag.

Nice review, thank you.

Are the polymer parts an issue longer-term?

I don’t think so. Pmags have had plastic followers for a long time. It’s not a high stress part.

I had an interesting experience when I did a similar weight comparison, but I didn't follow up on it in as much detail to compare the components. I initially found that the Bulgarian commercial steel mag was lighter than a random surplus mag I selected, which is not surprising based on the plastic internal parts, as you described. However, when I disassembled them, I found that the Bulgarian mag body was actually slightly heavier than the surplus mag. You can see the comparison I posted here.

I think that .1 might be related to grease, scale inaccuracies, anything.

Possible, but the more likely simple explanation is that the commercial Bulgarian mag was, in fact, heavier than the surplus mag. Especially considering that I cleaned both mags and weighed them each several times to confirm the measurements.

Bump to avoid archive

Great write up man! I'd like to see a similar comparison between the bulgarian commercial and the current Korean (SHK) magazines globalordinance is selling for $4.99 a piece.

@fadedsun

Great review.

Don’t Bulgarian surplus 5.45 mags also have polymer followers?  I agree it’s not something we need to worry about.

Your mag are exactly the same as any other steel com block mag.

Pretty much perfect.

I think most 5.45 followers are but I cannot confirm because I don’t own a 5.45

That is a crap ton of mags.

not shocking. mags get sold on a 100-1 ratio to guns... there are probably 10s of MILLIONS of AK mags in the states. MINIMUM.