I have five AC-Unity 5.56 AK mags. They have been to the range a few times and now two monthly local AK matches. I had three of them nearly fail at the match.

The base plates popped off and were only held on by one side. They continued to retain the 30 rounds, but it was only a bump away from puking a full mag into the ground of precious Tula 5.55. Two of the mags had no issues. The base plates seem to be too soft, which allows them to flex and pop off of the mag body. One of the mags sat in my ammo cabinet loaded with 30 rounds. The other had 10, and one sat empty. Dropping them on the ground empty seemed to pop the sides of two and the other I pulled out of my chest rig and it was already popped off.

I bought these so I don't beat up my circle 10s at the range and in competition. It's much easier accepting breaking a $13 mag over a $50 mag. The bodies and followers seem fine and the BHO works as it should. It's dissapointing that the baseplate are not staying secure.

I looked to see if a different metal base plate might work. I tried a circle 10, tapco, and aK-47 magazine and they wont fit. Partially because they are slide on from the back and the AC-UNITY slides in from the front. My fix was to just super glue the base plates on. It's no longer serviceable, but at least it will stay on for mire range use. I think AC-UNITY would have a good mag if they switched to metal base plates like everyone else, or redesigned it to be thicker like a magpul mag, reducing flex.





ETA: I am leaving a fully loaded mag and a mag with about 10 rounds in my cabinet again to see how they fare. These two mags are the ones that didn't have an issue at the range.

IMHO the AC unity plastic just feels softer than most polymer magazines, at first I thought it was just me, but this kind of confirms it for me. I noticed you are in Texas, do you think the heat was a factor, or just bad design?

I used these a few months ago when the temperature was much higher without issue, but there could be something to be said from repeated high temperature expsoure. It was not too hot yesterday and is well within what I would consider a normal temperature to have flawless function by the polymer mags. I think it is just a weak point in the design of the mags.

As an update, I super glued the base plates last night. Whatever polymer they are made out of caused it to foam like expanding foam. I didn't see it in action, I just saw it when I returned to my work bench to see if the glue was dry. That was weird and I've never seen it before. If I had a 3d printer, I would probably look at printing a more durable base plate and see if that works.

I admit I dont own any but have been tempted and suspected this brand were a little too good to be true.  I think I am going to stay away.  I hope you find a solution that works.

Yikes

I have like 20 of them because of an Arsenal and Zastava 85 purchase. Was NOT going to spend $50/mag on an AK, so only have one Circle 10 (came with the Arsenal), few Zastava's that the dealer threw in cheap, and the AC's.

They've worked well for me to date, but admittedly, that's only 200-300rds out of like 3-4 mags.

I have several AK's that I run these mags in A LOT, and now that I'm retired I'm shooting once or twice a week.  I've only had this happen once when I dumped an empty on hard earth.  I just popped it back on, and shrugged it off. Those staying away from these are probably missing out a bit.  Just realize that they aren't Circle 10s, but fit a really affordable niche for what you get.

Haven't heard anything in a while.

I've bought two batches of these mags. The first ones came with a base plate that had a single square tab to retain the base plate. The second batch has three tabs in a row. I'm unsure if the material was changed at all.

OP does yours have the single or three tab base plate?

I haven't tried to drop test any of them fully loaded.

That being said, maybe just download to 28 rounds like many do for AR mags?

Single tab. Can you post a picture of the 3 tab? I haven't seen it yet. I also have their AK-12 mags and those seem great so far. The base plate and attachment looks sturdier. I could download, but I am not sure if that would prevent the issue. The polymer just seems too soft for the base plates.

That's not a bad idea. I could make a mag pull to hide the real reason for the tape.

In the top pic, the old style mag is on the left, the new style on the right.

As far as I can tell, there's no differences in the mag body, but the floorplate and baseplate are obviously different.

The older mag that I have, yes you can pop the baseplate partially off by prying or pulling on the side of it. The newer baseplate with the three tabs seems to be significantly stiffer and I can't make it pop off, even after transferring the rounds to the newer mag to put tension on the spring.

Don't know if they revised the material used or what, but it appears that the newer style plates may have solved this problem. Fortunately I bought way more of the newer style.

As you mentioned an easy fix is to just glue the baseplate on.

It's a shame they didn't just use standard baseplate design.

Thanks for the pics. That looks like it is a little bit better. I might have to snag a few more to test.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll check them out. I probably won't be able to do much with the glued base plates. They were so cheap, I'll just eat the cost for now and run them as range mags.

The 762 mags have the base plates securely attached, but they are also much thicker than the 556.

I’ve been hoarding the 30’s and 40’s as a hedge against a mag ban. Can’t beat the price and they work fine in everything I have.

Who makes these AC mags? I got some in a trade and I’m wondering if I should keep them or sell them.

They're good to go for cheap, reliable, (mostly) range mags that fit LOTS of 5.56 Aks that aren't a replacement for no-shit "gunfight eminent" mags.

ETA: made in Bosnia for (I think) their military, using German polymer.

Thank you.

Bet it feels nice to be out of NY huh?  

Though I cannot laugh too hard since WA has been screwed for 9 months so far on mags, and is about to be screwed on a bunch more anti-gun laws probably...  at least we had time to stock up on mags though.  

Anyhow- This thread made me go check all my AC mags.  Thankfully my 5.56 mags all have the 3 square tab type bases.  But I also have some 5.45 versions and they have the single tab type bases, which look pretty much the same as the 5.56 base.  But if they are a problem I have plenty of 5.45 bulgy bakelites and polish steel mags, just picked up the AC 5.45 for the hell of it, unlike the 5.56 versions where I don’t have as many Bulgarian or Weigers as I would like to have.  Honestly the AC 5.56 mags aren’t functionally much different than the bulgarian mags which are polymer and experience feed lip cracks far too often.  And you can buy several AC mags for the price of one bulgarian.

The AC 7.62 mags feel pretty flimsy, but for a $5 mag they were still one hell of a deal.  Hard to go wrong at those prices.

So is the consensus that the clear are better or the black ones?

The AK 12 style mags looks pretty good. I've run them a bit and they worked fine. Dropping them on the range for mag changes didn't seem to do anything to them, as it shouldn't. I'll see when it gets hot how they hold up.