I'm wondering if I could get some reproduction aluminum followers available from John Masen and swap them in the brand new Okay/Surefeed straight 20 mags for a 'lookalike' old school vintage mag?

A shooting buddy is getting close to buying a clone of a 60's A1 and rather than see him overpay for some refurbished Colt mags, I thought this might be a cheap alternative that will be reliable.

The followers are $6 and I'm just looking to do 3 or 4. I've already got some Okay 20s I can try but wasn't sure if the factory springs are the same.

If not, I'll just give him some factory fresh Okays and remind him you can't see the follower when it's loaded anyways.

Yes, they'll fit.  But why bother?  Vintage mags are not hard to find in excellent to new condition, nor are they particularly expensive.

I had actually thought of doing that too.  I already have a few Okay mags but wasn’t sure if the aluminum followers would be correct for my retro rifle.  Can someone tell me when they began manufacturing mags with plastic followers?

I ordered a few of the alloy followers from johnmason.com.  I put them in 4 of my Okay Ind. 20 round mags and none of them will reliably lock the bolt back.  They are slightly shorter than the plastic followers and barely engage the bolt catch.  I’ll be sending them back.

Well that sucks but thanks for posting that.

I just gave my buddy some new OKAY 20 rounders, and links to some vintage GIs and a source for replacement springs. I’ll let him know.

I like the straight 20s, they run great for me and they run up to 15 rounds of 5.45x39 as well. But don’t care what follower, as long as they work.

Leave your OKAY 20 round magazines alone. They'll work fine as is.

Everything I have ever seen or purchased from John Masen is junk. Made in China junk.

In their email response to me, they referred to magazines as clips.  That tells me all I need to know about them.

John Masen sells nothing but crap.

Used USGI 20’s from VN era.

Back in the 80's.  The 20s have had black followers longer than they had aluminum ones.

GI issue 20 rd mags need nothing extra to work, except ammo....