So I got a bulgarian AK mag as part of my birthday...there is too much plastic on it to lock it into the magwell.

It wont insert fully/lock because the rear upper portion of the mag is too wide. Would filing it down somewhat compromise the integrity of the mag?


<Edited to change title and move to Magazine Forum......dpmmn>

I am not ccertian with your mag but it hasnt with mine that i have done it too

Yeah I have been reading around and some guy's are so desperate that they end up opening up the mag well, which in my opinion is a . If I were you I would sell it and buy a Hungarian one from 44mag. I here very good things about it. Give it a look.

Quoted: So I got a bulgarian AK mag as part of my birthday...there is too much plastic on it to lock it into the magwell. It wont insert fully/lock because the rear upper portion of the mag is too wide. Would filing it down somewhat compromise the integrity of the mag?

Does your rifle say "WASR" on it?

arent there metal feed lips under the polymer

It seems to me like bulgarian mags were made in difference sizes. I tested 20 different bulgy circle 10 mags in my gun and 4 out of the 20 didn't fit.

Then I looked closely at the mags. One one side they all have the circle 10. on the other side, they have either a 1, 2, 3, or 4.  All of the ones I set aside were 4's. Which leads me to believe that they are size 4 -the largest- and that's why they didn't fit. If you had a gun with a bigger magwell, you might need the 4's. YMMV. It might be just a coincedence. I am not an expert.

You must not be using 7.62X39MM then.  

Quoted: So I got a bulgarian AK mag as part of my birthday...there is too much plastic on it to lock it into the magwell. It wont insert fully/lock because the rear upper portion of the mag is too wide. Would filing it down somewhat compromise the integrity of the mag?

No.  It's ok to modify the mag to fit the gun.  You won't have to take off much.

Quoted: Quoted: So I got a bulgarian AK mag as part of my birthday...there is too much plastic on it to lock it into the magwell. It wont insert fully/lock because the rear upper portion of the mag is too wide. Would filing it down somewhat compromise the integrity of the mag? Does your rifle say "WASR" on it?

Yes, and so far it has been very reliable and accurate.

I may just keep the mag as is for when I buy another AK...perhaps a Saiga.

It is a 7.62.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: So I got a bulgarian AK mag as part of my birthday...there is too much plastic on it to lock it into the magwell. It wont insert fully/lock because the rear upper portion of the mag is too wide. Would filing it down somewhat compromise the integrity of the mag? Does your rifle say "WASR" on it? Yes, and so far it has been very reliable and accurate. I may just keep the mag as is for when I buy another AK...perhaps a Saiga. It is a 7.62.

WASR? your one of the lucky ones

I had to take a file the the front of the selector stop and the rear of the magwell on my WASR to make it accept bulgarian waffles.  It only look a little work to get them to insert properly.

I would modify the gun as its probably just a few thousands blocking the mag form inserting and I would want any standard AK47 mag to fit in my gun so I don't have problems mixing mags and guns if you have more than one.

I just received these Bulg Poly Mags as you described.  I did find the #2 on each mag on the opposite side of the 10.  These mags fit perfectly in my Lancaster Polish UF. I bought 3 of them to see how Poly mags function.  I do like the Steel Bulg. Mags from AIM much better.

If you just have this problem with one or two mags, then correct it by filing on the mag a little... however...

There's nothing wrong with opening up the mag well a little if you have this problem with a lot of mags. Just don't be stupid about it. Take off small amounts at a time.

Of course, if you have a nice collectors type milled rifle or something, I can understand where you might not want to do that, but for the average "shooter" AK, it's not gonna hurt a damn thing to slightly adjust the opening.

I have a 7.62x39 Romanian SAR-1. I ordered 4 smooth side Arsenal mags and 4 Bulgarian waffle mags for it. I had to do some hand fitting on all of them. I used a dremel and a sanding wheel. Yes, there is metal under the polymer in places. On a few of the mags I had to get remove a little of the metal. They all work great in the gun now. I have always had 5 East German steel mags as well. One of these has always stuck in the magwell and been hard to remove. I hit it with the dremel too, now it is smooth and easy to remove.

Guns like AKs, especially parts kits guns, have a wide range of tolerances. My experience with many things AK is that hand fitting is in order - be it mags, grips, buttstocks, hand guards, etc. I imagine alot of magazine makers make their mags on the large size. That way they fit the guns with big magwells, and can be ground down to fit in guns with small wells, or the wells of the guns enlarged. If the mags were made too small, you wouldn't be able to correct the problem. Always easier to take some material away than add it.

I chose to take material away from the mags. I didn't want bare metal exposed to corresion on my gun. Also, if I went too far and screwed up, it was a cheap magazine, not my rifle getting messed up. Although some other posters have brought up good points about enlarging the gun's mag well so that you know any AK mag will fit.

Ienlarged the magwell, dremeled the big rivet behind the magwell slightly, and dremeled and sanded the mags down to the metal, and now about three oout of six fit.

If I slammed them in and out real hard, they would fit, but the plastic at the back of the mag would bust off in big chunks, down to the metal, and need to be dremeled smooth.

These plastic bulgy mags are quite a bit bigger front to back than ANY metal mags I have.

I used to like these mags before this ordeal.

Can anyone else add anything about the numbers being different mag sizes?

I have a WASR10.

Quoted: Can anyone else add anything about the numbers being different mag sizes?

They are mold numbers, not sizes.