Hey. Does anyone have any experience with the V-Project Mags from Atlantic Firearms? I am interested in the 5.45 versions specifically.

Good point, just added link to the OP. Of course the fact that you haven't even heard of them does not bode well for anyone having any experience with them. So you may have actually answered my question anyway.

I saw those at the Fabryka Broni booth at SHOT, made of lexan, or so I was told.

Never seen them before. I noticed no metal reinforcement on the feed lips or lug. I may pick up a few to check out though.

The new MOE PMags from Magpul that are coming soon look good.

Yeah, the lack of metal reinforcements was what prompted me to ask. If they had them I probably would have just gone ahead and bought a couple myself, but the lack of reinforcements gave me a moment's pause, so I thought I would ask. Might still pick up a few. I'm a little new to the AK74 game and been suffering a little sticker shock from the normally recommended magazines, guess I am a little spoiled by the abundance of good inexpensive AR mags. Regardless the price of these looked cheap enough to at least give the a try. I am also looking forward to the Magpul 5.45 mags.

I can't speak specifically to these ones, but the Polish Beryl magazines of the late generation of a similar type, the translucent green/blue, also lack metal reinforcements.  The Poles view the magazines as disposable and consumable.  The Beryl mags are generally looked on as desirable and reliable mags for the 5.56 pattern AKs.

The geometry of the 5.45 appears to be correct.  From what I've gathered, there have been two versions of these.  The first used a cheaper polymer that did break easily.  Supposedly this is the "new" version that is made by a company that purchased the molds (as the story goes) that is claimed to be the same as the Beryl polymer.

From what I've also heard, the springs and followers in these are garbage, but the bodies are compatible with true AK-74 mag components so they should be easy enough to swap.

Rob Ski uses one of the 7.62 flavors in his videos a bunch and it seems to feed and cycle okay.  He doesn't use it for the drop tests or pushups though.

I've been meaning to purchase some to do some testing and upgrades with an eye towards comparing to the Beryl mags I possess, but Atlantic and Arms of America, who carry the same thing, charge too much for shipping mags and I won't pay it for something that may or may not work when I don't need anything else they're selling.  And I'm not funded by a YouTube channel.

TL;DR; Mag body geometry is good, springs/followers/floorplates might be junk, polymer may or may not be the same the Beryl but it looks close, Polish polymer mags don't use metal reinforcement in the current generation so that's not unusual.

Well, I just ordered 7 of them from Arms of America, they had cheaper shipping than Atlantic Firearms. 1 for destructive testing, and 6 to use presuming they don't turn out to be garbage and I haven't just thrown a bunch of money out the window. Once I get my hands on them and have some time to use and abuse them, I will post up a review or something.

Got my two today.

The bodies seem well built like the other mags I have.  They have a blue /green hue to them.

The follower seems thin compared to my factory mags. They sprayed (what smells like) clp in the mag body and on the follower in one and it was visibly wet on the inside. It was the mold 1 mag

Other than that they seem ok.  

The locking lug on one looks shaved down compared to the other. I'm curious to see how it'll hold up.
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Mold number 2
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Mold number 1

Maybe a design update?

What would yall like to see done to them?

So I broke one within about thirty seconds...

I was doing some reload drills with the mold 1 mag and broke off the tab. I kindof figured that would happen. I loaded it and it seems fine. I didn't have any issues. I may just leave it loaded and see how the feedlips hold up.

I'm not sure I'll buy any more. Attached File

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Looks like junk to me.

As mentioned the bodies are okay,but the springs and followers are junk. Compare the springs and followers with a Surplus Russian,Polish or Bulgarian mag and you will see what I mean. Followers are a flimsy lower grade of plastic and the springs are poorly made. These are range mags and are commercial ,not military grade. They are in no way on the same level as the Green Beryl mags other than the similar color of the plastic.
I swapped the spring and follower on mine to  bulgy and they function now as they should have when I bought them.
There are less expensive range mags out there than these Tapco,ISD made commercial Bulgy mags at least use a decent spring and follower even if the bodies are made of flimsy plastic.
You could purchase a ISD mag $10 and remove the  Spring and follower and use a V mag body $15 and have 1 decent range mag for $25 and 1 total junk mag or you could just purchase a Surplus mag For $25-30 and be done. I think the commercial bulgy's or Tapcos are better over the V for the money.

Received an order from Arms of America of these today.  After my last post, figured I'd jump in and give it a shot.

One of the mags was previously modified by someone by cutting down the locking lug, so I'll be testing AoA's customer service on getting a replacement.  I don't mind taking a chance, but I'm sure as hell not dealing with someone else's "project".

No clue when I'll get to the range, but I'll hit some highlights.  I took some comparison photos to a Beryl 5.56 and Russian 5.45 mag that I'll get posted tomorrow.

First thing was a fit test.  50% success rate using a Romanian SAR-2, kit built Bulgarian AKS-74 on an Armory USA recieiver, an SLR-104FR, and SLR-104UR.  The two factory Bulgarian SLR rifles fit the magazines just fine.  Very tight, no wiggle.  The SAR-2 would not lock them in though they'd rotate up all the way (and smash my thumb forcing them out), and the kit build wouldn't even fit them.  These rifles all function fine with all and any Bulgarian, Russian, Romanian, or East German mag I've stuffed into them.  The Beryl mag also locks into them.  So they seem to be slightly oversized.

The polymer itself is lighter in color than the Beryl mag, it is NOT the same material.  Close, but "cheaper" feeling.  Almost more brittle?  I prefer the darker hue of the Beryl mag.

The follower is visually cheaper looking than the military grade ones.  Spring tension felt good, so I'm not going to replace them for now, we'll see if they fail.  I think they will feed ammo as-is though.

Floorplate is pretty solid in construction, though a poor copy of the true stamping.  It doesn't need replaced yet, it was locked on pretty well, and the lock plate tab came through enough that I'm not worried about it popping off.

The locking lug is an area of concern.  It is both longer and thinner than the military 74 and Beryl mags.  I can very easily see how that got snapped on a reload drill.  Being oversized in the other dimensions leads to a tighter fit, so there's more force applied to the lug when it gets removed, uh, vigorously. The Beryl lug is better proportioned, even being all polymer as well, so I don't have the same concern with it snapping.  I have some of the Magpul 7.62x39 mags that are all polymer, and I'm not bothered by those either.  The lug on these V-project mags is just badly designed.

I'll hang onto them as an oddity, though I don't think I'd recommend them overall.  I'd rate them higher than Promags, as they will likely feed ammo, but the locking lug is going to fail pretty early.  Wait for Magpul's 74 mags, try out the Tapco flavor (their 7.62 mag is really underrated), or hunt down some surplus.  I guess these look cool for photos.

As I said, I'll try to get the photos up tomorrow.

ETA - As I was going through the mags, I found a second one with the front lug that was filed down.  Are people modifying these and returning them without telling them?  That's a pretty raw deal if so.

ETA2 - AoA is sending me a replacement for the mag with the jacked rear locking lug.  That's pretty fair, so props to them.

ETA3 - Photos up.  Beryl mag, the V-project, and a Russian plum that I spray painted many years ago.  I got a lot of plum mags when they were dirt cheap. Also note no stripper clip guides on the v-project.

I saw a video from a guy that had replaced a broken rear lug on one of these with a peice bar stock. Heated it up and just pressed it into place. Wonder if that would hold up any better?

I don't think that would stand up to much use though?  I guess it beats a broken mag.

Received my replacement mag from AoA, so definitely appreciate their customer service.

I re-tested fit of a couple of the other mags and they had no issues in my SAR-2 or the AKS-74 build.  So perhaps I grabbed one that was really dimensionally off?  I'll load up the dud and see if I can get the feed lips to crack.

ETA - Day 1!

Haven't been to the range still () but wanted to update that after a month of sitting loaded, nothing has happened.  Feed lips haven't cracked or exhibited any creep.  So that's a good sign so far at least.

ETA - Checking in on 4/21.  Missed the exact two month mark, but still a very exciting "nothing" to report.  No observable changes thus far.  Probably won't update again until we get to 6 months, or it breaks.

I bought one for a 5.56 74 build that uses Beryl mags just to see if it was close enough to the Beryl mag to work. The follower appears to be identical to the 5.56 follower in the Beryl mags. It will load a full stack of 5.56 but only feed 15 rounds due to the curvature causing the rim of the topmost case to dip downwards and get skipped over by the bolt..

I missed out on the deals on green Beryl mags and just wanted something similar. I don't know why V Project doesn't produce the Beryl mags. If they did, I would buy a bunch of them. I'm assuming that FB Radom will not sell them the molds or has an active patent on them..

On the plus side I did finally verify that Tapco 5.45 10-rd mags will feed 5.56 just fine on an AK-74 type 5.56 build, so now I have a low-cap option for these rifles.

Mancat look out for a couple of the Robinson Aramament 5.45 to .223 conversion followers.
You will need to open up the feed lips a bit on the 5.45 mag to match that of a .223 mag.
Some have been successful using epoxy to build up 1/8" at the rear to allow the .223 rounds to sit higher in the mag and chamber.
I purchased some of these 5.45 V mags for this exact reason. I have thought about cutting some 1/8 plate to size and welding it to some steel Polish or German made 5.45 followers.
The converted mags do work and function correctly with the RA when correctly converted ,no matter how many reports about geometry being different.

Thanks but I have enough proper 5.56 mags that I don't need to worry about it. Just wanted to see if I would get lucky seeing as that they appear very similar to the current issue Beryl mags, and may have had some sort of "universal" follower.. Nope. Not going to worry about it for a $12 mag.

Here we are in Mid-November, I finally remembered this thread.  

Found the mag in the closet... still no cracks or observable spreading of the feed lips.  At this point, the rear lug is the only thing I'd worry about with these.

Thanks for the update