I recently located an individual that has a Colt 7.62x39 conversion (full upper w/bolt), new in the box.  The Colt product number shows it to have been manufactured in the early-mid 1990's.  Does anyone have any experience with these kits and can you tell me anything about these kits?  He is selling it with two 20-round Colt 7.62 mags, full 16" HBAR pre-ban upper, and original Colt documentation/ packaging.  Thanks!

Chris

They function fine, but the problem they had was magazines.  7.62X39mm is a much more tapered round than 5.56NATO.  An AK-47/AKM has a very curved body and the AR has a much to straight mag well which doesn't work with a true AK type magazine.  The Colt magazines are the only ones which really worked, but they are very rare.  I have scene pictures of AK magazines with AR tops welded on and they function, but an AR just doesn't convert to 7.62X39mm very well, IMHO, due to the mag well.  Here is a photo from Kurts Kustom, I believe he does the magazine conversions.  [url]http://www.kurtskustomfirearms.citymax.com/albums/album_image/42605/4016.htm[/url]  

 The Colts usually have a better grade bolt (the bolts do fail) than some of the others, from what I've seen.

 You'll have to pay a premium for mags.

If you are talking about the hybrid USA mags (a.k.a. "Frankenmags"), most of them work well - in fact, they are about the only hi-cap mags that work well for this application.  The problem, of course, is that they are becoming increasingly more scarce & expensive every day.  (I'm not just shooting off my mouth - I have two 7.62x39mm ARs and a bunch of Frankenmags.)

Of course, if/when the AWB sunsets, blah, blah, blah...... [;)]

 Yeah, the main reason I looked at buying the kit is that it came with two factory mags, 20-rounders.  It seems to be a really nice setup, and, as I said, it's still in the box, with wrapping and all!

You realize thos factory '20 rounders' are really only 7 round magazines?  There is a steel strap inside them that prevents you from loading more than that.

Otherwise those magazines are pretty much Colt 5.56 20 round magazines (with plastic follwers).  Colt made 5 round 5.56 hunting magazines the same way.  They put a steel strap inside the magazine to prevent more than 5 5.56 rounds from being loaded - the strap was riveted to the floor plate.

Its pretty common for AR enthusiasts to buy the Colt 7.62 magazines, drill out the rivet - open up the mag, remove the strap, and put the magazine back together - now its a fully functional 20 round 5.56 magazine.  And its perfectly legal as all these magazines were pre-ban.

I believe the 7.62X39mm magazines have a different follower than the 5.56 NATO.  I also can't remember if they fit 20 7.62X39mm rounds even if there is no strap, since the round itself is larger.

You are correct about the different followers.  Also you could fit more than 7 rounds into a 20rd mag after removing the "U" block but it will only reliably feed 7-8 rounds.  Loading any more than 8 rounds will produce jams.