How can you ident. chicom M14 mags?
Are they any good?

Chinese mags are parkerized in a thin layer of light grey. The vertical grooves in the sides of the mag bodies are somewhat rounded while the G.I's are sharper. They bare no manufacturers markings. The quality of materials and construction are on par with U.S.G.I.. The easiest way to tell the difference is that G.I. mags are almost always marked about 3/4" from the base plate on the back of the mag body. The followers are sometimes marked as well. Check out the M-14 FAQ's at www.fultonarmory.com for info on G.I. markings. G.I. mags are parkerized in charcoal grey to nearly black. I've owned a few Chinese mags and several G.I. mags. The Chinese mags are every bit as good as G.I. and I've never had a single problem with either of them them. The down side is that used Chinese mags aren't much cheaper than used G.I. mags.

 I have quite a few of the Chinese mags and they have always works and worn just as well as my GI mags.

I have two Chinese mags right in front of me with the light park and manufacturer symbols in the same location as the USGI mags. At least, they were sold as Chinese. But the park is light.

What is the value of them NIW?

Since NIW GI mags are $45 from Coles I'd guess $35-$40 for Chinese.They do work just as fine as GI so you could look at it as they would be worth just as much as GI from a functional point of view.From a collectors point of view they obviously wouldn't be worth as much as GI.

Since they work just as fine I'd get the Chinese mags since they are cheaper.

Quoted: I have two Chinese mags right in front of me with the light park and manufacturer symbols in the same location as the USGI mags. At least, they were sold as Chinese. But the park is light.

What are the markings?

Quoted: Quoted: I have two Chinese mags right in front of me with the light park and manufacturer symbols in the same location as the USGI mags. At least, they were sold as Chinese. But the park is light. What are the markings?

One says KMT, so I know it must be USGI. Funny thing is it was soaked in oil and wrapped in cellophane just like the Chinese mags.

The other says UHC, which again indicates a USGI mag. It was also soaked in oil and wrapped in cellophane just like the Chinese mags.

So, I guess they are USGI but were packaged and sold as Chinese. I think I paid $35, which was the going rate for Chinese when I bought them a few years ago.

the reason the chinese m-14 mags are almost as good as USGI ones is that they are made on the machinery we sold them.... same goes for the Tiwanese mags.. TRW sold the machinery to them...

Quoted: the reason the chinese m-14 mags are almost as good as USGI ones is that they are made on the machinery we sold them.... same goes for the Tiwanese mags.. TRW sold the machinery to them...

Oh, so they nearly got a good copy (need better starting materials then...)

well close the US gov't GAVE (yup FREE) the TRW tooling to taiwan.

chinese mags are lighter gray and have no marks. usually packed in and full of grease.  if NIW they will be in some kind of wax paper or cloth paper stuff.  

they work fine but the feed lips seem to be a little sharper. at least to my fingers when loading during a slow fire stage.

i usually take care of the sharp mag lips by rubbing the edges with Crocus cloth.. it polishes and smoothes out those sharp edges

[snafu
well close the US gov't GAVE (yup FREE) the TRW tooling to taiwan.]

 Damn it!!! I was wondering where the hell we put that stuff!!!!!!