Hey, guys. I've been wondering if the Tapco AK magazines are any good for a while, so I grabbed one for $10 at the gun show today. My intention is to catalog my experiences with it over a longer term to see how it holds up. I'll update later when I get out to the range, and then later down the road to see how the mag holds up to my abuses. 
I'm probably not going to go out of my way to abuse the mag by running it over with a truck or something like that (not yet, anyway), but with just what I consider "normal" use, which includes things like dropping it on the ground when I reload and using it as a monopod when I shoot from the prone. None of these have hurt any of my steel magazines (beyond pavement rash on the bottom rear of the floor plate from prone shooting and a little surface rust now and then from sweaty hands), but that's hardly a surprise.
First impressions:
The first thing I noticed was that the mag is very light compared to a steel magazine. Not hard or surprising since the commie mags weigh in right around a pound unloaded. The downside is that it's actually wider than the already wide steel magazines, as most plastic magazines are compared to a metal counterpart.
The magazine has very fat and aggressive ribs, I'm assuming for strength and somewhat for grip. The entire magazine surface is also textured which helps with grip and keeps that plasticky shine down. Oddly, the floor plate is made of steel with some kind of gray coating that appears to be some kind of phosphate. Maybe I'll find more info on that later... The floor plate doesn't interchange with the steel magazines.
Disassembling the magazine is straight forward and almost identical to the steel mags, except that the floor plate slides off toward the front instead of the rear.
The follower is a tight fit in the mag body but moves through easily and without friction. There is not a hint of tilt to the follower, no matter what I try.
The feed lips are made of plastic, but very thick. With the follower removed, they're about as hard to pinch toward each other as an aluminum AR magazine, which is to say that it's nowhere near as strong as the steel AK magazines, obviously.
The spring is only about 2/3 the length of the one I took out of a steel magazine, but is a much higher rate. Odds are pretty good the steel is better, being this mag was made in the US instead of a communist country. The wire appears to be the same diameter (if it ain't, it's really close), but the depth of the coils on the Tapco spring is only about 3/4 those of the commie spring. The commie spring takes up the whole magazine body, the Tapco spring takes up less.
The followers are almost identical, except for the materials. Tapco's spring and follower slide into a commie body, but the plate attached to the bottom of the assembly won't go in. Commie spring and follower will assemble into the Tapco mag, but the follower catches a ledge near the top, keeping it from being compatible. It could easily be modified to work.
The shorter spring with less preload on it makes me wonder, we'll have to see how it holds up to rapid fire when it's almost empty.
The magazine inserted and locked in place on my home-built AK (Romanian "G" kit, NDS-3 receiver) which has taken every AK magazine its been offered. Lock up was a little tighter than most steel mags, with almost no front-back rocking left, but about the same amount side to side. I'll admit that my rifle may be a little loose side to side. Kind of on purpose - I figured a little loose was better than a little tight. Hasn't failed me in the 4+ years I've had it.
After I inserted the magazine, I gave it several good slaps toward the muzzle down near the base plate to get good leverage. The tab at the back didn't snap off, though it did cause the mag release to bite into the plastic a little bit.
That's about all the testing I can do here without really pissing off the neighbors, landlord and SAPD, so I'll update after I get some range time on this sucker. Hopefully I can get a couple carbine matches on it this summer and see how it does there. I'll post more when I've got it.
I'm probably not going to go out of my way to abuse the mag by running it over with a truck or something like that (not yet, anyway), but with just what I consider "normal" use, which includes things like dropping it on the ground when I reload and using it as a monopod when I shoot from the prone. None of these have hurt any of my steel magazines (beyond pavement rash on the bottom rear of the floor plate from prone shooting and a little surface rust now and then from sweaty hands), but that's hardly a surprise.First impressions:
The first thing I noticed was that the mag is very light compared to a steel magazine. Not hard or surprising since the commie mags weigh in right around a pound unloaded. The downside is that it's actually wider than the already wide steel magazines, as most plastic magazines are compared to a metal counterpart.
The magazine has very fat and aggressive ribs, I'm assuming for strength and somewhat for grip. The entire magazine surface is also textured which helps with grip and keeps that plasticky shine down. Oddly, the floor plate is made of steel with some kind of gray coating that appears to be some kind of phosphate. Maybe I'll find more info on that later... The floor plate doesn't interchange with the steel magazines.
Disassembling the magazine is straight forward and almost identical to the steel mags, except that the floor plate slides off toward the front instead of the rear.
The follower is a tight fit in the mag body but moves through easily and without friction. There is not a hint of tilt to the follower, no matter what I try.
The feed lips are made of plastic, but very thick. With the follower removed, they're about as hard to pinch toward each other as an aluminum AR magazine, which is to say that it's nowhere near as strong as the steel AK magazines, obviously.
The spring is only about 2/3 the length of the one I took out of a steel magazine, but is a much higher rate. Odds are pretty good the steel is better, being this mag was made in the US instead of a communist country. The wire appears to be the same diameter (if it ain't, it's really close), but the depth of the coils on the Tapco spring is only about 3/4 those of the commie spring. The commie spring takes up the whole magazine body, the Tapco spring takes up less.
The followers are almost identical, except for the materials. Tapco's spring and follower slide into a commie body, but the plate attached to the bottom of the assembly won't go in. Commie spring and follower will assemble into the Tapco mag, but the follower catches a ledge near the top, keeping it from being compatible. It could easily be modified to work.
The shorter spring with less preload on it makes me wonder, we'll have to see how it holds up to rapid fire when it's almost empty.
The magazine inserted and locked in place on my home-built AK (Romanian "G" kit, NDS-3 receiver) which has taken every AK magazine its been offered. Lock up was a little tighter than most steel mags, with almost no front-back rocking left, but about the same amount side to side. I'll admit that my rifle may be a little loose side to side. Kind of on purpose - I figured a little loose was better than a little tight. Hasn't failed me in the 4+ years I've had it.
After I inserted the magazine, I gave it several good slaps toward the muzzle down near the base plate to get good leverage. The tab at the back didn't snap off, though it did cause the mag release to bite into the plastic a little bit.
That's about all the testing I can do here without really pissing off the neighbors, landlord and SAPD, so I'll update after I get some range time on this sucker. Hopefully I can get a couple carbine matches on it this summer and see how it does there. I'll post more when I've got it.
