Received my grade B mags from Cole Dist. PICS!

[Hootbro]

Ordered on 5/12 and received on 5/17, 15ea grade B Hungaian mags. All mags arrived in great shape. As advertised, some had slight pitting and were refinished in a black oxide park. Approx. 5 mags were with out the ridge on the back, possibly Chinese? Careful teardown of all mags showed they had new springs and appeared to have gone through some type of rebuild program either over there or here in the states. One suprise was that one mag appears to be a Izhevsk Russian mag. Over all, I am very happy and am thinking of ordering another 10ea of these mags. at $7.99 each, they appear to be one of the better deals out there on AK mags. Enclosed below, is some of the pictures of the mags received. If any RKI has any input on what the source of the non-ridgeback mags may have come from, I would appreciate the info.

Hootbro


The whole set of 15. Middle row is the non-ridgeback mags.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=245437&a=1824838&p=21346815&Sequence=0


View of the Russian mark mag.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=245437&a=1824838&p=21346812&Sequence=0


Pic of the non-ridgeback mag. Possible Chinese?
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=245437&a=1824838&p=21346813&Sequence=0


Pic of the Hungarian mag with ridgeback.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=245437&a=1824838&p=21346814&Sequence=0


Pic of the worst pitting found on one mag. All others were in very good shape.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=245437&a=1824838&p=21346811&Sequence=0



[This message has been edited by Hootbro (edited 05-20-2000).]

[Eric_A]

Is it possible to strip badly pitted mags, scrub with steel wool to remove rust and then paint with black spray paint? Would you have to use high temp black paint like youd paint a BBQ grill with? It has a nice flat black finish.

[Jimbob]

Looks good, have been thinking of getting some project mags to refinish. Though Ak mags seem to function well even rusted solid just take a chisel and hammer and free up the follower and you are ready to rock http://www.ak-47.net/akcgi/smile.gif

[Hootbro]

Took the mags out today for a function test and torture test of my Maadi. Ref: http://www.ak-47.net/akcgi/Forum30/HTML/000249.html .
All mags except for two funtioned fine. Found one mag was bent at the feed lips, and would not allow ammo to be loaded. The other, was just made to wide by 1/8" and would not insert into my Maadi. Both were ones without the ridgeback. I will contact Cole Dist. on monday to get this taken care of. Overall, I am very satisfied and will order another 10 on Monday.

Hootbro

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=245437&a=1824838&p=21439956&Sequence=0

[graaf2]

That's a Maadi?!!! The furniture is WAY to good looking. Did you swap wood with a Romanian?

nevermind-Found your other post where you say the stock set came from a SAR.

graaf2
NRA Life Member

[This message has been edited by graaf2 (edited 05-20-2000).]

[AKM's]

That pitting looks pretty bad too me. Remember the saying: "Rust never sleeps".

[Hootbro]

Talked with Gary at Cole Dist. Said send them back for replacement and refund of shipping charges. Was very nice about it.

Hootbro

[Major C]

How can I get in touch with Cole Dist?

[Brad47]

Major C:
http://www.cole-distributing.com/

[Major C]

Thanks for the address.

[Packrat]

Someone posted it earlier: a good way to protect your mags is to clean off all the visible rust (wire brush, chipper, whatever) then soak them in used motor oil for a day or so. Pull them out, let drain on a stack of newspaper, wipe as much oil off as you can, and reassemble. The oil will get into the pores of the metal, displace moisture and corrosion-causing materials, and leave the oil behind. They aren't too bad about picking up dust after this. (I thought it would be a problem, but it doesn't seem to be.)

If at all possible, segregate your mags, using the pitted and damaged ones for every-day shooters, range carry, etc. Keep your NIW and first-class ones for emergencies. But you should try all except NIW for function: load completely, fire 3 rnds, remove all be 3 rnds, and fire them. If there are no problems, you're probably OK.

------------------
Packrat

[Hootbro]

Just an update to my earlier post concerning the two bad mags I received.

Well after returning them two weeks ago, Gary Cole came through with two good replacements that the BBT brought yesterday. Both are in excellent shape with one being another Izhevsk Russian mag. Gary Cole even included a check to compensate for my cost of shipping the bad mags back. This is top notch service.

Hootbro