Can you identify these mags?

[fishtail]

I was hoping you could i.d. these mags for me. One might be Yugo as per my other post. These bigger mags are not marked. They look slightly used, but were all covered in cosmoline.

These are of the same mag.







These are of the different mag.







The small ones, one is marked 'CHINA' on the end and the other is marked 'MADE IN CHINA' on the round emboss on the end. None of these were used and were in sealed plastic bags. I assume they are modern production.



Scott

[imanaknut]

The well used 30 rounder is a Yugo mag with a bolt hold open follower. You can tell Yugo mags by the two ribs along the base of the mag that do not go into the narrow front section. Chinese 30s have two ribs but they do go into the front section, all others have three ribs like the ones in your topmost pictures.

The ten rounders are the ones that shipped with the MAK-90 to make George Bush the First happy that the rifle was a sporting rifle. People also like to use them from a rest as they don't interfere like the longer 30 rounder when aim shooting from a steady rest.

The mags in the top photo are Euro mags. I gave up a long time ago trying to remember all the little details that tell you what country they are from. Hopefully someone will be here soon that knows better and can help.

[Schuetzenman]

The first 30 round magazine, can't tell much about it. Need to see the spine of it. European magazines usually have the rib down the spine of the magazine, I usually call those a Ridgeback type. Chinese mags usually have a radius instead of the large rib. However, I have had Chinese surplus magazines that were Ridgeback designs. I bought them for 3 bucks each back in 1993. Generally speaking Chinese mags will have more crude metal work. The back locking lug and ramp that leads to it will have a hand ground look. They won't be uniform mag to mag. European mags will have very precise identical metal shape and texture for that lug and ramp.

As nut said the other one is Yugo with the bolt hold open on last round follower. The bottom small mags are probably Chinese.

Magazines have arsenal stamps usually on the spines near the bottom of the mag. An Oval with an 11 in it is Polish. A triangle with an Arrow in it is Russian Izhevsk arsenal. I've had East German magazines and I couldn't find any marks on them. A star with arrow is Tula arsenal, which is also Russian. A small triangle with a 56 I think it is, should be Chinese. Though I've had Chinese mags that had no markings at all, but as mentioned above they were definitely crude.

[fishtail]

Leave it to me to not include a photo of what you needed to see....



Now you mention markings on the spine, I see some now. On the non-Yugo ones I see a triangle 11 and triangle 12 on one of them, a circle 10 on the other three. One of the circle 10's also has the number 701 stamped on the side next to the rib.

On two of the Yugo's I see a number 12 written with an electric pen on the spines.

Here is what is written in ink pen on some of them. Note numbers are in two directions. One is written 3B 4838 and also TA 4047.



Thanks for the help, guys, as I am new to this style of weapon.

[Schuetzenman]

http://home.comcast.net/~shooter2_in...mag_guide.html Here's a link to a web site that has a lot of magazine types photographed. No markings exactly like you mentioned are there. Example the Triangle 11, Triangle 12. A 10 in a double circle is Bulgarian, I'm not sure if a 10 in a single circle is also Bulgarian. The backs of the mags you show have the ridgeback spine seam. I suspect they are Romanian but the images are a bit small to really tell.

[fishtail]

Thanks. I'll do some more digging on the web.

Scott