AK & Related Rifles, Russia and also USSR

Video: Forgotten Weapons Reviews Soviet AK Magazines

In this short video, Ian gives a brief overview of Soviet magazines – notably the slab side, ribbed, waffle and bakelite. As always, Ian does a great job and this is worth a watch!

Forgotten Weapons reviews a Soviet AK-47 curved metal magazine
The first generation was a heavily built (over-built) magazine known as the “slab side”.
Soviet AK magazines, one ribbed, one smooth, in Forgotten Weapons review.
After the slab side, they developed the ribbed magazine that was copied by many countries.
Two curved Soviet AK magazines shown in a Forgotten Weapons review.
To reduce weight they developed the aluminum waffle magazines- so named due to all the reinforcement ribs. It was relatively short-lived because it was not durable enough.
Two Soviet AK magazines: black metal and tan polymer
After the waffle mag, they moved to the Bakelite magazine that actually was a glass reinforced polymer. This gave them what they wanted – light weight and durability.
Two wooden AK-47 magazines, one with markings, on a green surface.
When the AK-74 was developed, they went straight to polymer and never developed steel mags. Note, other countries did build steel AK-74 magazines but the Soviets did not.

The Video

I hope you found that video useful. Ian is a wealth of information and you can learn more about his work at Forgotten Weapons.

Please note that all images were extracted from the video and are the property of their respective owner.

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