How many AK mags are enough?

[22_Shooter 1,560]

This many:

 

 

 

Holy shit balls, man! I like your style.

 

 

I just upped my stash by 10 mags, because I ran into a deal I couldn't pass up. But...........they're mags that I can't physically possess here in NY. So I had them shipped to a friends house in SC. $9 PMags, FTW!

[opoche 0]

The only ak style gun that I have is the saiga .308 and those mags are something else. I do have a VZ 58 which takes different mags than the ak, but are still 30 round 7.62x39 mags so they are almost identical in shape and size to an ak 30 rounder. I can deal with the weight of the 12 mags I have for it ( hell I weighed it out,my regular work rig weighs more)but they are too unwieldy to carry around. I can deal with carrying 8 mags comfortably. That being said if you can buy them on the cheap do it, especially if you have more than one rifle that will accept a certain mag. I bought the VZ mags in a bundle of 12 with 3 pouches because they were going for $12 a piece and it is not exactly a common magazine. Like shooter said if you see a deal you can't pass up, don't.

[Paulry 50]

12 = 5.45x39 (mil surp 30/45)

 

21 = .223 (all Saiga friendly)

 

17 = 7.62x39 (mil surp 30/40 and tapco 30's)

 

You know I've seen where the standard "battle pack" of ammo is:

 

300 = 5.56x45 (this would be 10 mags, OK they may take 4 to 6)

 

140 = 7.62x51 (this would be 7 mags and they may take 4 to 6 20 rounders as well)

 

Recent military guys what is your standard "battle pack of ammo and mags?

Edited February 28, 2010 by Fluid Power

[paprotective 362]

Now sitting at 2 factory 7.62x39 mags and 2 factory 5.45x39 mags. For the NJ trips..

 

6-30 steel 7.62x39 mags & 3-20 Hungarian steel mags also.

4-30 Bulgy Poly 5.45 mags (Circle 10/21 flavors)

 

If I had to bounce I'd grab 4 and 4 for each rifle and call it good.

 

Got 450 rounds of 5.45 FMJ and 5XX Wolf MC HP rounds for the 7.62. Now its range time on the 6th.. woo-hoo..

 

I agree though when you see a deal and got the extra $, grab-em' up folks..

[IndyArms 10,186]

If you cannot stand up because the weight of loaded mags carried by your person is too heavy for you to move... you have ONE magazine too many.

 

Obviously the PROPER NUMBER of magazines will vary from person to person...

 

[brandywine 5]

I've always had a "10 mags, 1000 rounds" rule for my semi-auto rifles. Now this is easier depending on the caliber- 1k of 7.62x39 and 10 steel AK mags would probably run you around $400 these days, whereas a 1k .308 rounds and 10 FAL mags would be quite a bit more. But anyway, yeah, 10 hi caps at least per AK-47/74. But the more the better...who knows how long we will be "allowed" to have these, and the surplus market on some mags will dry up sooner or later. Hi caps are a good investment if nothing else.

[bigj480 203]

If you cannot stand up because the weight of loaded mags carried by your person is too heavy for you to move... you have ONE magazine too many.

 

Obviously the PROPER NUMBER of magazines will vary from person to person...

 

 

+1, never enough. I have about 30 mags for guns I don't even have. 20 Saiga 12 mags and three drums, no Saiga 12. 20-30 ak74 mags, no ak74. 15 glock mags....You get the picture.

[volkov 318]

I want enough that if SHTF I could do a few things..

 

First- Supply other friends who half prepared but thought 2 mags were sufficient

 

Second- If I gotta run for it, I wanna be able to ditch my pack or whatever, book it and have enough back at my stockpile to still be in good shape. At least for my main gun.

 

I'm nowhere near yet

[Ruffian72 548]

When Romanian like new surplus AK's where $6.00, bought a 50 count case. Except for a dozen, rest are in cosmoline/oil paper. Smallest count for a single weapon is a dozen. Largest count is 72.

[corbin 621]

I don't know if there ever IS such thing as enough when it comes to ammo, mags and firearms. I suppose if you were going to try carrying everything, then there'd obviously be a limit.

 

I don't have anywhere near enough AK mags. Had around a dozen at one time, but there's less now. I'd like to have about 20 or 30, I think. As was mentioned, if my buddy needs some extra, I'd like to have them for him.

 

 

Corbin

[YARP 300]

As many as you can get your hands on IMO. I've actually been getting rid of a bunch of my wildcat caliber weapons because the cost to shoot and buy anything extra (mags) has gotten out of control. If I own one of that type of gun then my rule is 30 mags for each gun, if I own a bunch (FAL, Glock 20/29) in one platform then I just repeatedly purchase as many mags as possible as deals arise! I guess my best example of how much I would purchase for a single (no dupes) gun is my Draco pistol. It's the only AK-47 that I own now (other than my S-12) so I don't have a ton of mags laying around anymore (sold a bunch to buy more FAL mags, shouldn't have sold'em) I have 10 40rders and 20 30rders, that's 1000 rounds right there.

The other question you should ask yourself is how much range time do you want to waste loading mags? I load the night before I go to the range so that I can make best use of my time. As far as a SHTF situation, I am more than willing to carry more weight than necessary in order to have more rounds, ditch your creature comforts and carry more mags.

[bigsal 757]

One or two per gun is about right.

[SirROFL 13]

After all what good are mags you can't carry?

 

I re-worded you question into: "What good are you who can't carry more mags?"

 

Here's a formula I developed to determine how many mags one should carry for a primary weapon...

 

# slots in carry rig + # pockets on your body + extra room in other bags + a few for emergencies in strategic locations.

 

I'll throw out food and water to have extra room for magazines, I'd rather starve than run out of ammo.