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WTB Norinco AK 223 magazines


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I have a good friend that is the proud owner of a "pre ban" Norinco AK in .223 caliber. Of course now he needs magazines. Anybody know where to find these rare birds? big_smile.gif

Edited by Azrial
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You'll be looking on Gunbroker/Arrmslist and paying out the nose. Steel Norinco mags are pricey when found.

 

The cheap Promag .223 and Tapco Galil AK mags work with the Norinco .223 AKs.

 

I have also seen people using Circle-10 mags in them. That would mean Beryls should also work. Not sure what mods are required to get either to work - probably the same feed lip mods as required for the Saiga.

Edited by mancat
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You'll be looking on Gunbroker/Arrmslist and paying out the nose. Steel Norinco mags are pricey when found.

 

The cheap Promag .223 and Tapco Galil AK mags work with the Norinco .223 AKs.

 

I have also seen people using Circle-10 mags in them. That would mean Beryls should also work. Not sure what mods are required to get either to work - probably the same feed lip mods as required for the Saiga.

Promag do in fact work, but Galil mags DO NOT. Not sure about Beryl's or Weigers.

I have a Norinco .223 and it uses a proprietary Norinco mag that doesn't seem to work in anything else. I have 10 steel factory mags and 10 Promags and all work just fine. Also - 62gn M883 rounds won't fit in Promags. You can load M193 or M883 in steel Norinco mags.

FWIW - Galil mags won't even fit in the mag well.

 

Macbeau sends...

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  • 2 months later...

A bit of history.

 

In the mid 80's, some of the first (if not THE first) .223 AK's imported to this country were Norinco's. Polytech followed shortly thereafter. Promag was the first company to offer aftermarket / non-factory .223 AK mags and they modeled theirs on the dimensions of the Norinco .223 mags. The bad news is that Norinco .223 mags top dimensions are smaller than Polytech and most other countries .223 AK mags. They don't really fit anything else and this lead to Promags reputation for poor quality. The few I have, have worked just fine for over 20 years in my BWK-92 and I see no difference in performance using Promag or Factory steel. The only complaint I see is that you are limited to using 55 grainers and lighter. 62 gns and heavier are just too long to fit in the Promags. But, since my Norinco doesn't have a 1-7 or 1-9 rifled barrel, it's no biggie.

Most other .223 AK's use mags that have the same (or similar) dimensions to the 7.62 top dimensions. You can lock an 7.62 AK mag into a .223 Galil or Valmet with no problem or modifications. The follower and feed lips are all wrong for .223 cartridge and the curve will limit how many rounds you can load, but they will rock-n-lock into the receiver with little to no wobble.

For a while, before I found steel Norinco 30-round .223's available (at $10/ea.), I was buying surplus Russian bakelite 5.45 mags for cheap (like $10 ea. - there were very few 5.45 rifles in this country at the time) and putting Tapco-made .223 followers in them. You could only get 20 rounds in them because of the radical curve. They worked okay, but I reassembled them back to 5.45 mags and sold them off when the price on those jumped and I could get steel factory mags.

Norinco made and imported steel .223 mags in 5rd, 15rd, 20rd, 30rd and even some 40rds. They also made 75rd and 100rd drums, but those were like hens teeth back when NIB Norinco rifles were $250. All of these mags are ridiculous in price now. If you have a B-West, BWK-92 or AK-84s, the Promags will work fine.

 

 

Macbeau sends...

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  • 8 months later...

Last summer at a gun show I saw an older Hispanic man with a norinco 223 ak with some stock I've never seen it adjusted for length of pull and folded but was obviously an older design. He also had a bag full of mags he ended up selling it all for 400 this was when a saiga 12 was proved at 1850. I wish I had had the cash but I was there trying to sell a rifle at the insane prices.

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