My 4 good shooting buddies and I have been shooting AK rifles in 7.62x39 caliber since 1990's.  We would pool our money and buy ammo by pallets as they were less than $100 per case.  For over 20 years we were shooting about 1,500 rounds between 5 of us pretty much every Saturday mornings but later we shot less as some moved to 5.45x39 caliber AKs.  We shot all kinds of AK rifles from all over Eastern Europe and China and used magazines from every part of the world.  

Last weekend we were talking about reliability of AK rifles and we all agreed two AK magazines seems to be stand out as completely reliable and durable.  We all agreed 30 round AK mags from East Germany were probably the most reliable AK mags we've used.  I personally don't remember ever having a problem with this mag.  The other mag was the Hungarian 20 round mags which came in when AMD-65 kits were coming in to the market.  I have used these for couple years and were great mags.  One of my friend used these 20 round mags exclusively since about 2005 and never had one malfunction in his various 7.62 caliber AK rifles.

In reality most AK mags made in country that also manufactured AK rifles seems to work well.  I had some exception with few Chinese steel mags (flat backs) and some well used mags imported from Bosnia and KCI.  Unfortunately every US AK mags (Promag, Magpul, Tapco) all had failures...some more than others.  
   
What has been your experience with various AK magazines?  Which AK mags do you think are most reliable and durable.

I never really had any bad ak mags.  Had lots of em . Drums too.  No usa made ones.

Never had a problem AK mag. My most used are my 20rnd KCI.

I can't honestly remember having a malfunction, but all i've ever used is combloc steel.

EG's are certainly the nicest, I have a few, Hungarian 30's are very nice too as are Yugo's. But even beat-to-shit Romanians work flawlessly for me.

I’ve never had and issue with any of my AK mags. I have Chinese flatbacks, a verity of comblocks (Yugo, Polish, Romanian, and few unknowns) and Bulgarian waffle circle 10s. They just work. My favorites are the Chinese and the Bulgarian waffle circle 10 because they don’t have that annoying rib in the back. Also the Bulgarian Circle 10s are much lighter. All of mine are old, purchase decades ago. The good old days when those mags were just $8.00.

I can’t speak for the current production Yugo, Bulgarian, or Korean mags.

Never had issues with Warsaw Pact surplus. Even newer Bosnian, Bulgarian and Polis no problems. But I have has problems and stops with US and Korean made AK mags

I never considered myself an AK guy, but I have always had at least 1 AK in my collection.  Until very recently, all my mags were in one plastic tub and I never knew what country they came from.

That all changed last year, I really got into AKs, and that lead me naturally to being into AK mags.

I had maybe 20-30 and now have close to 300.  My AK mag collection grew in a very short time and my OCD requires that I have them all stored in pouches, if possible, in a pouch made in the same country as the magazine... I have damn near every country covered...

Romanian
East German
Russian
Hungarian
Polish
Yugoslavian
Bulgarian
Chinese
Korean
Croatian (only ones I consider not worth trying)
and several USA manufactured ones as well. For some reason I must store them all in pouches too.

As far as reliability goes, if they fit in your AK, they almost certainly function.  I think I have had maybe 2 or 3 not fit in all of my AKs, and I just dont use them.

When I first set out to test my AK mags, I thought I was going to need to cull out lots of them.  But they all just seemed to work.  

I don't subscribe to the durability torture test train of thought though.  If the mags fits and functions, it is good in my book.  Not planning on hard abuse on any AK mags.

Unlike with AR15 mags, and just about every other type of guns I have, Collecting the AK mags is part of the fun of collecting AK rifles.  I have never really searched for AR15 mags, I just bought them and used them

I had 4 croation mags my zastava m70 just did not like. Flawless with zastava mag, a couple bulgarians and pmags.

@Deerhurst

Around how many rounds have gone through your KCIs? And which AK?

I think KCI AK mags are over criticized due to them not being com-bloc.

Thousands through first Gen KCI 20rnd mags through a Saiga. Dammed near every round through that rifle has been with a KCI 20rnd. I used to run ~1000rnds every 1-3 months through that rifle depending on shoot schedule. Did that for 5+ years.


I'm willing to bet they are over criticized because they are not exactly what everybody thinks they want. I'll run 1000+rnds through 4-6 of them in a weekend class and after the class folks will ask what mags then be offended that the KCI ran fine.

Now I have some rusky slab sides to run! Yay! Finally I have steel 30s!

Also shooting AKs since the 90s.  For me the milspec comm block and chinese have always the best in terms of reliability and bang for your buck (only bad ones where visibly damaged as in very large dents that obviously impeded the follower -  got rid of those).  Next up are the Bulgi (10)s - never had an issue with those either.  The russian and chinese bakes look cool obviously  but I think are more collector money these days so I dont really use them.  I have had good luck with magpul in a Sharps Bros receiver.  I am sure i am forgetting a few.

I got my first AK in the early 80s. It's probably easier to list the least reliable AK mags because most of the actual military AK mags work. The 30 round detachable box AK magazine is the most durable and reliable mag ever made.
I have Chinese and they all work but my favorite are the East German and Polish. I bought a couple crates when the surplus from both countries hit our shores many Moons ago. Even worn military made mags work, sometimes you just have to pop a new mag spring in them.

The only newer mags I've bought and didn't care for were Yugos and Croatians, the Croatians are junk.

Only bad mag I’ve had were damaged. Tapco, magpull, commie, all good.

LOL. This is me. I have them all in a canvas bag and have no idea what country most of them are from. The only ones I know for sure are my 20rd Hungarian Tankers and my Circle 10 Bulgarians. They are unique.

All the steel ones look the same to me. I've even tried comparing them to pictures online (just to make sure I don't have any desirable collector mags). The differences seem to be very trivial. Maybe Romanian, maybe Hungarian, maybe Polish?  I don't know. They all seem to work equally well.  

Milsurp steel AK mags are pretty much bomb proof. Heck, they'd make a pretty good weapon by themselves.

Hard to beat a good old plentiful and likely cheapest Romanian.

got any good resources on identification? I have about 100 mags that Ive bought over time, but short of the chinese flatbacks, i cant tell them apart...

Well I got all my information online.  Several videos on YT

I made a handwritten spreadsheet of the information I found, that I have since discarded.

Some will have unique markings i.e. the Hungarian "Man in the moon" along the spine.  But some spine markings are on several different mags like numbers.

Some it will be the raised ridge across the back of the mag and how it terminates.  At a 45 or 90 degree angle or if the rib just continues all the way up into the feed lips

For some it's the ribs that cross the bottom of the mag. And still some it's the weld marks.

And you are correct about the chinese mags, flatbacks are very easy to ID

I sorted mags and moved mags from one group to another several times before finally deciding on its origin.  Some mags I have, I just had to make the best guess I can. while others it blatantly obvious which category they belong.

Then we start on mag pouches

I have managed to get all my chinese mags into chinese pouches, my Romanian into Romanian pouches, and my Hungarian into Hungarian pouches.

I may have a few other in the correct pouches like I think maybe Polish.  But my OCD won't let me put different mags into the same pouch.  And God forbid I have an odd number of mags for a particular pouch.  I'll have to buy additional mags so that the pouches are all full of identical mags.

Its a sickness I tell you...

Maybe I just need to buckle down and write the ultimate AK mag ID guide as I am doing my research...

I’ve used everything from Tapco to Russian bakes, never had a malfunction with any of them.

Good place to start:
https://smallarmsreview.com/identifying-and-collecting-the-7-62x39mm-ak-47-akm-magazine/

The AKforum.net also has numerous threads on identification.

Pretty much any surplus/used comblock era mag is reliable; The new/unused/surplus East German AK mags had about a 10% failure rate from followers sticking inside the mag. The only really reliable new/unused/surplus mags I ever saw were Bulgarian Circle 10 mags.  Anything post comblock, or outside of the comblock, is just asking for trouble.

do it and post it up.  I am not good at stuff like that.  I had to get my kids to make a spreadsheet  for my gun SNs and value

Bakes, Surplus, Circle10s.

No issues with any Com bloc mags that weren't trashed, i.e. rusty inside, but even those I blasted and parkerized, replaced the springs and they now work.  The Hungarian 20rnd "tankers" are probably my favorite to actually use (I'm also a fan of Colt 20rnd GI mags for ARs) but I also like the polymer Bulgarian 30rnd mags (the ones with metal parts) I picked up since they're lighter, but no, they wouldn't make as effective a club as the commie steel mags. I don't have any of the KCI AK mags but I have a couple of Magpul mags; they work in the guns they fit in but they are tighter and because of that I don't really care for them.  I've thought about trying a KCI drum but haven't gotten around to buying any.

Combloc steelies are good and all, but used civy fashion isn't the true test. The Soviets moved away from steel for good reason, in mil use rust can be a problem. Weight too. IMO either the AK103 or ((10)) waffle are the best with respect to functionality.

Just got a KCI 40 round AK-47 mag that didn't even come close to fitting in a PSA GF3.   I put it on a belt sander and did some dremel work to finally get it to fit smooth but snug.  Gunmagwarehouse was offering to take it back for a refund but I decided I could probably make it work.  It was difficult at first to see where the problem was comparing it to other mags that fit perfectly but the picture below shows where it needed to be taken down some.