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Posted: 12/18/2010 6:20:07 PM EDT
 Okay this might sound like a silly question but here goes and bear with me...Can the VEPR rifles in 7.62 and 5.45 uilize standard AK type mags?
Thanks for any info... 
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If you have a VEPR chambered in either 7.62x39 or 5.45x39, the standard Combloc mags should fit and work without modification.
The initial problems arose with mags for Veprs when several of the former Combloc satellite countries, acquiring NATO membership, began changing their AK-74 production to use the NATO 5.56x45. Poland, Bulgaria, and E. Germany come to mind. While they could pump out the modified rifles and make the changes to their ammo factories, the magazine production lagged behind. Initially a crude fix was devised which involved using a revised follower, and the second part of the fix involved cut-downs of the feed lips on the 5.45x39 mags to allow the 5.56 case additional room up around the neck, because there was protruding lip material from the smaller 5.45 case. My VEPR-K in .223 came with one E.German 5.45 orange bakelite mag with the above-mentioned modifications; the follower was made by Robinson Armament, which they also sold on their website. A lot of people tried to make their own 5.56s in a similar manner, until 5.56 mags began showing up in the USA, primarily from Bulgaria. Eventually a few showed up from Poland, and Promag began making them as well (at first they were slightly off-spec and many people had problems with them. Promag eventually got them fixed). My take on the mag issues with the VEPR, both in 5.45 and 5.56, was that the mags were all plastic, whereas the original AK-47 mags (7.62x39) were all metal, and despite all the talk about how loose the clearances were on an AK-47, the mag area was very tight on the AK-74s. If you then start making plastic mags for the AK-74s in the 5.45 and 5.56 calibers, you end up with thicker walls compared to a mag made of steel, and the thicker bakelite material left less room for the round to travel inside the mag. . The end result was a mag that had no wiggle room inside; if a cartridge was not fully heeled against the rear of the mag, it could easily cause a stoppage as it came up the mag wall because the plastic was not as smooth as metal mags might have been, and very often the bullet tip would ride forward and hit the front wall of the mag, stopping it cold. When I bought my VEPR, I also bought 2 additional OEM mags sitting on the dealer's shelf. I numbered all three so I could keep track of which mag was giving me problems. Sure enough, one mag gave me no problems at all, a second mag would occasionally fail to feed the rounds, and the third gave me fail-to-feed problems all the time. I finally took a Dremel tool to that third mag's feed lips, and eventually it stopped hanging up the rounds. |
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Quoted:
And from my understanding the 7.62X51 (308) VEPR will accept the M14 mag without modification..... This information is absolutely wrong, it will not work in a Vepr. The only .308mags that the Vepr fits and feeds reliably with are 5 and 10 round Molot factory Vepr mags. M14 mags, 308 saiga, galil 308 mags, armalite AR10 mags all do not fit, feed and function with the .308 Vepr. |
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And from my understanding the 7.62X51 (308) VEPR will accept the M14 mag without modification..... This information is absolutely wrong, it will not work in a Vepr. The only .308mags that the Vepr fits and feeds reliably with are 5 and 10 round Molot factory Vepr mags. M14 mags, 308 saiga, galil 308 mags, armalite AR10 mags all do not fit, feed and function with the .308 Vepr. Well I guess this guy has no idea what he is doing...... VEPR with M14 Mags Hey you just learned something, how about that....... |
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And from my understanding the 7.62X51 (308) VEPR will accept the M14 mag without modification..... This information is absolutely wrong, it will not work in a Vepr. The only .308mags that the Vepr fits and feeds reliably with are 5 and 10 round Molot factory Vepr mags. M14 mags, 308 saiga, galil 308 mags, armalite AR10 mags all do not fit, feed and function with the .308 Vepr. Well I guess this guy has no idea what he is doing...... VEPR with M14 Mags Hey you just learned something, how about that....... Eh??? Krebs doesn't do .308 Vepr conversions anymore. He hasn't for several years. And if you call him up today he will still say no ... too many problems. He modifies the receiver to fit a M1A mag or Galil mag. I know because he did one for me. I had to send him my gun and several Galil mags (or M1A if you wanted that flavor) for fitting. He modified (machined open ) the receiver to fit the mag. The mag went in the receiver but would not feed reliably as well as factory Molot mags. I made a huge mistake. I ended up selling my Vepr in the end. I paid $700.00 for the rifle. A couple hundred to Krebs for the modification, then 100.00 each for 3 galil mags. Not to mention the additional shipping costs. All for a rifle that in the end doesn't function as reliably as before the modification. I would have been better off spending the money on accumulating factory Vepr 308 Molot mags off of gunbroker. Krebs stopping doing 308 Vepr conversions because he states the conversion itself weakens the receiver in the long run and will cause the gun to fail. Red Jacket does a conversion to use the saiga 308 mags but even these don't run 100%. All the other ak forums have talked about this. BTW what about your original statement. How can factory 308 vepr take M14 mags without modification to the receiver? No where in your statement do you mention that the receiver needs to be modified. |
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Quoted:
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And from my understanding the 7.62X51 (308) VEPR will accept the M14 mag without modification..... This information is absolutely wrong, it will not work in a Vepr. The only .308mags that the Vepr fits and feeds reliably with are 5 and 10 round Molot factory Vepr mags. M14 mags, 308 saiga, galil 308 mags, armalite AR10 mags all do not fit, feed and function with the .308 Vepr. Well I guess this guy has no idea what he is doing...... VEPR with M14 Mags Hey you just learned something, how about that....... A VEPR will not take unmodified M14 magazines. A VEPR modified to take unmodified M14 magazines will though. You are pretty cocky for someone who's reading comprehension sucks. |
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A VEPR will not take unmodified M14 magazines. A VEPR modified to take unmodified M14 magazines will though. You are pretty cocky for someone who's reading comprehension sucks. Wow funny how that posts date is less the a week old, as I stated in my initial post it was my understanding that it did... Did I say something wrong? No the mag is unmodified, I said nothing about the rifle..... |
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You seen this little line in that thread?
Kebs stopped doing mag conversions almost 10 years ago.
Like I said, the M1A mag conversion is history. There are some rifles around that had the conversion done back in the day. Personally I just use the new production steel mags. (I make them, so I'm somewhat biased). |
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Gunlover_AR,
I didn't mean to jump all over your statement. It is just that what was written didn't seem correct and due to my experience it brought back a very bad memory for me. "A fool and his money will part" "Wisdom is gained from the lessons of fools" In this case I am the fool. I do not wish anyone who purchased a 308 Vepr (with one or zero mags) to suffer through my experience. The 308 Vepr is an excellent rifle which I believe will achieve collect status since they are no longer made. They have a chrome lined chamber and bore, full russian pedigree, tight receiver bolt tolerances (for an AK that is). I personally think it could give a true Dragunov a run for the money. One can add TWS dogleg scope mount, a primary arms scope and Csspecs 20 rd mags. You would have one excellent rifle that shoots as good as it looks. Because of the lack of factory mags, one could probably get the 308 Vepr II at a bargain price. I really do wish Csspecs mags existed back when I had my Vepr. |
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Gunlover_AR, I didn't mean to jump all over your statement. It is just that what was written didn't seem correct and due to my experience it brought back a very bad memory for me. "A fool and his money will part" "Wisdom is gained from the lessons of fools" In this case I am the fool. I do not wish anyone who purchased a 308 Vepr (with one or zero mags) to suffer through my experience. The 308 Vepr is an excellent rifle which I believe will achieve collect status since they are no longer made. They have a chrome lined chamber and bore, full russian pedigree, tight receiver bolt tolerances (for an AK that is). I personally think it could give a true Dragunov a run for the money. One can add TWS dogleg scope mount, a primary arms scope and Csspecs 20 rd mags. You would have one excellent rifle that shoots as good as it looks. Because of the lack of factory mags, one could probably get the 308 Vepr II at a bargain price. I really do wish Csspecs mags existed back when I had my Vepr. Me to, I apologize to you and all, happy holidays to all...... |
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Are there 7.62x39 VEPRs out there that will not take standard hi-cap AK mags? Every once in a great while I'll see a 7.62x39 VEPR for sale and the owner will claim it won't take standard AK mags. These rifles are usually new/unfired so I don't know whether to believe them or not. |
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