How to fix AK47-74 magazines: dented, rusted, stuck followers and more.

[@Tony2401x]

Video quality is pretty high-tier here, glad I could subscribe this early in the channel.

[@dudestuff4345]

I appreciate you saying that and I'm happy to have you on board! I really enjoy making these video's and I'll keep working hard at it to make worthwhile content.

[@sonnygunz9207]

I love buying surplus mags sold as “Good” to “Very Good” or Better that don’t even function because of dents. Most look like they were used as a hammer hahahaha. I had one mag with a smashed down feed lip that wouldn’t feed. I bent it back and it feeds fine now. But that particular mag is one of the worst I’ve ever had the privilege of owning. Heavy pitting on some mags that are actually in “good” shape. Then mags that are beat to shit with zero rust/pitting. It’s fun seeing what you’re gunna get! Excellent video. Priceless info. Thanks!

[@BAdventures]

Nice work. Like your 'How To' and DIY videos. Good helpful info 👍

[@KLAYCO47]

Great video.

[@OFCJAX]

Just did the exact same thing. Tried 2 to start with, then ordered 10 more for the $1 off. Most just rusted in place, only had 2 out of the 12 that were very dented. Degreased, bent, blasted and recoated them with moly resin. I found sanding the follower a bit allows a lot more free movement.

[@tjbohmier46]

Excellent tips. Like the homemade "curved metal" tool.

[@Brettsparadox]

That is a cool Ak you shoot at the end

[@dudestuff4345]

Thanks, it's probably time I put a finish on it lol

[@Jacobpenner.]

how would someone disassemble the magazine if the magazine is pined to restrict the compacity without breaking laws

[@dudestuff4345]

If the pin is in a side wall the baseplate should come off the same but because of the pin you probably can't remove the spring or follower. If the pin is in the baseplate then you probably can't take the magazine apart at all. I used to live in CA and I've seen both types. That sucks to have to deal with.

[@Jacobpenner.]

thanks

[@freedommachineworks]

Great tutorial! Not sure how I missed this one

[@normanpotts3169]

The sad thing is, you should still be able to buy grade 1 milsurp steel mags for $10 each. There have been literally millions and millions of them produced. Every time a Democrat becomes president, vendors use it as an excuse to raise prices.

[@benjaminanderson1476]

excellent video, to the point. I have a broken tantal mag coming from Apex that i'll have to diagnose and put your suggestions to work.

[@RV-ds5uf]

Sir your badass!! I was able to restore a bunch of beat up mags using that same flat bar method! Thanks for this video!!👍🏻👍🏻

[@dudestuff4345]

That's awesome! I'm happy to hear it.

[@RV-ds5uf]

@@dudestuff4345 have you ever had an AK mag with a bent spine? If so how did you fix it?

[@dudestuff4345]

@@RV-ds5uf No sorry I haven't come across that yet.

[@rtrimble1964]

Can you provide more information action on the metal bar used? Better yet, make a video describing it?

[@dudestuff4345]

I believe I got the piece of metal at Ace Hardware. It was one inch in diameter and I used a grinder to bring it down to 7/8ths. After that I just hit it with a hammer till it was the shape I wanted.

[@bulletprooftactical9842]

Good video my friend! I will stock up on mags now!

[@Iamkitkatbar]

I just picked up 6 of these grade C With no tools outside of a metal cleaning brush, bucket with soap and water wish me luck

[@dudestuff4345]

Good luck!!

[@rondo247]

good luck stupid weeb poster ❤️

[@AlanMorris-f5f]

Great video! Thanx for the tips!✌️🇺🇲

[@X9Outdoors]

Awesome video man!

[@deanjorden2509]

Another great video. Thanks for sharing your self taught knowledge which i believe is the most appreciated knowledge.

[@godgunsliberty4342]

Really good video for a small channel. Keep it up dude!

[@dudestuff4345]

I will, thank you!

[@tedr.richardson4655]

Keep all your Mags loaded, Empty Mags are like Dead Power Tool Batteries, Useless when you need them Semper Fidelis

[@wM70AB]

Nice, well spoken and explained video bro. Thanks

[@slavicgondola1817]

Great video man, Any recommendations for some messed up feed lips on a AKM mag ? I have a Romanian mag where the reinforcement part of the lip and the underneath sheet metal have slightly separated and got a little misshaped.

[@dudestuff4345]

That's a tricky one. The first thing I'd try is to take the mag apart and stick a piece of metal or hard wood up through the magazine body to try and hit the two pieces back together, the thinner metal on the inside should be malleable and conform back. After that I'd try sanding or filing down any parts of the underneath metal that still sticks out. I don't know how important to reliability that inner piece of metal is but my guess is it's not as important as the thicker outer piece, it may function just fine with a little bit of it filed away. I hope you get it running again!

[@slavicgondola1817]

@@dudestuff4345 thank you man I will give that a try and see it that works

[@Loyal-ey2eq]

Finally! Great video Brother!

[@jonmoate4184]

What about if the small metal tabs inside that hold the follower are broken off? I don't mind dents or rust but this issue is a PITA... Thanks

[@dudestuff4345]

Oh that's rough, I've never encountered that but yeah that would be tough to deal with. The only thing I can think of is to weld a new tab in but I know most people don't have a welder.

[@ninjascout468]

Excellent 👍👍

[@iplaypaintballalot]

Great video! Can’t wait for more content

[@dudestuff4345]

My man, thank you!

[@rodiculous9464]

for the small dents, wouldnt it just be easier to drill directly into the dent thus removing it entirely instead of drilling into the opposite side and beating it out? i can see that making sense for larger dents. i have some with small tiny dents im gonna try it my way and see if that works

[@dudestuff4345]

Yeah I'm sure that would work great if you have small deep dents.

[@anon6526]

Did it work ? Got the same issue thinking of doing the same

[@Jarris2]

What did you use to clean? What is the correct width of the mag to make that rod? When you were all done how many of the 43 were truly duty ready in your opinion?

[@dudestuff4345]

Great questions. I used soap and water and that worked just fine, it’s mostly just a built up storage dust. I believe the correct width of the rod should be 7/8ths. I accidentally cut mine a hair shorter than that but it worked out, I just had to work it harder. For duty use. I felt I could trust my life to 33 of them the moment I took them off the workbench. For reference I trust these 33 as much as I would trust a brand new oem Glock magazine out of the box. The other ten AK mags needed varying degrees of grinding on the inside walls as shown by the last magazine in the video. My gut tells me I can trust my life to them as well but I’m keeping them separate until they prove themselves on the range.

[@jaxciohc253]

Hi, you mentioned when you have rust between the side plate the rust will bulge, causing the follower to stop. How would you go about cleaning if rust didn’t form only on the surface, but inside the plate, making it impossible to dremmel it out?

[@dudestuff4345]

I think I understand what you're saying and that happened on a few of them. Sometimes I couldn't see the rust, I could only feel the bulge. When that happened I would dremmel the bulge down till the follower moved freely. Sometimes I'd dremmel past the good metal into the rust which allowed me to get rid of all the rust and that worked too. So far having that holo space hasn't negatively affected the feeding.

[@jaxciohc253]

Thanks. Another question, I bought five of them from apex, two of them have stuck followers and won’t fit in the magwell (probably due to the rust bulging both inside and outside), should I just toss them away? Or should I dremmel out the inside, clean out all the rust and hammer it back into shape?

[@dudestuff4345]

@@jaxciohc253 I would dremmel out the bulge on the inside for the follower to move freely and if there's a bulge on the outside preventing the mag from going in the gun then I'd dremmel that too. I'm sure there's enough metal to where it won't hurt the mag.

[@dudestuff4345]

@@jaxciohc253 If you hammer it just be careful not to damage the feel lips.

[@rodiculous9464]

you could try soaking it in cola apparently that will dissolve the rust. maybe blast it out with some compressed air and then soak it in some strike hold or another clp so it doesnt start rusting again. i have never tried it before but that is probably what i would try. i bought a shit ton of the surplus ones from RTI recently, hoping none of them have that issue

[@kurrppy]

Been following your lead on fixing cheap mags. I've got two wz88 magazines that max out at 25 rounds. No noticeable dents or hangups (follower slides fine) but it's impossible to load past 25. Makes me think somethings wrong once the spring gets compressed. Any recommendations?

[@dudestuff4345]

I have a couple ideas. It does sound like a spring issue though. If you have any wz88 magazines that work perfectly you can, one by one, start swapping parts to these not working magazines help you diagnose the problem. It would be funny to learn that your springs aren’t original and they’re way too long which is why you can’t get another 5 rounds in, that’s not likely though. And maybe try loading the magazine without the follower, spring, and base plate installed. It's probably tricky to do upside down like that but this way once you get to 25 rounds you can look in from the bottom of the mag to see the exact place where the rounds stop and you can add the follower from the bottom to see if there's an issue. Then try adding another 5 rounds to see if there's any hang ups getting to 30. If you figure it out let me know, I’d be very curious to find out what the problem is.

[@kurrppy]

@@dudestuff4345 so I swapped parts around and everything worked individually, but when the follower and the floorplate plate retainer were together, I'd get stuck at 25/26 rds. So I think there was some tolerance stacking. I just swapped a few followers between my mags and they're all working now!

[@kurrppy]

@@dudestuff4345 thanks! Always a good suggestion to do a root cause analysis

[@dudestuff4345]

@@kurrppy That's awesome! It's really strange how that happens, I had a tolerance stacking problem on the fire control group on an AR15. It took me forever to figure out why my bolt would lock back inside the buffer tube. I'm glad you got it figured out.

[@michaelbirdsong196]

great informative video thank you !

[@dudestuff4345]

Thank you!

[@r8enjoyer188]

I recently got a Russian magazine and fixed the dents in it only to stick in in my rifle and the bolt wouldn’t move back! Upon further inspection, the feed lip on the right side has been squashed down, and I believe that’s the problem. Any tips on pulling the feed lip back up to where it should be?

[@dudestuff4345]

That's a tricky one. I think instead of pulling the feed lip up I'd push it up from the bottom. Maybe you can find a piece of metal to use as a long punch so you can hammer up through the mag well to push the feel lip back into position.

[@r8enjoyer188]

@@dudestuff4345 I actually managed to fix it, sorta. I stuck the claw of a hammer through the top a pulled it upwards. It is now allowing the bolt to cycle and feeding reliably. Here are photos. imgur.com/a/2gT8f9G

[@dudestuff4345]

@@r8enjoyer188 That's awesome! I'll remember that technique, I ordered some beat up surplus Galil mags so I may need to try that.

[@comrad3lectro]

I Just ordered a bunch of these wish me luck 😅

[@dudestuff4345]

Good Luck!!

[@dwellner502]

I just got mine the other day! I gotta say I am impressed I even got one or two that don't need repair they are just worn and a bit rusty!

[@dudestuff4345]

@@dwellner502 Awesome!!

[@comrad3lectro]

Thanks guy shipments coming in today !!

[@dwellner502]

@@comrad3lectro Its exciting to open these boxes to see what you get. I love the look of the old worn in com bloc magazines.

[@jorgefoyld8538]

Great quality content. One more sub.

[@dudestuff4345]

Thank you!

[@sheepdog3440]

I have an ak mag when i empty the rounds in it by my hands the round that is below the round that i am emptying slips why ? And also i have another ak mag that only fits 29 rounds it can't take the 30 round why ?

[@dudestuff4345]

It could be that the spring inside is extra long and powerful causing both issues. I've noticed something similar to your first problem but it was only ever an issue when I was unloading by hand, I bet when you're at the range it will function just fine with the speed of the action.

[@dudestuff4345]

@@sheepdog3440 You are very welcome, and thank you!

[@jaksahn3370]

@@dudestuff4345 so what's a good way to mitigate the spring strength?

[@hanlonkitto]

Legit

[@adrianjosephs5488]

Great video