Makarov Magazine

Customer Reviews

Rough, But Worth an Effort Review by Jeff

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Purchased two of these and they do have good consistency of quality - unfinished. They both exhibit the same deficiencies as others have mentioned. Be prepared to rework an item into functionality. Mostly of concern are the loading tab's interference and the catch in the wrong place. The 5 stars part is for the price, and given that they are recoverable with some effort, the item is well worth the price. Just please be careful. (Posted on 5/14/13)

Needs work to function, but some flaws cannot be worked out. Review by Shooter

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I bought a handful of these for a Bulgarian Makarov.

First thing that I noticed, is that they created a lot of friction when being inserted into the magazine well. I noticed that some magazines would produce so much friction at this tab, that they would fail to cycle, as the follower would be jammed in the middle of the mag due to the tab grinding it to a halt. This is due to the follower having too long of a tab that pushes the slide stop up. The solution to excessive friction was to file down that tab to make it as long as the factory original.

Second thing that I noticed, is that the magazines will sometimes fail to chamber a round on the first round. This is because of the front of the magazine feed lip is higher than the originals. This created a ton of friction on the top round, and on the following rounds as well. I was able to easily remove rounds from the factory magazine, while these new ones would need a LOT of force to remove by hand. The solution to this, is to file the front of the magazine where the rounds pass over.

I noticed that these magazines only pushed the slide stop half way up. They would sometimes make the slide fail to lock open after the last round because of this. This has no solution that I am aware of, as you would need to add some material to make the tab push the slide stop all the way up.

Then I compared these mags with the factory ones, and noticed that the little notch for the magazine release was in a different spot as well. This could have contributed to the failure to lock the slide back.

These magazines are junk when used in the standard Makarov (Bulgarian in this case, which is identical to the Russian military model). I would not trust my life with them, and I would not trust them to be at the range.

The ONLY reason why I gave these a value of 2 stars, is because I was able to take the springs out of them, and put one in the original factory magazine. Perhaps the flood plates interchange as well. Hopefully, the springs are of better quality than the rest of these mags. (Posted on 4/25/13)

finish is quite rough - Review by phil

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Compare to the S&W 69 magazine I received from KeepShooting this magazine is quite rough. Barely fits into the mag well and will absolutley will not drop free

I see the 24 round break in warning but I can't imagine it will break in that much in 24 rounds (Posted on 4/23/13)

I order 10 mags and after using my grinder and a demel The mags worked Review by dorwin

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There are at least 4 Makarov pistol manufactures I have two, east german and russian made, The angle of exit was not suffient to allow smooth loading and the catch and release is off by a fraction. Although I made the appropriate adjustments the cost was worth it. The folks at keepshooting offered to refund me if I wished. I'll be coming back. (Posted on 4/6/13)

Took some work Review by Craig

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I bought 2 of these and found that one worked while the other didn't. The lips on top of the magazine were not the same, very poor quality control. While one magazine was a little stiff and broke in nicely after a few rounds the other would not let the slide cycle. The feed claw struck the back of the magazine lips so that the slide would lock back. I took it apart and used my Dremel to remove and smooth out the top of the magazine. After about 30 minutes of smoothing and test fitting would the slide finally clear. (Posted on 3/26/13)

First time out they worked well Review by Wayne

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Had to grind down the load lever on the side, just a little to get them to go in and out, took them to the range where I was able to shoot my bi-metal ammo, all four work well wtih FMJ, haven't tried Hollopionts. (Posted on 3/18/13)

Great! Review by Darrell

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Had no issues with mine but got one for a friend and he said he had to file down the lower portion where bullet exits the mag. Other than that he's happy too. Fast shipping from KS! (Posted on 3/3/13)

Rearming the Russian Pistolet Markarov Review by Ron

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I rece.'d my order of (2) magazines for my 1975 ( IJ-70) Russian Makarov (9x18) today, & am well pleased with their quality, fit & finish. After a good cleaning I immeadiately loaded them up, & cycled them thru a few inert rounds, & they both functioned superb even before reaching the printed break-in # of 24. I will be buying more in the near future. Very good, solid packaging for shipment. I highly recommend, & look forward too "Busting a few caps" down at the farm tomorrow. Thanks! (Posted on 2/22/13)

Makarov magazine Review by Geoffrey

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worked flawlessly the very first time in my Ij70-17as 380.I will be buying more. Excellent quality magazines (Posted on 1/13/13)

magazine quality Review by Geoffrey

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excellent quality lm buying more (Posted on 1/11/13)