I tested out some of the 30 new ten round Tapco USA Intrafuse AK magazines that I purchased earlier this week, at the range tonight. I had thought they were polymer but stand corrected after seeing the webpage for these mags, they are made from a composite material. I am not all that happy that they are a composite material and was not happy when I thought they were polymer either, I prefer metal. While I wish they were metal, composite was all that was available before the anticipated arrival of the dreaded purchase deadline for 10 round mags under the NY SAFE Act. That would have prevented me from legally buying any more ten round magazines here in NY. Well, I should say sort of, kind of, maybe before the deadline because it is now a moot point. That part of the NY SAFE Act recently was suspended indefinitely to allow ten round mags. The law still says you can only load them with seven rounds though unless at a range. How preposterous and how like a bunch of whining Demoncrats and RINOs to think that up - but I digress, so I will get back to the magazines.
The mags are Tapco USA Intrafuse, 10 round, black composite magazines, in 7.72x39, for the AK47. I bought 30 of them fearing the above mentioned deadline. Tonight, I joined about 29 other members of Long Island Firearms at the Nassau County Range for the LIF monthly shoot at that location. I brought along 20 of the new mags and just enough ammo to test them all. As it turned out, I only wound up testing ten of them. I figured that testing 1/3 of the mags I had bought was more than a good enough representative sample. I have to say, they functioned flawlessly.
Also, as opposed to reports I read on the LIF gun forum recently, there were no problems seating or removing the mags from my AK as others had said they experienced with their AKs. They recommended using a stone to remove some of the composite material to make them easier to insert into the mag well but there is no way I see that as being necessary. These inserted with ease. When I first got them, I had difficulty getting one to seat in my son's AK but I think that was due to his AK being very filthy. Since then, he inserted at least half of them, maybe even all, into his AK's mag well without a problem. As for those other folks who actually took off some of the mag, maybe they got a bad lot but these worked just fine.
I used my Century Arms WASR-10 AK-47. I was restricted to using only HP or SP ammo at this particular range and the mags easily handled both types. The brand ammo that I used was Wolf for both the hollow points and the soft point ammo. There were no failures to feed. I only fired ten rounds out of each magazine but as I said all fed flawlessly. I think you can understand me being in the ammo conservation mode right now with the price of ammo as high as it has gone recently. When ammo is again more abundant and at lower prices, I will put a lot more ammo through these mags to give them a good going over to assure sustained flawless function.
Nice to see, they are made in the USA.
All the best,
Glenn B
Watch this video:
That
was inspiring in as much as I am now reconsidering selling some of my .22LR and other ammo. Are people really buying .22 LR ammo for over $60.00 per brick? Yes they are doing
so, in droves. I just checked GunBroker.com to see what already had bids on it.
I was amazed; I knew the prices were high but not that high. Some bricks of .22LR, nothing special mind you, have sold for over $75.00 apiece. Wow!
As
for the guy in the video, he sounds like a guy who spent his money on mostly
other things than ammo and is now taking it out on others because he was ill
prepared for what has come about.
I am not a prepper but am somewhat prepared.
I just took a quick look at my .22LR ammo (did not include my .22 Magnum). I
have a decent supply of it laid in, good to last through frugal use during a revolution,
a few nuclear winters, a zombie invasion and the Apocalypse combined. Here is
what I found in five minutes of looking through my ammo locker, ammo cans and
shooting box and bag. Almost all of those boxes are full. The exceptions are
the ammo in the pic on the far left (your left as you look at the pic). The
vertical CCI Mini Mag box and the other five stacked boxes next to it are
partials. All of the bricks are full, except one and that one is missing 100
rounds. There is also the one odd box of 100 rounds of .22 Short in the mix which I shoot in a .22 LR
revolver, so it got included here. I figure about 6K of 22 LR rounds.
Now
that I have seen the prices that others are getting, I am at least considering
selling some of it. I figure maybe I could part with, let’s say 500 to 1,000
rounds at most. Yet, I am still not sure I want to do so. Why not? Well, as I
see it, ammo prices are going to fall drastically, from the levels they are at
now, once seasonal production kicks in. That, of course, is a good incentive to
sell now but those prices are not going to fall back to the levels they were
even a year ago, let alone to the prices of five or ten years ago. Yes, that
means I could make a great profit now and buy replacement ammo later and still
have cash profit remaining but that depends on two or three essential things.
It depends upon whether or not I am right and that ammo prices will fall
drastically, which depends on production going into full seasonal swing - which
may or may not be hampered by government regulations, the economy and other
concerns such as availability of resources (and the way the people and the government
have been buying ammo – resources are sure to be short) and my getting any
depends on me having money at the time all of this may happen. So maybe there
will be a glut of less expensive ammo soon and maybe not. Selling what one
already has, hoping you will be able to replace what you sold with a supply
that is not there now and at prices that you hope will fall is chancy.
Then
again, do I need to replace it? Or maybe I should ask: Should I sell some of it
because there are folks out there who do not have any or almost any of it? To
answer the first question, let me say that, I have enough .22LR and other ammo
to last me a good long while. It may be enough to last five years in survival
mode. While I could shoot it all within a couple of weeks, if I wanted to waste
it, try to remember I mentioned the frugal
use of my ammo above and I mean that here too. As for that other question, why
should I sell any to some schlub who did not have the sense to lay is a small store
of it when the writing was on the wall. How could anyone, who is into guns and
shooting, not have noticed that ammo was selling faster than peanuts outside
the elephant house at the zoo! Look at the guy in the video again. Do you think
that just maybe he shoots now and again or is he just wearing the Glock shirt
and cap to make himself look like an all knowing gun guru. (Now that I think of
it, that could be truer than you or I might imagine). Then again, there are
others out there who also did not buy ammo and who, in my view, do not seem as
idiotic or look as silly as does that guy. Do they deserve to be sold my ammo?
Maybe, I will have to think about it but I must say, if I do sell any, my prices
would not be as high as the ‘sold at’ prices I have seen online.
I will have to think about offloading some other calibers too; I have ammo in
at least two calibers for which I have no guns. Go figure but once upon a time
I thought that ammo could come in useful to sell or barter on a rainy day and
brother it looks to me to be pouring right about now.
All the best,
Glenn B
The mags are Tapco USA Intrafuse, 10 round, black composite magazines, in 7.72x39, for the AK47. I bought 30 of them fearing the above mentioned deadline. Tonight, I joined about 29 other members of Long Island Firearms at the Nassau County Range for the LIF monthly shoot at that location. I brought along 20 of the new mags and just enough ammo to test them all. As it turned out, I only wound up testing ten of them. I figured that testing 1/3 of the mags I had bought was more than a good enough representative sample. I have to say, they functioned flawlessly.
