It's official Drum mags are worthless.

[RS762]

I am sick of giving them second chances.
Im never owning another one.

No matter what i do i CAN NOT get a drum mag to work.

Has anyone here had any positive experiences with drums? i don't know of anyone who has.

[Colombo]

I can honestly say I have never had a problem with a properly loaded American 180 drum / pan. Pretty sure that's probably not very helpful to you though.

[RS762]

I can honestly say I have never had a problem with a properly loaded American 180 drum / pan. Pretty sure that's probably not very helpful to you though.

lol well that's cool.
My specific experiences are with the AK-47 and Saiga-12 drums.
Not to mention all the AR drums i've seen shit all over themselves, KCI and Beta.

The more experience i get with them the more they seem like a giant waste of money.
I've gone through 2 AK drums and a Saiga drum, none worked properly, all broke almost immediately.

[cornkiller1]

I got 2 Romanian 75 rounders for my ak that work flawlessly.

[RS762]

I got 2 Romanian 75 rounders for my ak that work flawlessly.

Really?
I had two that mis-fed every other shot, then a month or two later the follower snapped.

[special-k]

I remember an old LnL video about AK drum mags.  This video is gone forever as it was never re-uploaded by any of the fan archive channels (I've looked and requested.)

But here's the gist of it from memory:
The only AK drum mags worth having are the chinese (norinco stamp) key wound drum mags (not the identical looking but inferior parts korean made mag) ... the ones that you wind up just before use just like the old tommy gun drum mags.  LnL did explain how to easily fix a common malfunction with the mags... it involved them simply having been accidentally assembled or reassembled incorrectly.  Easily fixed by proper reassembly.  The only catch is that the chinese key wound mags are as rare as hens teeth nowadays and therefore very expensive.  The chinese ones will have the norinco factory stamp on it, either a circle or a triangle with a number in it (indicating the factory in which it was made).

This first part of this video demonstrates the key wound type of mag I'm talking about.  I don't know if the one shown is a chinese or korean though:

How to: Loading AK47 Drum Magazines

[Reaver]

I got 2 Romanian 75 rounders for my ak that work flawlessly.

[url=http://yoursmiles.org/p-m this

[Alex1992]

As awesome they are they are a pain in the ass loading round after round and then taking it to the range and to find out you did something wrong and the weight my god. They are cool but not worth it. If you wanna get one go ahead but your gonna wish you never got it.

[Reaver]

I disagree. The only issues I have ever had were all my fault.

Like my last range trip. Yeah, it jammed the hell up and took me a good 2 minutes to figure out what the hell was going on. If I was in a firefight. It would have sucked but I learned something. Turns out if you jam a round behind the follower ( don't ask how I did it but I did ) the thing will jam up.

The only issue I ever have with my equipment is user error. I think that just comes with experience. Not saying I'm JM's  age or even that I'm super bad ass, but I have been in the firearms game for the last 18 years. Everyone makes mistakes. Just be sure not to take it out on the equipment when its really your own fault.

[RS762]

Followers snapping during normal use (2 loadings in) is MY fault?
And i sure as hell have never put a round behind the follower.

[Reaver]

Followers snapping during normal use (2 loadings in) is MY fault?
And i sure as hell have never put a round behind the follower.

That's not what I'm saying bro. Sometimes equipment does fail legitimately. Did that happen to all three of your drums?

And I'm not singling you out so relax a bit bro.

[RS762]

that sounded more defensive than was intended, my bad yo. the two romy drums i had broke that way but the saiga-12 drum just flat out didn't work.

[Reaver]

that sounded more defensive than was intended, my bad yo. the two romy drums i had broke that way but the saiga-12 drum just flat out didn't work.

Interesting.

Never had an issue with any drum I have ever used.

And the reason I got one behind the follower was because when loading a drum I tend to just dump rounds into the open tray and very ruffly organize the rounds. Next time that won't happen.  [URL=http://www.smileyvault.co Lesson learned. As for the Saiga drums. Is it the 20 rounder or the 12 rounder? Is it an original first make or the later ones.

The 12 are made later on and tend to work better as well as the 20's if it's newer they work. If you go one of the first ones then I completely understand those things when they came out where garbage.

Sorry you had such a bad exp. with such a fun piece of equipment. 

[RS762]

it was one of the new promag 10rd drums, wouldn't load, wouldn't feed, wouldn't lock in.
Im just gonna rock the 5 and 10 round stick mags i think. the 12 rounders are just too long.

[Reaver]

it was one of the new promag 10rd drums, wouldn't load, wouldn't feed, wouldn't lock in.
Im just gonna rock the 5 and 10 round stick mags i think. the 12 rounders are just too long.

Ugg. Promag. Really is hit or miss with that company. Sorry to hear it man.
If I still had my saiga I would rock the 8 and 10 round sticks as well.

[Outonowhere]

I bought a pro-mag once... returned it the same day.  I don't like them personally and have heard too much negative about them.

[RS762]

i read a bunch of very positive saiga-12 promag drum reviews before i bought it, it will be the last promag product i buy though. Oh well, i found ONE 10rd stick mag in stock at keepshooting.com, cant find them anywhere, ordered a shitload of the factory 5-rounders though.

[mountainredneck2051]

i got a few Romanian drums, they all run great