I should have known better...National Mags

[Justin Hell]

I found an Armslist ad about five months ago with this guy offering five NIB ten round National Magazine detachables for $25.
But, he was on the other side of Montana (think New York to Indiana) and preferred a FTF transaction, I emailed and asked for him to let me know if he would be willing to ship in state....and never heard from him.

Fast forward to a week ago, I found that he was still trying to ditch them...and I figured with such low capacity, they shouldn't be much of a feeding issue like most of the after market duckbill metal mags do.  I was blessed with buying USA mags in the heyday...so I figgered what the heck.  I contacted him again, and I think he gave up on trying to sell them locally...and for $25 shipped they were all mine. 

Fast forward to today...I finally get to the post office to pick them up, and see that he paid $12.65 to ship them to me...I felt bad for a lil bit.

These things are absolute garbage...not one of them is built consistantly...they bind and are so out of spec from one to another that completely different parts of them bend when inserting them. One of them I bent the feed lips...on a drop free bolt no less. A couple of them the mouth in the duck's bill is in such a shape that I don't think geometry even has a name for them...I will call it acute rhombus.

The first of the five went in awkwardly, but eventually locked in...it went downhill from there, by the last one...the one with most acute rhombus wouldn't even slightly go in.

Did I mention, I tried all of these with NO ammo in them?  If I can get them to actually feed after getting them to fit at all, perhaps I will just keep these installed as a first line of defense, while keeping it more compact than a Tapco...and throwing the empty at the target while loading something that won't require all of my attention to perform a simple task.

A good thing though, the bolt hold open does seem to work with the first four...if I can untack the welds on the fifth and gorilla glue it back together...I suspect it might even activate that BHO too!

I recently got a new shotgun, and considered these as skeet....but, do any of you guys know whether SKS Duckbills have a boomerang effect? 
I would hate to miss if they do. 

[Loose}{Cannon]

Are these those non US marked steel mags?

[Justin Hell]

Yes, they do look similar to the USA mags, with slightly different ribbing at the bottom....and the metal is very chinsey compared to real USA mags.

[running-man]

That's a bummer Justin.  At least you aren't out more than the $25. 

I wonder if having them full of ammo would have helped the structural stability during insertion?

[Loose}{Cannon]

I wonder if having them full of ammo would have helped the structural stability during insertion?

Would be very pathetic if so...

[Justin Hell]

The only thing I can imagine being harder to insert when they are loaded, as designed and unmodified....yet....would be to try jam in a factory mag, with the bolt hold open engaged.

I did manage to load, which was a massive pain in the ass....two mags, and get them inserted.  When I installed them, it was serious work.  I am curious about whether they will feed.  I have looked into it a bit, and it seems they only like HP.  I may load them up with some old Wolf I bought on 9/11 and if they feed once modified...hooray...five mags for $25!

If it ever stops raining, I will try to get some decent pics of just how shoddy these things are....If I succeed with mods, I will post photos of that too.  The followers are kind of poorly trimmed, and seem to bind...and equally inconsistant.  I might sacrifice one to my campfire grill stripped to see if I can harden the 'steel'.... if it melts...we know they are made of recycled Coke cans.

At least I have five chances to get it right....these sell on eBay for $20.

I had hoped the company still existed, but it seems they have vanished, and folk with NOS are dumping them....still.  The actual company seems to have no internet footprint other than bad reviews on various sites dating waaaay back. 

I have been wanting a new set of files anyway, I have a huge Lowe's gift card....and a lot of time on my hands here at camp.

I can fix it.

I hope....

[Dannyboy53]

Good luck with it Justin. I've run into this sort of thing also, buying sight unseen is always a gamble.