Best DRUM?

[GUNSMOKE]

For those of you who have one or more drum magazines: In your opinion, what are the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various 75 and 100 round drums? Which is best, which are junk, what features do you really like or would like to see in future drum mags?

[JakeTheSnakeOO7]

Go with the chinese drums. They have a built in tension release mechanism, so you can just open the back of the drum punch the tension release button and poor out any shells you didn't shoot, or the opposite fill'er up again.

[16r40]

the soviet/european drums are better quality construction then the chinese ones, ......the flimsy little tabs on the chinese ones that hold the back plate on have been known to break. the soviet drums have a forward slant to them, which if you insert it in a RPK won't rest on the drum when you set the buttstock down on the ground...... the only advantage the chinese drum has over the soviet one is the ease of loading, as for unloading whatever rounds you don't fire you can leave in the drum until the next time, it isn't going to hurt the drum to have rounds in them. the spring in the drum mags, just like regular mags springs will weaken by the compression and decompression. you can load a soviet drum without fear of having the spring weaken.

given the price of a chinese drum, the soviet type drum is the better value .

[renaissance_warrior]

I just bought a Romanian 75 rd drum and was told by the great people at Tapco how to open it. On the front, there is a serrated knob with a crosspin in the middle of it. Push down on the crosspin, rotate counterclockwise 1/4 turn and the front comes right off. Great for cleaning, lubing, and general interest 'howszatwork' snooping that I love to do,lol. To re-install, just do the reverse. kinda neat to finally unlock that puzzle.

[JakeTheSnakeOO7]

What's the price on the soviet/ european drums I bought my chinese 75rd drum for 75.00 + tax?

[JA]

It only took using a friends Russian drums once and my Chinese drums shooting one afternoon to figure it out.
Loading the Russian drums consisting of
Step 1-push lever
Step 2-insert one cartridge
Step 3-,repeat steps 1 and 2, 74 more times till drum is fully loaded.
We both came to the same conclusion after loading the Russian drums twice then looking at our sore red thumbs....
"Russian drums are for collecting and the way easier to load Chinese drums are for shooting."

[m03]

In my experience, with a regular shoulder-fired AK, all drums plain suck.

They are too heavy when fully loaded, add too much width to the gun, and generally unbalance what was a nice, balanced weapon.

40 rd. mags are way more fun, more balanced, and easier to load, period. For the price of one 75 rd. drum, you can buy six 40 rd. mags.

I would only buy a drum again if I were getting an RPK that I was planning to shoot from a bipod.

[renaissance_warrior]

m03, since I bought my drum for an AMD 65 just for the sake of authenticity, and haven't had the (dis)pleasure of using it yet, your comments would ring true to me in advance. Doing a repetition of 75 ANYTHING except male mating habits would piss me off also,lol. I'll be looking for a Chink for my Krink, ooohh love the sound of that, haha.

[fargo007]

CCCCCCC......B

(Chinka Chinka Ching Ching Chung Chung Ching..... Buoooooong)

Interesting on the advice on how to open the romy drum. I'm gonna pass that on to a pal.

Thanks,

--Fargo007

[16r40]

m03, since I bought my drum for an AMD 65 just for the sake of authenticity,

they issued 20 round mags for the AMDs, the drums are for the RPK.......so if you want to be "authentic" about it, 20 round mags would be more approriate for it.

[az_gun_nut]

I love my Chinese drums. I have 7 100rd drums for my RPK. Those European drums take way to long to load for my taste.

[Okie]

IMHO my Romanian 75rd drum is only really hard to load after the 60th round. And the last 5 are a real bitch! But I only have one and usually take it with me in my range bag, so I load it the night before. Just watch TVand open boxes and insert rounds, no big deal. After a few rounds ya dont even realize it till ya get to 60. hey you cram in the last 15rds and forget whats on the tube!

[renaissance_warrior]

haha, sounds a lot better than knitting to me! I do need to get some 20 rounders. At least those would fit in the pouch I got with the kit. I guess I was under the false impression that the drums were for AMD tankers. Thanks for the correction. Anybody have 8 20 rounders for sale cheap or know a source?

Mark G

[Bearwhositshere]

haha, sounds a lot better than knitting to me! I do need to get some 20 rounders. At least those would fit in the pouch I got with the kit. I guess I was under the false impression that the drums were for AMD tankers. Thanks for the correction. Anybody have 8 20 rounders for sale cheap or know a source?

Mark G
Yes, Tapco has them for 5.99 each. Latest catalog