Plastic Mag on a metal gun?

Whats up with the mag on the CM036 Full Metal AKM Airsoft Gun ? And why is it orange ?

Im too lazy to look it up but the Real Steel AK-74s were issued with orangeish mags so......

Yeah, Insane Mercc is right but I will agree, those magazines are really "Watch your language" bright! It's like orange tip times 100! If I were you I'd buy a black one or use another if you have one already.

And I'm pretty sure the real ones are polymer, but I might be wrong.

It goes back to the real steel AK-47 and AK-74. For some reason, back in 1974, Soviet weapons designers decided the AK-74 needed to use it's own specially manufactured magazine, so they put a wood-colored shell on the magazine to distinguish between the AK-47 and the AK-74 magazines in armories.

ya haha i bought an extra flat black mag for it .

Good idea. The orange mags just don't do it justice, IMO

The Soviet's were cheap...that we know.
They're favorite materials were stamped steel and pot metal.

The mags are made from something called bakelite...
Bakelite is naturally orange..and really cheap...and as the Soviet's were cheap, didnt waste money painting them a different color or providing an alternate shell.

Bakelite was originally used primarily for pottery and jewelry...but I guess some Russian dude was sitting in his house one night and thought
"In soviet russia, pottery bakes you!"..thus the bakelight magazine was born



=

ya that mag doesn't even look good on the real gun.

Its disgusting but it did help distinguish between the models of the gun.

Insane Mercc wrote:

Its disgusting but it did help distinguish between the models of the gun.

True true still ugly tho.

I just laugh every time I see footage of the 74 in Afganistan in the 80s because that mag is ridiculous. HAHAHAha

It actually started with the AKM not the AK-74 which for a time used the same color (but not the same) mag until they changed from the wood color to a darkish brown then finally the black as it is now. Some Russian egghead probably thought it matched the wood furniture that the AKM still used and since it's a plastic mag they made it so. It was also apparently not made of Bakelite but a reinforced polyethylene plastic.

The real mags don't really look to bad to me but the replicas are really bright and off color it seems.

Insane Mercc wrote:

I just laugh every time I see footage of the 74 in Afganistan in the 80s because that mag is ridiculous. HAHAHAha

LOL

brandonairsoft wrote:

ya that mag doesn't even look good on the real gun.

Well Kalashnikov's are ugly beasts to begin with
Rooskie firearms are strictly utilitarian...reliablility and efficiency over ergonomics and looks.

Yeah so they could bash 200 Capitalist Pigs and it would still fire and not hit a "Watch your language" thing in full auto.

iliveforthis99 wrote:

It was also apparently not made of Bakelite but a reinforced polyethylene plastic.

Crap, you are correct...
I got info from a bad source...practically every surplus or firearm dealer says bakelite...

But Wikipedia and "The Sight" say polyethylene plastic, so I believe ya

Bakelite must just be a description of the color then?

Interesting. I learn something new every day here!


DAILY TID-BIT:::

Quote :

We left with 72 men in our platoon and came back with 19, Believe it or not, you know what killed most of us? Our own rifle. Practically every one of our dead was found with his [M16] torn down next to him where he had been trying to fix it.
- Marine Corps Rifleman, Vietnam

I always thought they were Bakelite as well until tonight when i read on Wiki they were plastic. Modern Firearms also lists them as plastic (near bottom of page) instead of Bakelite.

Also AKM mags used to be the stamped metal like 47 mags were until late production when they switched to plastic. I'm guessing they did that to save weight and cost although who the rust color i still can't find out.

Haha, at least I was somewhat right

Like Durkee said, ya learn something new every day