Interesting Magazine
 

On another forum we were discussing the feeding of the M16 and someone posted the following.

AR AK Hybrid magazine

Back durring the Vietnam war some people were modding AK magazines to fit the M16 Assault Rifle.

I'm a little suspicious since he's covering the magwell and with his hand there he could just be holding the AK mag in place. Are there any other shots?

It's legit.

http://www.biggerhammer.net/ar15/mag...zine_rambo.jpg
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s.../BM_762x39.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...s/fda319d7.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...x/ak-m1611.jpg
http://i609.photobucket.com/albums/t...0407_8a1da.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...Platoon082.jpg

They were made by armorers in the field in Vietnam before the advent of 30 round magazines for the M16.

Years ago, I remember reading about SOCOM wanting a new weapon that allows them to use existing AK mags, which would simplify supply by allowing operators to use captured enemy magazines, but still retain their own optics and such. I wonder what came of that.

I know what came of this idea.

http://www.rockriverarms.com/images/...ar47_1263v.gif

The SR-47 was chambered in 7.62x39mm, though, and 7.62x39mm-chambered ARs are a relatively new invention. The magazines in question were being used in 5.56x45mm-chambered weapons.

The SR-47 didn't turn out to be very reliable and wasn't built in large numbers.

Just to clarify, the pictures that Spartan198 linked to are a mix of Vietnam locally McGuyvered 5.56mm mags, and modern mags for 7.62x39mm AR-15s. If you compare the angle of the mags in the Vietnam pics to those of modern 7.62 guns you can see that the angle is a lot shallower in the Vietnam pics, indicating the use of the less tapered 5.56mm round.

The idea of these extended mags was that you had this in your rifle with 30-40 (depending on exactly how it was modded) rounds in case of ambush, whilst you carried regular 20 rounders in your webbing, what with there being no suitable pouch that could carry the hybrid mags. As these were all locally McGuyvered without proper tools I imagine the quality and reliability varied greatly, but there wasn't initially any option other than the 20 round mags so they made do with what they had.