TEST A: Range test of Croatian bolt-hold-open AK47 mags:
1. Croatian mags advertised as bolt-hold open for AK47
2. Metal made
3. Well made, but pinning is not the greatest-some are only holding 3, some 4-5 rounds, you have to play with the spring-move/ force it down after mag disassembly to make them truly 5/ 30 rounds
4. Minimal filing needed to fit them into SKS-KD- maybe 1 minute or so
5. They hold in the mag well pretty well as you can see in the video, you need some impact for them to fall off as I am trying to show in the video. I would say they sit in the mag well as good as IMI AK47 mags: there is minimal if any vertical movement and some horizontal movement 3 mm or so to the left/ right
6. No reliability issues after 100 rounds through them out of the box-very pleasent and nice cycling
7. They do not hold bolt open in this SKS mod
8. To buy go to IRUNGUNS
9. With all taxes, shipping etc= 33-36+CaD
10. Hopefully bolt-hold-open which is not working in this SKS-KDm won't damage the bolt, 'coz they do not function as bolt-hold-open, yet scratch the bolt which is passing over the mag follower on each last round
TEST B: Range test of previously FTF IMI Israeli mags:
1. so after 300+ rounds, Graphite lube and mags sitting loaded overnight, the problem was solved-now they are very nice, reliable, no FTF, easy weight mags.
2. Overall-recommend them if you'd like to waste 300 rounds to make them work reliably.
3. To buy go to WESTRIFLE
4. With all taxes, shipping etc= 50+CaD
Some conclusions:
The overall problem with easily falling/ detachable AK47 mags in this SKS-KD is due to the strange mag release button from Kodiak Defence. This becomes a real issue with P-mags and much less so with IMI/ Croatian mags. So overall, I'd recommend this SKS-KD system, but it needs some easy-medium complexity fixes. So for 490 (wood stock)/ 580 (plastic stock) it is rather worth the money than not. Please watch for intermediate conclusions video coming out soon