Ok... Ask, and ye shall receive.
Two series of pics. First series, is the mags that work reliably in my pump (not technically an AS46, but reaistically, an AS46 with a different brand name stamped on it). The second series of pics is the ones that don't work reliably, or jam downright consistently. You can click on any of the pics to get the full sized images for your closer inspection and viewing pleasure. Happy to share this, because while going through the process of photographing them, I made some interesting observations/realized some things, that I hadn't noticed before.
Keep in mind, the magazine/follower/spring combinations are not necessarily as they arrived from purchase. I mixed and matched over the past few years to squeeze the best reliability out of them. I was particularly interested in getting the 10 rounders working right, because these are the most useful for me for 3-gun matches.
These are the mags that work and I trust:
And these are the "shelved" mags that don't work reliably:
So what the heck does this all mean? What did I learn?
#1: There's at least 4 different manufacturers represented here, and probably more.
And I have a strong suspicion that the end products are assembled from a variety of component manufacturers.
Mag Bodies:
The mag bodies themselves can be broken down into two obviously different patterns, and those two patterns can actually be broken down into two subsets each. The two most obvious sets are the "3-stripe" and "5-stripe" bodies. Easy enough to spot by the number of stiffening indents in the sides of the magazines. These can further be divided by "round lip" vs. "straight lip" magazines. Interestingly, both the 5 and 3 stripes pattern have the two different types of feed lip. The "Round Lip" has a slightly shorter shell retention foldover with rounder taper to the front side tapers. The "Straight Lip" has a slightly longer shell retention foldover, with the front sides being straighter along the side, then angling more sharply down. Again, interesting to note, is that in my 10 round mags, while all three are "3-stripe" bodies, two of them are "straight lip" and two of them are "round lip". Also, all of the 5 rounders designed for the semi-autos are straight lip (but both 5 and 3 stripe), and both of the 5 rounders are "Round Lip 5-stripe" (pretty small sample size, and these would have come with my pump gun).
Followers:
Four different kinds of followers here.
For the semi, with the spring loaded tab for the bolt hod open, there's a "box cut" and a "notch cut" - the notch cut ones having an extra cut on the bottom. The notch-cut followers have a flat top and a very steep drop off at the front of the follower. The box-cut followers are dished out at the top, and then rather than dropping off at the front, simply level out for a very short distance.
For the pump followers, there's "U-Top" vs. "Box-Top". All three of my 10 rounders have "U-Top" - but take that with a grain of salt. As I've mentioned, I've been mixing and matching to get reliability, and this is just where I've landed after a couple years. The U-tops have a slight ramp at the
rear of the follower, then level out with a dished out channel in the center. The rear ramp is probably a big part of their success, because it likely reduces the chances the rim of a shotgun shell will catch on the follower and hang up. The Box Top are similarlry configured on the top of the follower, although 1 of them is in the "reliable mag" pile, and one of them is in the "dodgy mag" pile. Go figure.
Also of note, one of the semi-auto mags is in the "reliable" pile - it works very well in my pump, and is of the "notch cut" variety. Again, go figure
Springs:
There are 3 different kinds of spring in use. It'll be impossible to tell from the photos (sorry), but they have 3 distinctly different metals and fabrications to them.
1 type has a black coating, and these are BY FAR the stiffest springs and thickest wire. None of these have ended up in the "reliable mag" pile - they're in Mag #1 and Mag # 2 of the unreliables.
Type 2 and Type 3 we'll call "softer" and "softest." All three of my 10 rounders have the softest kind of metal, just extra coils and longer. It's also in both of my "pump mag" 5 rounders. The one that ended up in the "unreliable" pile has a couple extra coils and is noticeably longer (there's a clue here), and the 3 "semi auto" have medium soft metal, but all are the same length (even in the mag that works
).
Spring base and Base Plate:
4 distinct type of base plate (you can spot the differences by looking). Don't care. They're all 100% interchangeable without noticeable effect.
3 different kind of spring base. The "finned" spring base (in two of the 10 round mags), where the fin slides inside the coils of the spring. "Retained" spring plate - where there's a small raised circle on the spring side of the plate, that catches into the spring and his held in place. And the "Un-retained" spring plate - perfectly smooth on the spring side. Keep an eye on these, because when you pop off the baseplate, they will get launched across your garage when the srping releases pressure.
The "Finned" style are of note, because they only work in the 10 round mags. The 10 rounders will be limited by the follower hitting a catch inside the mag. In a 5 rounder, the fin will cause the follower to bottom out early and reduce your capacity by 1.
Otherwise, the spring bases are not important.
Conclusions:
It's all about the springs and followers... Mostly. With the right spring tension, and the right follower, you get the best reliability. My 1 "mag fed" 5 round magazine that's been giving me grief, likely just needs a coil or two clipped to reduce tension.
The real outlier, is the 5 rounder for semis that ended up in the reliable pile, but I suspect I know what's going on here. The mag body of this one has a matte, powder coat finish. Every other mag I have has a high gloss finish. And although it seems typical of a "3-stripe" pattern mag, it has a slightly different spine, with a far more precisely stamped groove for the bolt catch tab. The over-insertion dents in the side are also more pronounced. I think this is just an overall better made magazine, that allows for freer movement of the follower, without requiring an overly stiff spring.
The feed angle differences between the "semi" followers and the "pump" followers... Is mostly an optical illusion. When you put the mags side by side, they have the same angle. The semi-auto followers have a drop off at the front, while the pump mag followers have a ramp at the rear to allow the rim of the shell base to clear more easily.
Examining these today as closely as I did, gives me a far better idea of why some of these mags work, while others don't.
A too stiff spring is going to cause you grief. Period.
The followers for the semi-autos need a re-design, to help the shell rim clear.
Buying turk shotgun mags is a whole bag full of caveat emptor. It really does look like they're being assembled from a variety of component manufacturers. Whatever it says on the label of the package, isn't likely to mean much. The people assembling the final products, are likely doing so based on buying components from whichever supplier that has inventory/offers the lowest cost.
Cheers.
