The AK47 Talk blog posted a link to an auction on Gun Broker for a rare AK-74 quad stack magazine. It hit $900 but the reserve was not met! Lets hope that the Magpul quad magazine is cheaper 
This diagram is apparently from the magazine's patent ...
Looks like 2010 will really be the year of the quad stack. I’m going to take my little pen and some paper and start drawings plans for FAL and G3 quad stack magazines right away.
2 
0A case of Wolf, bunch of those magazines, and a cart full of pumpkins would be heaven.
1 0I wonder why this is suddenly taking off. The WWII Suomi and later Spectre SMGs had 50rd 4-wide ‘coffin’ magazines, but none of them ever really gets any long-term traction. They’re simply too complex and expensive for general use.
and who pays $900 for a magazine?
1 0Looks complex, expensive to manufacture, and prone to mechanical wear. There is a point of diminishing returns at which they might as well tool up to manufacture an RPK style clockwork drum mag. I suspect the mag in the picture is intended for the RPK74 anyway, not an AK74.
Such designs might possibly have some utility for weapons that have the happy switch. For the rest of us… well, it’s a matter of personal taste, of course, and I do not wish to imply any endorsement of state-imposed restrictions, but twenty or thirty rounds is a hell of a lot of ammunition if you aren’t just blasting away blindly, bumpfiring, or trying to provide suppressive fire.
0 0Am I the only one who thinks guns are heavy enough as it is?
0 0Jon,
Sure it will be heavier than a 30 rd. mag. But tell me which you’d prefer when assaulting a camp full of Dushmen*, this as your initial load or the standard magazine? Or how about as a Paratrooper behind enemy lines with no prospects of friendly resupply any time soon? If these mags would work, they’d be a very valuable addition to a soldier’s kit.
*Dushman is Russian slang for Mujahideen.
0 0The Russian coffin mags were made for Spetsnaz troops that carried the AK-74. Large capacity mag with small footprint. Easily maneuverable in close quarters.
0 0The whole point of this mag is combat experience.
Combat experience shows that many soldiers carry a second magazine taped to the magazine in the rifle.
A quad stack 60 round magazine will not weigh more than two 30 round mags taped together, but will not stop after 30 rounds and need to be removed and reinserted to fire the next 30 rounds.
The average grunt will have a 30 round magazine in their rifle plus another magazine taped to it. They will have another 8 magazines in their chest pouch likely already taped together so two rows of four mags.
This means that in combat after every 30 rounds fired he will have a stoppage called an empty magazine where he will need to stop focusing on his enemy and focus on removing his mag and reinserting it or getting a new pair of mags out of his chest pouch.
With 10 magazines he therefore has 9 stoppages due to empty magazines which requires 9 removals and reinserts of mags for a total of 300 rounds fired at the enemy.
With these new 60 round mags he isn’t carrying any extra ammo, though he has only 5 magazines and will have an ammo stoppage every 60 rounds, so 4 stoppages for 300 rounds and 4 changes of mag.
Sounds like they just doubled the reliability of a very reliable weapon without increasing weight or requiring new ammo carrying equipment, and without retraining.
There is no weight increase for soldiers that already tape two mags together.
0 0Would also add that new production military 5.45mm ammo is going to be issued in sealed plastic bags in stripper clips of 15 rounds so the issue of loading magazines will be made easier.
Previously with boxes of ammo the average soldier would load up their mags one round at a time and carry extra ammo in boxes because it took too long to load ammo into stripper clips and then load them into magazines.
With the new ammo issued in clips it means that two clips will load a 30 shot mag, three will load a 45 round magazine for an RPK-74, and 4 clips will load a new 60 round mag. Extra ammo can be stored in their backpacks in clips so it can be rapidly loaded into mags too.
0 0i would love those for a G3/ 91
0 0What I would like to see is a mag for the ar-15 which lets round that are to large to double stack, double stack. like the 6mm br, 50 beowulf.
0 0Hey thanks for the link Steve! I’m obviously a newer blogger and since I focus just on AK stuff my blogging tends to be light, but thanks for the exposure!
0 0AK, no problem, I am subscribed to your feed.
0 0It’ll probably get like expensive razors, companies competing to create wider and wider mags with higher capacities.
0 0sturmgewehr, they already do this. Bolt action rifle magazines cost a fortune. Tikka (Sako/Beretta) 4 round mags cost $70!!!!
0 0Hopefully the outrageous price of this one will encourage someone to go to the trouble of importing a containerload of them from Russia and driving the price down.
0 0To clarify, the middle mag on the picture of three magazines is a 45 round RPK-74 magazine.
0 0The cross-section image of that magazine is odd. There appears to be a spacer that re-organizes the rounds from quad-stack to double-stack, and the follower looks like it folds up around it in order to feed the last few rounds.
Weird.
0 0looks relatively compact, looks durable, looks like it (could) be made cheaply.
coming soon to a gunstore near you!
0 0Am I the only one in looking for smaller AK mags. I found 20 rounders at a gun show and thought they were the best. 90 rounds sounds like a lot to be hanging off the bottom of a gun even if it is the same length as the 30, and what are the mag pouches for this beast going to look like?
0 1there’s a single stack magazine.
then there’s a double stack magazine.
then there’s this quad stack magazine.
the idea is that you are progressing towards more and more ammunition capacity.
if you double the thickness again you’ll have something close to the thickness of a drum magazine.
if you’re going that direction anyway…
may as well use the PROVEN russian or chinese drum that cost $50 and is available everywhere.
what is the fascination with the “new” and ridiculous?
if ever there was an item that is deserving of the “tacticool” moniker, this is it.
0 1Stick mags are preferable to drums as drums are more complex than stick mags… AND heavier, and far more bulky.
0 0The quad stack AK mags where prone to jam alot. Since the Russian still use alot of rum and 45rd mags still. But for a collector this is cool.
0 1
The whole point of this mag is combat experience.
Combat experience shows that many soldiers carry a second magazine taped to the magazine in the rifle.
A quad stack 60 round magazine will not weigh more than two 30 round mags taped together, but will not stop after 30 rounds and need to be removed and reinserted to fire the next 30 rounds.
The average grunt will have a 30 round magazine in their rifle plus another magazine taped to it. They will have another 8 magazines in their chest pouch likely already taped together so two rows of four mags.
This means that in combat after every 30 rounds fired he will have a stoppage called an empty magazine where he will need to stop focusing on his enemy and focus on removing his mag and reinserting it or getting a new pair of mags out of his chest pouch.
With 10 magazines he therefore has 9 stoppages due to empty magazines which requires 9 removals and reinserts of mags for a total of 300 rounds fired at the enemy.
With these new 60 round mags he isn’t carrying any extra ammo, though he has only 5 magazines and will have an ammo stoppage every 60 rounds, so 4 stoppages for 300 rounds and 4 changes of mag.
Sounds like they just doubled the reliability of a very reliable weapon without increasing weight or requiring new ammo carrying equipment, and without retraining.
There is no weight increase for soldiers that already tape two mags together.
Would also add that new production military 5.45mm ammo is going to be issued in sealed plastic bags in stripper clips of 15 rounds so the issue of loading magazines will be made easier.
Previously with boxes of ammo the average soldier would load up their mags one round at a time and carry extra ammo in boxes because it took too long to load ammo into stripper clips and then load them into magazines.
With the new ammo issued in clips it means that two clips will load a 30 shot mag, three will load a 45 round magazine for an RPK-74, and 4 clips will load a new 60 round mag. Extra ammo can be stored in their backpacks in clips so it can be rapidly loaded into mags too.
there’s a single stack magazine.
then there’s a double stack magazine.
then there’s this quad stack magazine.
the idea is that you are progressing towards more and more ammunition capacity.
if you double the thickness again you’ll have something close to the thickness of a drum magazine.
if you’re going that direction anyway…
may as well use the PROVEN russian or chinese drum that cost $50 and is available everywhere.
what is the fascination with the “new” and ridiculous?
if ever there was an item that is deserving of the “tacticool” moniker, this is it.
Stick mags are preferable to drums as drums are more complex than stick mags… AND heavier, and far more bulky.
The Russian coffin mags were made for Spetsnaz troops that carried the AK-74. Large capacity mag with small footprint. Easily maneuverable in close quarters.
What I would like to see is a mag for the ar-15 which lets round that are to large to double stack, double stack. like the 6mm br, 50 beowulf.
Am I the only one in looking for smaller AK mags. I found 20 rounders at a gun show and thought they were the best. 90 rounds sounds like a lot to be hanging off the bottom of a gun even if it is the same length as the 30, and what are the mag pouches for this beast going to look like?
Looks complex, expensive to manufacture, and prone to mechanical wear. There is a point of diminishing returns at which they might as well tool up to manufacture an RPK style clockwork drum mag. I suspect the mag in the picture is intended for the RPK74 anyway, not an AK74.
Such designs might possibly have some utility for weapons that have the happy switch. For the rest of us… well, it’s a matter of personal taste, of course, and I do not wish to imply any endorsement of state-imposed restrictions, but twenty or thirty rounds is a hell of a lot of ammunition if you aren’t just blasting away blindly, bumpfiring, or trying to provide suppressive fire.
Jon,
Sure it will be heavier than a 30 rd. mag. But tell me which you’d prefer when assaulting a camp full of Dushmen*, this as your initial load or the standard magazine? Or how about as a Paratrooper behind enemy lines with no prospects of friendly resupply any time soon? If these mags would work, they’d be a very valuable addition to a soldier’s kit.
*Dushman is Russian slang for Mujahideen.
Am I the only one who thinks guns are heavy enough as it is?
i would love those for a G3/ 91
The quad stack AK mags where prone to jam alot. Since the Russian still use alot of rum and 45rd mags still. But for a collector this is cool.
The cross-section image of that magazine is odd. There appears to be a spacer that re-organizes the rounds from quad-stack to double-stack, and the follower looks like it folds up around it in order to feed the last few rounds.
Weird.
looks relatively compact, looks durable, looks like it (could) be made cheaply.
coming soon to a gunstore near you!
I wonder why this is suddenly taking off. The WWII Suomi and later Spectre SMGs had 50rd 4-wide ‘coffin’ magazines, but none of them ever really gets any long-term traction. They’re simply too complex and expensive for general use.
and who pays $900 for a magazine?
To clarify, the middle mag on the picture of three magazines is a 45 round RPK-74 magazine.
Hopefully the outrageous price of this one will encourage someone to go to the trouble of importing a containerload of them from Russia and driving the price down.
Hey thanks for the link Steve! I’m obviously a newer blogger and since I focus just on AK stuff my blogging tends to be light, but thanks for the exposure!
AK, no problem, I am subscribed to your feed.
A case of Wolf, bunch of those magazines, and a cart full of pumpkins would be heaven.
It’ll probably get like expensive razors, companies competing to create wider and wider mags with higher capacities.
sturmgewehr, they already do this. Bolt action rifle magazines cost a fortune. Tikka (Sako/Beretta) 4 round mags cost $70!!!!
Looks like 2010 will really be the year of the quad stack. I’m going to take my little pen and some paper and start drawings plans for FAL and G3 quad stack magazines right away.