US Palm has announced that their AK30R 30-round 7.62×39 magazines which were first introduced back in 2016, are now available for purchase. These are more budget-friendly iterations of their AK30 magazines and are marketed as range mags. Unlike the AK30 that features a stainless steel latch cage built into its top portion, the AK30R magazine has an all-polymer construction which is probably the reason why it is more affordable because the manufacturing of such magazines should be a simpler, faster and cheaper process.

The US Palm AK30R magazines are available in black and FDE color options or in a translucent version. Like the AK30 magazines, the AK30R mags are non-disassemblable. These magazines also feature “low-friction self-cleaning polymer followers“. The MSRP of the AK30R magazines is $12.99 which is seven bucks cheaper than the MSRP of $19.99 of steel-reinforced AK30 mags. The US Palm AK30R magazines are made in the USA.

If your AK is your go-to gun, it’s probably not the best idea to use it with magazines that don’t have metal locking tabs. All-polymer AK magazines have a high likelihood of cracking at the top area or shearing off the locking tabs. A lot of stresses that magazines may be exposed to (e.g. resting the gun on the magazine when shooting prone, dropping the gun on the magazine, etc.), are transferred to the locking tabs and oftentimes with quite a bit of leverage. Most of the magazines that have metal in these areas, will be able to withstand this normal-for-AKs abuse. So if you like the overall design of US Palm magazines and want to use them in the gun you trust your life to, then the AK30 mags with steel latch cages should be the way to go. For all other applications such as plinking or training or general range use (which the AK30R magazines are designed and marketed for), magazines completely made of polymer should be ok.