[glockamolee]

Can I legally purchase for my own use, magazines for an AK rifle?

I have seen ads for AK parts, including magazines. from sellers overseas. I would like to purchase, but I don't care to get bitten by Big Brother (I mean ATF).

 

[Stottman]

As long as the value of each transaction is under $100, and you dont have stuff like barrels, bolts, receivers, then you are good to go.. Machine gun parts require an import permit as well.

Its on the ATF website.

As long as you dont try to get anything major like an MG receiver (free sale in some places), barrel, etc the ATF/Customs will not stop your stuff.... I have shipped about 200 packages of minor gun parts (stock sets, magazines, etc) from Germany to the USA, and only about 3 were turned back... And that was because I failed to put the customs value on the package..

 

[Q-gunner2]

You need a liscense to import MG parts, period.

There are ways around this, but very uncommon. For instance, you could get the Chinese stamped steel mags that were intended for civilian export. These are not machinegun parts as they do not have a cutout in the right side of the mag for the autosear of a AK-47 automatic rifle. They work in semi auto variants only. The ATF may try to stop you but it is fairly easy to disprove them.

You could try importing for money. SAIGA rifle magazines are not machinegun parts either, so you could import high cap mags for them and then sell those for money to buy other mags.

If you can find them, SVD and SVT mags are expensive (originals sell for over $100 for the SVT and prices vary on the SVD). Thus, if you can find someone overseas selling them for, say, $10 each, then you can get rich quick and use the cash to buy other AK mags in country.

 

[Stottman]

You need a liscense to import MG parts, period.

There are ways around this, but very uncommon. For instance, you could get the Chinese stamped steel mags that were intended for civilian export. These are not machinegun parts as they do not have a cutout in the right side of the mag for the autosear of a AK-47 automatic rifle. They work in semi auto variants only. The ATF may try to stop you but it is fairly easy to disprove them.

You could try importing for money. SAIGA rifle magazines are not machinegun parts either, so you could import high cap mags for them and then sell those for money to buy other mags.

If you can find them, SVD and SVT mags are expensive (originals sell for over $100 for the SVT and prices vary on the SVD). Thus, if you can find someone overseas selling them for, say, $10 each, then you can get rich quick and use the cash to buy other AK mags in country.

The stamped side Chicom mags work fine in a full auto AK.. The couple that I have were brought back from the former Yugoslavia..

AK mags and related parts do not seem to be considered MG parts by the ATF.... I have had many import permits for them approved as a non-licencee (do not have import license)... MG parts, one must be a license (found out the hard way with a disapproved one).

 

[Q-gunner2]

The Chinese mags that are intended for the US market have no relief cutout. You can see several pics in the AK mags section of ar15.com. If one was to find these outside of the US (say, Canada or Germany) then they could be imported without US trouble (do not know about the other countries).

Magazines seem to be machinegun parts, at least to the US. Just like with Sec. 922(r), the magazine counts as 3 US made or foriegn made parts. Without a personally addressed letter from the ATF I would be careful. The ATF changes its mind readily, and what they let slip once may be several years in jail the next time.

If you have an ATF letter saying otherwise then I would love to see it- that or a quote from the ATF website. If what you say is true then it would be good news.