AK Mag Change Question

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What is the benefit to knocking the mag release lever with the full mag when doing non-retention mag changes with an ak style rifle? Seems just as easy and effective to do it with your thumb and you don't have to re-orient the new mag to insert it once the old one is out. Almost every tutorial I find shows it done this way. Is there a valid reason, or is it just the way it's always been done so people figure it must be right?
 
I could see that for the knocking the old mag out part, but the putting the new mag in part seems to take way less coordination since you don't start with the mag rotated 90* from where it needs to end up. Plus using the thumb gives that nice positive feedback of knowing you're making contact with the right thing.
 
I was trained to always have your fresh mag in your weak hand during all points of an emergency reload. I.e. Before you drop your mag you should have the new one in your hand. This goes for pistols, ARs, and AKs. (Though I've only been formally trained on pistols.)

I would also note that non-drop free glock mags would render this style impossible, which is one of the reasons I avoid U notches like the plague.


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Yeah, both ways I'm talking about have the fresh mag in the weak hand. One method you hold the fresh mag horizontally and rake it forward under the trigger guard, hit the mag release lever, and push the old mag out. Then roll the mag to vertical, pitch the top rearward, insert in well, and pull bottom back to lock in place. The other you start with the fresh mag vertical, extend the thumb and drag it forward over the mag release lever, continue forward to push the old mag out. Fresh mag is already in the vertical orientation and almost automatically aligns itself with the old mag as you are raking it by to knock the old mag out.
 
Maybe because you don't have to change your grip on the mag to pull this off? You can draw the mag, knock the old one out, and load another mag in basically one fluid motion. The simpler these movements are the easier they are to commit to muscle memory.
 
You might be on to something. I don't recall having to adjust my grip at all for the thumb method, but I may have been getting lucky in my hand placement when grabbing the fresh mag. I'll have to check it out and see if it makes more difference grabbing the mag in different positions for one method or the other. Also, my rifle is a .308 and I'm using 10 round mags. Maybe on a longer mag it would be possible to grab in a position that won't allow the thumb method to work where the shorter mags that can't/is less likely to happen.
 
The other problem with an AK mag is that if you have girl hands like I do the odds of dropping a mag that you don't want to drop under stress increase rather than just using the new mag as a tool to punt the other one out.

-Mike
 
The other problem with an AK mag is that if you have girl hands like I do the odds of dropping a mag that you don't want to drop under stress increase rather than just using the new mag as a tool to punt the other one out.

-Mike

I don't have girl hands, but I am descended from carnies and don't have any trouble hanging on to the fatter .308 mags. Not under much stress though other than my ex-SRT friend yelling at me, "Do your band camp walk!" (Yeah, made the mistake of telling him the roll step he was teaching me was the same thing we used in marching band to get more consistent sound while marching and playing. Practiced almost every day for half the year over four years....I got that shit down.)

It's operator as ****

Duh

I assume you're joking, but I'm starting to think this actually is the reason everyone does it this way.

Eta: Joking is the wrong word. It is operator as ****.......except that it's not if it's slower and less reliable.....
 
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So, worked on this some more, taking the points brought up into consideration. Still not seeing any advantage to the hit mag with mag method, or disadvantage to the release mag with thumb method. Thumb method is way faster, easier, and more consistent.

Guess I choose like a biatch until I hear/find a valid argument for the other method.

Anyone else try doing it like a biatch have input?
 
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you can do it like a boss, or you can do it like a biatch.

Tried to send you a positive rep. for this. Not sure what happened cause the box disappeared in the middle of writing a comment.

It was supposed to be a smiley face, and a heart, and telling you that I wanted to...wait never mind.

And sorry if it turned out I neg reped you. Not sure what happened.
 
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