SVT-40 Magazines

[K98]

What drives the price on SVT-40 magazines? I would like to pick up an additional mag, but the asking prices seem outrageously high. I doubt there is a shortage of these. Didn't soldiers who carried the SVT-40 have bandoliers with multiple mag's?

Your thoughts. ???

 

[dnepro-mike]

each rifle was supposedly issued with 3 mags. two in the pouch one in the rifle. despite that however, like in many armies of the era it was customary to still use stripper clips to reload. soldiers were not expected to carry dozen of mags, nor the soviet industry had capacity to manufacture those in great quantities at the time when more simplistic rifles were needed and factories couldn't build them fast enough to meet demand.

i can imagine that bunch of those 3 mags/per rifle could have been lost in war time due to being captured, damaged, destroyed, lost on the battlefield etc. Soviets has gone to great length to recover as many pieces of weaponry as possible, in part due to shortages and in part due to stringent gun-control policiy. so much so that each red army soldier was held responsible for his weapon and depending on the circumstances, the loss of said weapon could have lead to a tribunal. that trend persisted in Soviet times as late as Afghan War. i can imagine when they had such difficult time recovering rifles they would have less time to worry about recovering mags for them

one dealer once told me that each rifle was imported only with one mag back in the day when rifles were still coming in. some other guy said that he used to have a big box of SVT-40 mags sitting on the floor of his shop for over a year b/c he couldn't sell them, due to lack of the rifles these magazines went into. that was years ago. now get ready to dish out $80-100 per original and $60-75 for a repro mag. i remember back in 2010-2011 repros were fairly available for $40/piece. wish i had gotten some but i was too poor. now they are no longer manufactured few that show up go for almost as much as original mags.

also i've been told that reproduction mags weren't great and had issues. I think that was another aspect that stopped me from buying.

 

[warwickben]

I would give my left nut for a svt 40.
I've been trying to get one for a decent price for the last few years . Every time i find one they want close to 2500$ .

 

[DW357]

I would give my left nut for a svt 40.
I've been trying to get one for a decent price for the last few years . Every time i find one they want close to 2500$ .

My local shop in Ipswich (Patriot Arms) has had a couple over the last few months for $900-$1,200. Fellow NESer 'jpm' bought one of the two for $900 or $1,000 if I recall. I don't know if the other one has sold yet. It's not listed on their website inventory.

They had one at the end of April according to their ad: http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/280318-PATRIOT-ARMS-OF-NEW-ENGLAND?

But yeah I'd love to grab one myself too.

 

[jpm]

yup that second one they had at Patriot was either $1200 or $1295. Mine was an even $1000.

 

[K98]

I saw a video online on how to modify the repro mags for a better fit. Maybe I'll go that route. Will also have to stock up on PPU 7.62 rather than use my surplus ammo on this.

 

[dnepro-mike]

if you want just a 54r shooter you are better of getting a vepr in that caliber.
SVTs are finicky, have not very good steel in the barrels, suffer from vertical dispersion because of the muzzle extension and the way it's engineered. gas plugs on some of them are corroded and unable to throttle down amount of gas which causes you rifle to get beaten by excessive BCG impulse. i mean it's great collective gun and i love it, but just for the purpose of having 54r semi auto where no conductibility wanted then Vepr is the most logical way to go. it's an outstanding quality rifle, built like a tank, will accept almost ALL optics accessories for regular AK, not to mention it's chrome lined and barrel technology is almost 50 years ahead of old war-time barrels of any SVT

 

[the_shootist]

if you want just a 54r shooter you are better of getting a vepr in that caliber.
SVTs are finicky, have not very good steel in the barrels, suffer from vertical dispersion because of the muzzle extension and the way it's engineered. gas plugs on some of them are corroded and unable to throttle down amount of gas which causes you rifle to get beaten by excessive BCG impulse. i mean it's great collective gun and i love it, but just for the purpose of having 54r semi auto where no conductibility wanted then Vepr is the most logical way to go. it's an outstanding quality rifle, built like a tank, will accept almost ALL optics accessories for regular AK, not to mention it's chrome lined and barrel technology is almost 50 years ahead of old war-time barrels of any SVT

But it's not an SVT!!!

 

[warwickben]

if you want just a 54r shooter you are better of getting a vepr in that caliber.
SVTs are finicky, have not very good steel in the barrels, suffer from vertical dispersion because of the muzzle extension and the way it's engineered. gas plugs on some of them are corroded and unable to throttle down amount of gas which causes you rifle to get beaten by excessive BCG impulse. i mean it's great collective gun and i love it, but just for the purpose of having 54r semi auto where no conductibility wanted then Vepr is the most logical way to go. it's an outstanding quality rifle, built like a tank, will accept almost ALL optics accessories for regular AK, not to mention it's chrome lined and barrel technology is almost 50 years ahead of old war-time barrels of any SVT

The 54r vepr dose it use the svd/psl style rail or the ak rail?

 

[dnepro-mike]

But it's not an SVT!!!

didn't i say 'if conductibility is not a factor, and just want 54r shooter'?

to me SVT is a piece of history and cheap 54r ammo is just a frosting on the cake.

not to say i wouldn't buy Vepr, i def would. However my funds are limited and there are other guns that are on priority list above Vepr.

 

[dnepro-mike]

The 54r vepr dose it use the svd/psl style rail or the ak rail?

it doesn't really matter SVD or AK. dovetail dimensions are identical on both. only difference are rail stops.
however Vepr uses short AK rail while SVD uses long rail.

I have a PSO with SVD rail mount and it installs on AK w/o issues.

 

[warwickben]

it doesn't really matter SVD or AK. dovetail dimensions are identical on both. only difference are rail stops.
however Vepr uses short AK rail while SVD uses long rail.

I have a PSO with SVD rail mount and it installs on AK w/o issues.

I didn't think it would slide forwards enough.