08 Cayenne

If anyone gets the chance to wander over to AR-15.com look down about 10 posts in the M14 equipment exchange section and you will see a gentleman selling 10 usgi & 12 "excellent" T57 mags. Looking at the T57's they only have 3 spot welds on the latch plate. Wouldn't these be fake T57's? I thought the real ones had 5 spot welds.

wetdog1911

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Mine has 6 spot welds on the latch and I think it's a T-57. I got it to help a buddy fill out a discount amount. This was from CDNN 15+ years ago and they were not cheap even that long ago ($25ea if you bought 4). No problems and I was really impressed with the quality of the mag, especially the coating on the spring. No markings on the mag, so not 100%.

The rest of my mags are GI that I got years ago when I bought the rifle, 89-90. $5 each if you spent $25 or $50 (don't remember). These were used but decent condition, no problems. I did need to re spring some due to rust.

Then again, it was close to 19 years before I ever broke them down for cleaning. It was shortly after I joined here and they were used.

Still functional, but springs are cheap.

Wet

natimblue

You are correct, the real t-57's should have 5 welds. With all this crazy gun ban talk I have been doing an inventory of mags over the last month and the M14 mags are still in the office. I have both the T-57 and the China copys. OOW sent me 8 of the fakes instead of the FAL mags I ordered, they let me keep the m14 mags and sent me the 8 FAL mags. I tried one in a M1a years ago and it worked but the metal is much thinner than the T-57.

speerchucker

Looked like a couple of the USGI mags were chicom too.

arcticdog

A bit off topic, check out the following link for a pictorial guide to real and bogus mags:

Pictorial M14 Magazine ID Guide Version 1.8 - free

I have seen alot of fake crap, putting it politely, for sale now. Having learned the hard way during the (last) AWB, I encourage you to read this guide first, then spend your $$.

wetdog1911

Thanks to that ^^^^^^, the mag I THOUGHT was a T-57 was actually a new KMT.

Yaaaaaaa

Wet