r/canadaguns • u/att_110 • Mar 17 '26

Gun and gear reviews SKS detachable magazines!

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Planning to buy my first SKS and looking to get detachable magazines as well. I would prefer an option that does not require any modification to the original wooden stock.

I have heard good things about the Tapco mags. Do they require any modification to fit, or can I simply remove the fixed magazine and install the detachable one?

Would appreciate any recommendations or experiences and also, where’s the best place to buy one. All I see online is the Tan colour one. Looking for one in black.

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36

u/sargentmyself al Mar 17 '26

They don't require any modification. Tapco is fine, Archangel with the lever in the mag will be a lot easier to reload.

None of them will run as good as the regular steel mag and you don't gain any capacity cause they're all pinned to 5, highly recommend you just run as is.

I have like 4 tapco 20s and 2 10s, I just put the steel back in.

12

u/riding_jared Mar 17 '26

To add to this, stripper clips are cheap, lighter and take less room. On most guns i prefer built in mags, either strippers or mag tube is the way to go

11

u/Moist-Wolverine-8531 Mar 17 '26

This!

The fixed mag and stripper clips are the best features of the SKS.

2

u/att_110 Mar 17 '26

Ohh perfect, thanks for the feedback!

9

u/International_Mud367 Mar 17 '26

lookup gnutzguy on youtube, he does a video fitting all magazine types to all 3 major SKS brands, yugo, russian, chinese. Certain mags work better in others.

He finds that overall the tapco's work best across all 3 of them but tapcos are hard to find these days. Watch the video and make your decision based on what SKS you get.

2

u/att_110 Mar 17 '26

Ohh cool, thanks!

10

u/GapSouth4305 Mar 17 '26

Just do some Canadamaxxing and buy/make some 5 round stripper clips

4

u/AdhesiveCam Mar 17 '26

I had to file down sharp edges on tapco mags for them to work properly just by hand. Feed lips and the outside edges.

3

u/MourningWood1942 Mar 17 '26

These mags will be fine without modifying the rifle, but I do recommend doing the bolt mod so you can insert it with the bolt closed.

I remember I had to file my Tapco mags a bit, was easy took like 5 mins

2

u/att_110 Mar 18 '26

Thanks, I’ll check that out!

2

u/Eat_Cantaloupe_ Mar 17 '26

The thing about these magazines is they aren't going to be near as good as the original non-detachable magazines.

Bottom line is you are forcing a gun that was never designed with detachable mags in mind to accept them, it's going to be finicky and imperfect.

If you want them just cause, they'll work without much modification depending on the rifle, but they're going to be jankey