Grade 2 Suomi Drums

[Doobis]

I finally got the money ready to buy myself a lage max 11 upper. I'm currently on the waiting list for a new batch to be made. Apparently though gone are the days of cheap plentiful Suomi drums. Can anyone speak to the quality of these grade 2 drums I see posted? Is the grade 2 just in appearance or is function going to be questionable? I suppose I don't mind a rustic look to be able to afford another magazine but I don't want to buy something that's going to be a headache.

 

[PDXsparky]

Where do you see grade 2 drums posted?

 

[Battering ram NIB]

Compared to the quality of the drums I see bought 3-4 years ago all the drums are grade 2

None are minty

If they are calling them grade 2 I’d consider it grade 3

Just save and buy decent drums.

$60 each gets you decent looking drums. Minty / nice drums are already sold

 

[Doobis]

Where do you see grade 2 drums posted?

Heres the three sites I could find that still had some in stock. Looks to me like the going rate is 80 for the ones that don't look beat up and finish almost gone.

https://whatacountry.com/suomim31drummagazine.aspx
https://www.clearviewinvest.com/suomim31.aspx
https://www.libertytreecollectors.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=2525

 

[Slaine777]

I got some from an ad by Lee Tool on Sturm. They look alright. I don't have everything I need to test them yet.

 

[CapnMorgan]

I bought some from whatacountry and they were all nice. some had moderate finish wear but no dents and they work excellent. I took them apart and cleaned all the cosmoline out.

 

[Chisel]

I bought some very good to excellent drums from Clearview investments for $73.50 each. I should get them this week, but I didn’t mind paying a little extra for better condition mags. Plus shipping was reasonable for the amount of mags I bought.

 

[Battering ram NIB]

2 years ago they were $50

What a country is where I got 1/2 of them

Maybe you can pay extra for hand select ?

I remember buying 10 and asking if that was enough for free hand select- they agreed

Bought 12 from a forum member. $50
Each numbers matching

Guess they will be $100 in 1-2 years


Buy 30 and keep the 20 best ones. Ask for a discount for bulk order

 

[Vegas SMG]

A matching numbers drum means all four numbers match, not just the lid and body. Just saying...

 

[Battering ram NIB]

yep, ive got 11 i think that all 4 numbers match

had an 12th, but sold it as it wouldnt run well

got a 40 round suomi that has all the # match as well....

 

[rhouston8]

Hey Vegas....we should have kept those drums for a few more years !!!!!!

 

[robertmcm]

Glad I bought a hundred when they were cheap. I’ve got 4 platforms for the drums. 5 if I get a max 10/31. If you plan on passing machineguns down one day, don’t be the guy with what will be a several thousand dollar gun and 3 or 4 mags for it. I could quadruple my investment on drums today if I wanted. I’m more interested in insuring that my sons and their children can do mag dumps one day..... go big. You can recoup your expenditures if you need too one day.

 

[TMack]

Now that's rock solid forward thinking, well spoken Robert. What you might consider "Over purchasing" has only come back to hurt me when I failed to do a quality or realistic market assessment. In this case of Suomi drums it is a no-brainer.

 

[TMack]

Regarding the drums at Clearview - They are performing a drum check/clean out now so your chances of getting a non - 100% functional drum are minimal, and they will fix it if you do get one (call them up and mail it back, super nice folks). I don't know how the other companies handle issues.

 

[TheColtCollector]

Too bad bugsy committed suicide, I helped him piece together crates of drums before I moved away from Virginia and it was all in storage units. Lots of 4 piece matching drums. Probably auctioned off by now

 

[Vegas SMG]

Hey Vegas....we should have kept those drums for a few more years !!!!!!

At that moment in time, Centerfire Systems was selling decent Suomi drums for $19.99 each. The money just wasn’t there, but we were able to deliver clean, serviced drums to shooters for a fair price. No regrets.

Having lived through the Assault Weapon Ban, I know that magazine bans are always looming. Who knows when the next one will be enacted and how far reaching it will be. I’d hate to caught sitting on a thousand even a hundred drums that couldn’t legally be transferred.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear that 30,000 Suomi drums were in country right now sitting in a distributor’s warehouse.

 

[ScottinTexas]

WOW.

That’s bad all around.

 

[gun.bro]

People are catching on as far as new demand for the drums. I was at knob creek last October and everybody who had them for sale were sold out because all the other dealers bought them up before the show actually started.

If a drum goes to $100 per drum at some point, I wonder if it would become worthwhile to manufacture an updated version with improvements and updates. I had a few that the springs popped and broke after cleaning them and putting them back together.. sucks. Now they are my parts mags for any other issues.

 

[Battering ram NIB]

Too bad bugsy committed suicide, I helped him piece together crates of drums before I moved away from Virginia and it was all in storage units. Lots of 4 piece matching drums. Probably auctioned off by now

Last batch I got from him took 3 months and 20 phone calls But all of them were matching numbers and in nice shape

What’s this about suicide ?

 

[SecondAmend]

Considering the price and potential reliability issues with the 71 round Suomi drums, unless I planned on doing competition shooting in events where mag changes aren't required, I'd probably buy the Shockwave Tech "S" stick mags. They are not cheap, but the Suomi 50 round stick mags are even more.

Best of luck with whatever you decide to pursue.

MHO, YMMV, etc.