So here are 3 (of over a dozen) hand made prototype magazines for the new Coonan Inc. (Blaine, MN-10 years ago), made by the original Coonan Arms (St. Paul, MN - 1983-94) lead gunsmith, who did not work directly for the new Coonan Inc. If any of that makes sense? Anyway, he gave them to me as a favor/gift, and asked if I would test them in my original model B pistols, one built in St. Paul, and one in Maplewood, MN (1994-98) second location/restart to see how they fit and functioned, as there were no new pistol prototypes made yet. If you look at the pics you'll notice different angles on the followers as he was looking to see which one if any worked better with not only .357 mag ammo, but also .38 spcl. He made other modifications to aid in feeding but I honestly don't remember what he told me back then. The key (as Dan Coonan mentions in the video previously posted) was to make a magazine that functioned reliably with both .357 and .38 cartridges. The original Coonan Arms pistols (models A and B) had to have a thin metal spacer put in the full length inside back of the magazine body and follower to work/feed .38 spcl reliably.
As this was not to be a torture test but more an early trials, I tested all 3 mags in both my pistols with about 150 rounds of .357 mag and 100 rounds of .38 spcl, using MagTech ammo. Aside from one of the mag's fitting too tight in both pistols (fed ammo fine, but had to be manually pulled out on release) they fed all ammo perfectly and held the slide open when empty. He and Dan were also testing the other mags, and with the exception of more crude prototypes he'd made first, I understood they also functioned quite well save for fitment issues caused by model B frame mag compartment size inconsistencies. So, he was happy to hear they all worked well, and I was more than thrilled to have these hand made fully functioning in my original model B (yeah I sold my other remaining pisol just after that) mags that feed both .357 mag and .38 spcl. They are crudely made and not very pretty, and also not made for extensive use, but I'm really glad to have them and only have used them a couple times since then for firing .38 special only.
Dug them out of the safe and took some pics...
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Quite a gunsmith and metal worker to hand make functional semi auto magazines for a revolver cartridge!
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Prototype mag partially inserted. My original stock factory mag is far right.
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Activates slide stop/catch and holds slide open.
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