How Hard Is It To Manufacture A Magazine???

[cslinger]

Now I am not talking about making any ohhhh so evil 11+ round magazines or anything as haneous as that. Now that being said.

How hard would it be to have a machine shop manufacture a sheet metal/alum/steel whatever 10 shot magazine for a particular weapon?

Technically are we not just talking about a metal box? Add the correct follower and spring and voila.

What got me to thinking about this is the VEPR .308 plastic magazines. They are very expensive and although they feel like they are built like a tank they are still plastic. So how hard would it be to manufacturer a metal replacement?

Chris

 

[4v50 Gary]

It's making the metal dies that requires precision machining. Then it's up to the guys on the sheet metal shop to fold the steel correctly.

You can carve a follower out of wood and then send it out to have a plastic one made from it.

The tricky part is to engineer the spring. Tension must be right from the first shot to the last. Too little and it won't feed because the action is traveling faster than the spring can push the fresh cartridge up. Too strong and it may be difficult to load (and may also jam). One thing the Germans do is to attach sensors to see how the load bears on a spring. They seek to have an even climb in pressure with no sudden peaks. Spring design is a skill and not something you leave to "Biff" (my apologies to anyone named Biff) in the shop to whack out.

 

[Cal4D4]

I bet if you were a real clever sort and only wanted to knock out a few you could bend thin steel in a brake, silver solder or TiG weld the seams, use an existing follower and spring or fab the follower from a fiber filled plastic like delrin and get a spring from Wolf. Avoid re inventing the spring at all costs, there are too many existing ones with the needed dimensions and force. Notice on existing steel mags the ribs or "waffle" pattern added to the body for strength

The real sophisticated could wire EDM the mag body from a nice stainless steel billet.

If you goof the dimensions and the mag accepts 11 rounds, Club Fed for you.

 

[artherd]

The real sophisticated could wire EDM the mag body from a nice stainless steel billet.

Now we're talking! Some mags that will REALLY take a beating!


PS: both of my mag-fed guns will take 11 rounds in their '10 round factory' magazines. #11 takes consoderable effort to insert, but it does go in. Such a brainless law.

 

[yankytrash]

Tried it, using sheet metal on a brake method mentioned above. Had a buddy use a wire-fed on the seams, since it had to be made in two halves.

The feed lips were nothing short of a small nightmare. See, you have these two halves of a mag that you'd like to work the feed lips onto while they're apart, but the only way to really gauge the feed angles is for the mag to be put together. That means dropping a stone-square box into the magwell and trying to "feel" where the first angle has to be cut/bent let alone the rest of the angles and curves.

Basically, it's like changing the spark plugs on a 2004 sideways-mounted GM V6 without dropping the front motor mounts - it's totally flying blind using only your sense of touch, your inward oneness with the gun you're tinkering with, and a little luck. Sure, you know abouts where the sparkplugs are (just as you know "about" where the feed lips have to be bent on a particular mag), but finding just the right angle, exact location, and depth, can be nightmarish on a car you've never messed with before.

For my Valmet M78 it was worth it (the 308 mags, if you find them, are in upwards of $150 a piece), but not something I'd want to do very often, or ever again.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Yankytrash - have you tried adapting some more common 308 box magazine to your Valmet? Again the lips may need modifying as does the body to work with the magazine release. Adapting may save you some time. BTW, plz post a pic of your home brew.

 

[yankytrash]

Problem is, because of the front lug required in the M78, the only decent mag that works for retrofitting is the Galil mag, another hard-to-find mag. The HK mags are readily adaptable, but not legally.

See, there's that whole ATF BS about modifying a mag where it still has to function in the gun it was designed for. I believe once the castration law dies, that rule will die with it. Until then, when in Rome....


I'd post pics of my project, but it was "destroyed" for, uhmm, "legal reasons". Let's just say that ductwork sheetmetal is of sufficient grade for manufacture and function.

 

[Dionysusigma]

All capacity issues aside, what about the use of a patented design? Does it even apply when the item is for private use, not to be resold and all that?

 

[GigaBuist]

Uhm... detachable magazines have been out for quite some time. Any patent that might have applied at one point in time has long expired.

 

[ckyllo]

If a H&K mag can be adopted do that and than weld a block into the mag well so that it will only take 10 shots than it isnt a Hi Cap and AWB rules dont cover it. You might be able to measure down to where the follower sits with 10 shots and set a couple of pop rivits as a stopper (not sure on that one check ATF on it). Cheaper than dirt has G3 mags for $2.50 (alm)to $4.00(steel) so if you destroy a few it is no big loss.

 

[ckyllo]

IIRC if the mod is made in a way that it wil still work in the gun that it was designed for it can stay at full cap, if not limit it to 10 at least for a few more months till the ban goes away.