Challenge accepted. If somebody has done this already, hey, I was bored at work...
So I interwebbed a bit about bolt hold open AK mags and found a dude who ground off stamp tabs in metal mags to make a BHO mag. I didn't like that idea, but what I figured was why not mod the follower with a dremel to have slots that those tabs would slot into. This might solve the follower being shoved forward if you took your time and got it just right.
But I didn't have a metal mag with me, just a Tapco. Pulled it apart, and found that the mag body would require a lot of material coming off the follower, so I decided to shave the mag body. I identified the offending tabs.
I shaved and shaved.
The follower seemed to fit not exactly so I realized the bullet guide part of the follower needed to be shaved too. So now it looked like this.
When I was done, the follower bullet guide is stopped by the feed lips. The sides are pretty solid in the mag body, but I think I took too much off the front, so leaving a little more would give the follower even more mag body to hold it in place. As it is, I pressed pretty hard on the back and it didn't jam. I suppose I'll try it again with another one.
This is what it looks like from the rear.
Some proof of concept.
And some action (yeah, hard to hold the phone and film).
[video=vimeo;104861802]https://vimeo.com/104861802[/video]
Seems to work. I'll post up what happens using this mag to fire live rounds, plus how many lock back on empties I did. I figure load 2 or 3 rounds and go to empty at least 10 or 20 times ought to be a good start to see if there's any damage. What do think?
Here's the tool I used. Awesome knife, CPM-M4.
So I interwebbed a bit about bolt hold open AK mags and found a dude who ground off stamp tabs in metal mags to make a BHO mag. I didn't like that idea, but what I figured was why not mod the follower with a dremel to have slots that those tabs would slot into. This might solve the follower being shoved forward if you took your time and got it just right.
But I didn't have a metal mag with me, just a Tapco. Pulled it apart, and found that the mag body would require a lot of material coming off the follower, so I decided to shave the mag body. I identified the offending tabs.
I shaved and shaved.
The follower seemed to fit not exactly so I realized the bullet guide part of the follower needed to be shaved too. So now it looked like this.
When I was done, the follower bullet guide is stopped by the feed lips. The sides are pretty solid in the mag body, but I think I took too much off the front, so leaving a little more would give the follower even more mag body to hold it in place. As it is, I pressed pretty hard on the back and it didn't jam. I suppose I'll try it again with another one.
This is what it looks like from the rear.
Some proof of concept.
And some action (yeah, hard to hold the phone and film).
[video=vimeo;104861802]https://vimeo.com/104861802[/video]
Seems to work. I'll post up what happens using this mag to fire live rounds, plus how many lock back on empties I did. I figure load 2 or 3 rounds and go to empty at least 10 or 20 times ought to be a good start to see if there's any damage. What do think?
Here's the tool I used. Awesome knife, CPM-M4.
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