[grumpy_old_man]

Hi everyone;

With all the insanity going on and FUD over the future of standard cap mags, I decided to go through my junk bin and see if there was anything salvageable. Lo and behold, an Eastern Euro AK mag with a couple of dents in the side that were big enough to keep the follower from moving. Be a shame to toss it when I may not ever be able to replace it, so....

Okay, so how do I fix it? First check online and see a bunch of "drill a hole" fixes that were not too appealing so no-go there. Now think and look at my tools....aha!

What I did was to use a set of old pin punches. Basically I inserted one punch end (fairly thick so it wouldn't bend) into the magazine and carefully positioned the edge of the punch against the dent by feel. Then, I moved the middle of the punch body so it "balanced" on the OTHER side of the magazine at the bottom (didn't want to bend the feed lips). With the mag on a sturdy bench, I tapped the free end of the punch with a weight so that the end that was positioned on the dent would "hammer" it out from the inside. It took a little practice and a couple of "whacks" but SUCCESS! Now the follower runs freely in the mag body and it looks like I can add one AK mag back into the inventory. Next time I get to the range I'll proof it to make sure it runs smoothly, but it feeds dummy loads over here so I think this one is a winner.

Hope this helps someone else out there!
All the best,
Grumpy

 

[Adjuster]

LOL, nice PDR on the mag there.

I've fixed some by clamping a 10" long section of AR type steel used in dozer blades that was thin enough to fit into the mag, and then using a "body" hammer on the dent, hitting the outside, forcing the metal flat. (It does stretch the metal some, but you could I suppose, heat it, and then cool, causing it to shrink back, but this was a Alloy GI Surplus mag, so the alloy just moved right back out, so the follower and rounds did what they are supposed to do.)

After that, I learned not to drop mags on rocky ground, with that same shooting buddy. (He seemed to want to walk on my mags every dang time...)

And now with my FS2000 as the primary rifle I use, I don't drop mags anymore at all. (The battery of arms is not the same as the AR weapons. There is no last round bolt hold open, so like most "Euro" rifles, you can pull the bolt back, lock it open, change mags, and "HK Slap" it to chamber the next round.)

Sometimes it's like shooting a MP5 in that respect, you change mags similar, or can.