Adventures In Magazine Mangling!

ok so i been putting this off for a while.. trying to work up the nerve, i had a couple no name knock off mags i thought i'd try it on first.

these are'nt great mags.. in my beretta 92 they had last round hold open problems, weak springs which i think are just cheap and crap rather then worn out.

no witness holes just plain old junk mags despite the fact that they have fed ok i dont trust them.. so they're perfect lab rat to test on.


so first things first how the heck am i gonna do this.. well my first thoughts was rotary tool.. but thats like using a sledge hammer on a tack.

things could get outta control really fast for such little bit of metal needs to be removed.. first off im gonna try and convert them to fit my taurus 92.. a simple operation.. just need to enlarge the notch upwards.

i decided on going with a needle file, i picked up a 12pc set for 3.99 at harbor freight.

lucky the files was almost the exact width i needed, i disassembled both the test subject mag and a factory taurus 92 mag.

taking them apart and removing the base plate made it easy to line them up against each other.

i then made sure i had the slim cutting edge away from the front of the mag.. the files i used had a cutting surface on the top and bottom.. as well as on one side, the other side smooth.. i kept the smooth surface facing the front of the mag so i would'nt accidentally cut the slot wider.

after i enlarged the slot vertically about the thickness of the file i checked for fit.. already it was showing signs of catching but not quite.. i pulled on the mag and it was not fully locked into place..

so i slowly filed some more and kept checking soon enough i had it locking in nice and tight.. put it together and checked for feeding.

if fed perfectly.. like i said these are junk mags they fed ok but i never did trust them.

the problem with my taurus 92 though is it does'nt like the squared corners of beretta mags.. insertion is a problem.. even before i tired to convert them, you have to either angle them in cock eyed or press in the mag release, it's because of the difference in shapes of the mag catch where the taurus is more stubby the squared corners hit the catch like a brick wall rather then pushing it in to slide around the mag body.

i attempted to file the corners to a more rounded profile on the first mag i converted.. it was a failure there is simply to much material you would have to remove to eliminate the squared corner.

anyway so the conversation is relatively simple and successful for beretta to taurus 92..

if you remove just enough material width wise as the taurus needs you can still keep a little ledge.. surprisingly enough that little ledge is enough for the beretta to still lock into place.. effectively it will work in both guns now, so that was a nice little treat.. although i might not plan on it.

with satisfaction that it can be done i made my 2nd attempt on mag 2, which i spent more care on.. the first mag i had a lot of slips and a lot of the finish.. at least what passes for a finish on them got scratched up, i also did'nt make the cuts as neat as i could have.

2nd mag turned out fine as well, and i was pleased with the cuts.

so i decided to try something a bit harder.. cougar mags are hard to find, are more expensive and are lower capacity then the ones you can get for the 92's.

basicly the only difference in the mag catches between the cougar and the 92 is the cougar is up a little higher.

for this job i did break out the rotary tool with a cutting head on it.
i put it in a vice with rubber sleeve over the teeth.. snugged it down just enough to keep the mag steady so i could cut it.
i went just deep enough to have a small hole to work with.

again just like with the taurus i disassembled a cougar mag so i could mark where to cut.. having them without baseplates makes it a lot easier to line them up next to each other for comparison.

using a pointed file on the small hole i cleaned it up and enlarged it enough to get a squared file in there.

then it was just a matter of filing out the hole.. stopping to check the fit often, this was a bit more of a challenge but the files make quick work of it, once i was getting the mag catch to click like it does with the factory mags i reassembled and tested it out.. i cycled the gun about 40 times..

it all fed ok, although live firing can be different in my exp so the true test will be at the range.

the mags will now only work in the taurus and cougar.. this is because the cougar uses the same mag catch and the 92 will lock in on the cougar cut slot before it's inserted all the way.. unless you hold the mag release button down.

the taurus will still work fine cause the fatter stubby taurus catch goes right past the cougar slot i cut.

these are more proof of concept mags then anything.. the real goal will be getting some mec-gar 18rnders to convert, which if the place i found online actually has them in stock i should get them by mid month.



incase you are wondering no it's not cut crooked it's the spring that makes it look slanted.