Skylerbone
Member
Thought I’d share my procedure for adjusting magazines, or “tuning” for reliability. The below are a pair of Ruger Mark III 22/45 magazines that were modified to work in a Mark IV which was purchased without factory mags.
Starting at a safe location such as the range, insert a loaded magazine and hand cycle your rounds through the mag onto a surface that won’t damage them. These will be your baseline for comparison later, but note any additional issues such as feed issues.
Our first clue that something is amiss sits atop the bench in the form of tiny lead shavings. Feed may be affected and accuracy certainly not helped by damaged bullets.
Note the damage to the driving band (silver shiny spot) on every bullet cycled from the unadjusted magazines.
Each of those spots sits 90 degrees from the extractor’s witness mark, indicating contact with the front of the magazine as was confirmed by gently pushing rounds forward in the mag.
Let’s start with the basic disassembly, to assume nothing about the reader’s knowledge base. You will want a simple punch to depress the spring follower through the hole of the base plate or extended pad in our example.
Next begin carefully sliding the base off.
I say carefully because even though you are wearing your eye protection things have been launched by yours truly into the ether. A ready thumb catches the rod and spring.
and allows it to extend without damage or a scavenger hunt.
The follower and button are then slid to the bottom cut out of the magazine body (you’ll need to flip the magazine over to see where this is and align the button to push it out).
Once the button falls out, the follower, well, it follows.
Part II upcoming; tuning the magazine.
Starting at a safe location such as the range, insert a loaded magazine and hand cycle your rounds through the mag onto a surface that won’t damage them. These will be your baseline for comparison later, but note any additional issues such as feed issues.
Our first clue that something is amiss sits atop the bench in the form of tiny lead shavings. Feed may be affected and accuracy certainly not helped by damaged bullets.
Note the damage to the driving band (silver shiny spot) on every bullet cycled from the unadjusted magazines.
Each of those spots sits 90 degrees from the extractor’s witness mark, indicating contact with the front of the magazine as was confirmed by gently pushing rounds forward in the mag.
Let’s start with the basic disassembly, to assume nothing about the reader’s knowledge base. You will want a simple punch to depress the spring follower through the hole of the base plate or extended pad in our example.
Next begin carefully sliding the base off.
I say carefully because even though you are wearing your eye protection things have been launched by yours truly into the ether. A ready thumb catches the rod and spring.
and allows it to extend without damage or a scavenger hunt.
The follower and button are then slid to the bottom cut out of the magazine body (you’ll need to flip the magazine over to see where this is and align the button to push it out).
Once the button falls out, the follower, well, it follows.
Part II upcoming; tuning the magazine.
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