5 and 6 shot Brno .22 mags +bug juice

[Rob]

I hadn't noticed it before but my earliest Brno .22 clip magazine (all steel, incl. bottom) easily holds 6 rounds while the later ones (still all steel except for the plastic bottom) only hold 5 rounds...yet they appear very nearly identical except for the bottom material. No big deal but its interesting.

By the way, gopher shooters...don't put too much mosquito repellent on by using the palm of your hand...not if its the same hand you put the clip in with...one summer a few decades back I was sitting in the middle of a gopher field, soaked in Muskol, shooting a Brno .22 and and constantly changing clips...the plastic bottom on the Brno mag suddenly got very sticky, softened, then crumbled and the mag flew apart...the plastic bottom disintegrated in reaction to the bug juice coating my palm.

 

[MrSharp]

Take it apart and check for a spacer under the spring, I have a norinco that had spacers under the spring, removed it and could now hold 10 vs 9 rounds.

 

[red_bailey]

You got a nice rifle there for sure.

don't put too much mosquito repellent on by using the palm of your hand...the plastic bottom disintegrated in reaction to the bug juice coating my palm.

Decades ago… the Muskol you bought was likely 99% concentration. The most you can get in Canada for years now (since '02) is 30% DEET and related toluamides, aka toluene aka plastic melter. Still enough to soften much of your gear, so be careful how you apply it and what else you touch. It'll etch your sunglasses for sure and probably attack the wood finish.

Invented by Charles Coll (an Honorary Kentucky Colonel), Muskol originally referred to a musk deer attractant he made in his New Glasgow basement, but eventually he hit upon the more widely successful insect repellent formulation he churned out for years in a Truro garage (before a proper small plant was built).

Bayer owns the rights now; probably manufactured in China…

 

[Rob]

It probably was the fullstrength stuff because I used to buy it from a little place with a picture of "Colonel" Coll on it, near the trapping supply store in Truro, NS. In the early 80's I was living up the Eastern Shore in Nova Scotia, had a trapping license and did a bit of fur harvesting. When I moved back out west I probably took some with me. I knew he sold the Muskol company but I didn't realize that it had become so diluted...no wonder it doesn't work so good anymore.

I was told by a Swedish hunter that the original Muskol recipe was illegal in Sweden (supposedly because they considered it to be a carcinogen of some sort) and if I ever went to Sweden for a hunt or whatever to make sure I brought plenty...to sell to Swedish hunters. Apparently they would pay anything for it.

But maybe it doesn't eat Brno magazines anymore.

 

[DeadeyeDave]

Well how about that. I just tried my 1956 metal bottom mag like yours and it holds 6. All my plastic bottom ones and the early style metal bottom ones only hold 5. Learn something new every day.