- Location
- East of Home, West of the Rest
Was at a local "surplus" store today looking for an ammo can and stumbled across something interesting. Airsoft guns. Plastic toy guns.
Now why the hell would I care about that now? I'm not much of an airsoft guy, prefer shooting the real stuff.
Wait, whats this???? DMPS makes magazines for Airsoft AR15s. IN METAL!!!???
Now that gave me an idea, so I bought one. (Well not my idea, but others have done it before... but at least a cheap parts idea for someone elses previous idea....)
The above photo shows a standard USGI style 30 round on the left, and a DPMS metal airsoft mag on the right. Near the top of the airsoft mag you can see a little pin. I punched that out and the entire "motor" for the airsoft pellets lifted out. This left the empty hull of what looks identical to the bottom of the USGI mag. The floor plate is even slid on the same way on the airsoft mag.
So I did some side by side comparisons. It is almost as if DMPS just cut the feed lips and a bit of the top off a standard mag. Eventually I just taped a LAR mag to the side of the airsoft mag to get a proper length figured out...
Marked and cut.... then set them up to see how close they were....
I then went to work and sacrificed a "Mag-Wedge" brand metal coupler (wouldn't dare do this to the nicer Dlask ones...) and did some back and forth test fitting...
I got them fitting tight enough that I was able to drill a hole in the front edge of the airsoft "husk" to use the front retainer screw on the wag wedge. I then drill a hole in the back edge and used a small but solid enough screw on the back drilled into the modified mag wedge to secure it all down.
Little bit of tape for the edges...
All in all it is super snug, feels like a proper 30 round mag and cost me $25 in parts ($12 for wedge, $13 for airsoft mag). Might even be able to sell the old guts from the airsoft mag to cover some of that hahahaha.
Now why the hell would I care about that now? I'm not much of an airsoft guy, prefer shooting the real stuff.
Wait, whats this???? DMPS makes magazines for Airsoft AR15s. IN METAL!!!???
Now that gave me an idea, so I bought one. (Well not my idea, but others have done it before... but at least a cheap parts idea for someone elses previous idea....)
The above photo shows a standard USGI style 30 round on the left, and a DPMS metal airsoft mag on the right. Near the top of the airsoft mag you can see a little pin. I punched that out and the entire "motor" for the airsoft pellets lifted out. This left the empty hull of what looks identical to the bottom of the USGI mag. The floor plate is even slid on the same way on the airsoft mag.
So I did some side by side comparisons. It is almost as if DMPS just cut the feed lips and a bit of the top off a standard mag. Eventually I just taped a LAR mag to the side of the airsoft mag to get a proper length figured out...
Marked and cut.... then set them up to see how close they were....
I then went to work and sacrificed a "Mag-Wedge" brand metal coupler (wouldn't dare do this to the nicer Dlask ones...) and did some back and forth test fitting...
I got them fitting tight enough that I was able to drill a hole in the front edge of the airsoft "husk" to use the front retainer screw on the wag wedge. I then drill a hole in the back edge and used a small but solid enough screw on the back drilled into the modified mag wedge to secure it all down.
Little bit of tape for the edges...
All in all it is super snug, feels like a proper 30 round mag and cost me $25 in parts ($12 for wedge, $13 for airsoft mag). Might even be able to sell the old guts from the airsoft mag to cover some of that hahahaha.
Last edited:
