The first 2 paragraphs are just on my process to make this by the way.
Honestly it took WAY too much work, much more work than was shown in youtube videos where people did the same thing with 223 which has a slimmer magazine because 7.62x39 is wider. Dremels and JB weld, the bubba hammer and screwdriver, are what made this happen. Took a FAB Defense VZ58 polymer mag and chopped the top off. The amount was as much as a bit shorter than the axis magazine height. After removing the bottom of the axis magazine, I cut two pieces of the cut off portion of the vz58 mag, shaped them so that they fit in the axis mag flush with the bottom of the spacer that savage rivets at the back of their magazine from the factory and then glued those two pieces to that plastic spacer piece. This is to keep the overall cartridge path length similar between the axis and vz58 magazine. Then I modified the follower which is a hybrid of the savage follower and the vz58 follower. Had to cut a bit from the front and back of the savage follower to fit into the savage magazine AS WELL AS the vz58 magazine. Had to clip a bit of the bottom of the savage follower spring to fit too. Also flatten the top of the vz58 follower to hold the savage follower. Now mock assembly the two magazines together with duct tape making sure to align the back portion of the inside of the vz 58 and savage magazines to ensure that the follower doesn't catch on a lip. Test fit the follower assembly without gluing the savage follower onto the vz58 follower. Make sure that when the follower assembly pops up, the savage follower lines up with the dimples in the magazine meant for alignment. You can test this by pushing on the follower with the spring installed from the feed path or by putting rounds into the magazine to test (or snap caps). After getting everything lined up and solid, I glued everything that needed to be glued together including the savage follower onto the follower spring to prevent it from slipping off every time.
To test reliability and alignment, which you definitely want to do, I duct taped the savage and vz58 magazines together and threw the glued together follower in too. Assembled everything except for the savage magazine bottom cover which attached the magazine to the gun. Then with snap caps, I loaded more and more rounds into the magazine, testing with different number of rounds in the magazine. I kind of hooked the back of the savage mag onto the metal in the receiver as it would if it was normally loaded and pushed the front of the magazine upward to simulate a magazine loaded in. Then I racked the bolt and made sure it was able to feed. If they don't feed and either tilt down or tilt way too far forward and up into the receiver, then the problem is the angle of the vz58 magazine. What you want to do is recut the top of the vz58 mag at an angle so that when magazine is attached onto the savage mag, it is tilted further forward. Make sure everything it good after cutting and assembling and testing. If everything feeds properly, then with it taped together, I glued a bit of the back and a bit of the front so that I can eventually remove the tape. Make sure that you don't put too much glue because you need room for the savage bottom plastic piece that you need to cut and attach in place. after that dries, remove the tape, cut the bottom portion of the savage plastic piece and place it onto the correct holes on the savage mag. Test fit again, make sure everything's good to go, and glue it into place.
Sorry for the long post but I made this for anyone who wanted to try this. I know I couldn't find much info when I looked for high capacity magazines for the savage axis, especially in 7.62x39, considering that the factory mags only hold 3. Also the process that I laid out are as if I would do it again. It took a lot of trial and error to figure out what needed to be done on the magazine and where in a different order than specified. Alignment between the two magazines at the back (picture 1) on the inside is really important otherwise follower catches on that and the magazine can't feed. I JB welded certain parts in the build in stages so I had to let a lot of time pass for setting and curing. Took me 2 full days to get everything done without waiting the full cure time on some of the parts thoug The mag holds 26+1 rounds and it feeds pretty reliably in my testing. I have yet to shoot it though. Let me know if you have any questions, cheers!
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Originally Posted by Tompullings
