Blocking / pinning mags

nelly

nelly

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So, I got one of those out of the blue questions today:

"Where do I get my 15 round mags blocked so they are legal now?"

Sigh...

But, in all seriousness, as I tend to be a bit of a danger to myself with power tools, I told said individual to immediately disassemble said items, so at least they are a pile of "parts", rather than complete items, and that I would ask here for sage advice.

We are discussing mags for the CZ75, BTW.

Suggestions?

Merci
 
Measure twice, drill once. One method...


Take the loose follower, insert it into the stripped mag body, flip body upside down (follower floating inside) and insert 10 dummy rounds or pieces of brass.

Note the location of the follower inside the body (along the spine) with the 10 rounds inserted; Vernier Caliper is a great tool.

Allow some space for half the diameter of the finished-rivet you are going to use and add a little more room so that you can insert the magazine on a closed slide (this can be tricky - I leave this to you to figure out).

Now that you know where you want to drill, empty rnds and follower then drill hole.

Insert the follower and spring only, compress the spring into the mag body to simulate a complete mag with the table or your hand, then rivet!
You do this because the coils will probably bind on the rivet, so you want to compress the spring as you will be locking everything in place (but you don't want to complete the magazine while it is unpinned for obvious reasons.)

Re-test by re-inserting the 10rnds... make sure you can't squeeze an 11th in there as you did earlier on.

If you are good (10 only), complete magazine assembly (base and floor plate attached/assembled).


Voila!

:)
 
Mine have a pop rivet (both sides) set approx 90mm from the upper most part of the metal on the mag.
 
Hi
If you don't want to ruin your mag you could alway dissemble the mag and block it with wood or plastic so the insert is inside the spring,So that the follower hits it at 10 Rd's.
 
According to the wording below, unless the mag bodies are made of wood... a wood plug would be a no-go (also need to be somewhat permanent).

(4) A cartridge magazine described in subsection (1) that has been altered or re-manufactured so that it is not capable of containing more than five or ten cartridges, as the case may be, of the type for which it was originally designed is not a prohibited device as prescribed by that subsection if the modification to the magazine cannot be easily removed and the magazine cannot be easily further altered so that it is so capable of containing more than five or ten cartridges, as the case may be.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (4), altering or re-manufacturing a cartridge magazine includes

(a) the indentation of its casing by forging, casting, swaging or impressing;

(b) in the case of a cartridge magazine with a steel or aluminum casing, the insertion and attachment of a plug, sleeve, rod, pin, flange or similar device, made of steel or aluminum, as the case may be, or of a similar material, to the inner surface of its casing by welding, brazing or any other similar method; or

(c) in the case of a cartridge magazine with a casing made of a material other than steel or aluminum, the attachment of a plug, sleeve, rod, pin, flange or similar device, made of steel or of a material similar to that of the magazine casing, to the inner surface of its casing by welding, brazing or any other similar method or by applying a permanent adhesive substance, such as a cement or an epoxy or other glue.
 
A gunsmith who is licenced to work on prohibited devices might.

Tell me that you didn't get this call at work.....
 
G37 said:
According to the wording below, unless the mag bodies are made of wood... a wood plug would be a no-go (also need to be somewhat permanent).

(4) A cartridge magazine described in subsection (1) that has been altered or re-manufactured so that it is not capable of containing more than five or ten cartridges, as the case may be, of the type for which it was originally designed is not a prohibited device as prescribed by that subsection if the modification to the magazine cannot be easily removed and the magazine cannot be easily further altered so that it is so capable of containing more than five or ten cartridges, as the case may be.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (4), altering or re-manufacturing a cartridge magazine includes

(a) the indentation of its casing by forging, casting, swaging or impressing;

(b) in the case of a cartridge magazine with a steel or aluminum casing, the insertion and attachment of a plug, sleeve, rod, pin, flange or similar device, made of steel or aluminum, as the case may be, or of a similar material, to the inner surface of its casing by welding, brazing or any other similar method; or

(c) in the case of a cartridge magazine with a casing made of a material other than steel or aluminum, the attachment of a plug, sleeve, rod, pin, flange or similar device, made of steel or of a material similar to that of the magazine casing, to the inner surface of its casing by welding, brazing or any other similar method or by applying a permanent adhesive substance, such as a cement or an epoxy or other glue.
Click to expand...

For those who want to know the source of the above:

Regulations Prescribing Certain Firearms and other Weapons, Components and Parts of Weapons, Accessories, Cartridge Magazines, Ammunition and Projectiles as Prohibited or Restricted (SOR/98-462)

Enabling Statute: Criminal Code

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/SOR-98-462/page-1.html

2007-10-27_091302_1aCoffee.gif

NAA.
 
So, I'm wondering where installing one or two rivets to limit the travel of the follower satisfies the requirements. None of the methods described in the law mention drilling holes and installing rivets.

Rivets do not seem to meet the requirements of either 5(a) or 5(b). Rivets are easy and quick to drill out or otherwise remove, unlike methods such as "forging, casting, swaging or impressing" or "welding, brazing."

What am I missing here?
 
(c) in the case of a cartridge magazine with a casing made of a material other than steel or aluminum, the attachment of a plug, sleeve, rod, pin, flange or similar device, made of steel or of a material similar to that of the magazine casing, to the inner surface of its casing by welding, brazing or any other similar method or by applying a permanent adhesive substance, such as a cement or an epoxy or other glue.

No cement, epoxy, or other glue is permanent either. I could undo them in a minute with a heat gun. They must mean something you can't undo readily without tools.
 
Last edited:
This language likely was written by lawyers for lawyers.

"(4) A cartridge magazine described in subsection (1) that has been altered or re-manufactured so that it is not capable of containing more than five or ten cartridges, as the case may be, of the type for which it was originally designed is not a prohibited device as prescribed by that subsection if the modification to the magazine cannot be easily removed and the magazine cannot be easily further altered so that it is so capable of containing more than five or ten cartridges, as the case may be.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (4), altering or re-manufacturing a cartridge magazine includes . . ." (the section goes on to describing methods such as welding, brazing, etc.)

In part (4) a key phrase is "if the modification to the magazine cannot be easily removed and the magazine cannot be further altered."

In part (5) a key word may be "includes." This may not limit the approved methods of altering a magazine to the methods listed after that.

Part (4) uses the word "easily" twice. and Part (5) when describing accepted methods of alteration uses the word "includes" but does not say "limited to."

An experienced gunsmith and I recently spoke about this topic. He told me that inserting a wooden block in a handgun magazine is an acceptable method of reducing the magazine's capacity.

In one modified magazine that we looked at, a tightly fitted hardwood block was inserted into the bottom of the magazine, between the base plate and the follower. A rivet was placed through a pre-existing hole in the base plate and into a hole drilled into the wooden block. The presence of that rivet meant that the base plate could not be removed without drilling out the rivet. At the same time, the magazine was not defaced or damaged.

It seems to me that in this case the wooden block and rivet should qualify as not "easily" removed or "easily" altered.

Any opinions on this?
 
Pop rivets seems to be the most permanent way of pinning... even though nothing is really permanent in reality, unless the mag is a true 10 rounder. Odds are, the wood block method would suffice, as any LEO or other authority would more than likely simply try and load 11 rounds in the magazine to see if it is blocked or not.

Two of the biggest firearms importers in the country were blocking OEM mags with wood dowels and epoxy.. and this as recently as last year. Then putting those mags with firearms as sold when new to dealers across the country. Pretty sure if you bought a new firearm and the mags are blocked that way by the importer, that you would be pretty much off the hook for any potential problems down the road.

This... is just my opinion of course...
 
The wood block with the floor plate riveted on is fine. The rivets in the side of the magazines are the same as the "dimples" that are mentioned.
 
Just FYI but should you buy a pinned mag, no matter who from check to make sure it doesn't hold more than it should legally. I bought a mag from Wolverine that held 6 rounds of 7.62X39. An easy fix for me and my riveter but had I not noticed and had some bad luck I could have potentially been in some serious trouble. Sad to say...
 
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