creating a internal mag to ditch a box

WhelanLad

WhelanLad

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long story short, has any modified a rifle from box detatchable mag to just a top loading single / blind magazine?
if so what rifle an how did ya go about it, any pics?

any tips on spring to use or follower ideas for the lips ? or how i could get something to work on the Abolt :D im guna try an ditch the magazine set up, so the floorplate stays closed and have just a spring pushin up the follower with the cartridges held in place by some kind of stuffs so they are not too loose.. epoxy of sorts..
??

the rifle is push feed, so theoretically only needs to point the case forward and keep it inline.. case gets a slight bump off the 'lips' or just infront of..

just a thought for now until i come up an try some stuff without 'ruining' the original components!


leme know if ya done so
 
So.... I do want to ask why?

I mean it is your stuff, so have fun either way, but it is not common to convert from detachable to internal.

Your Abolt has the detachable mag that clips to the floor plate
Correct?

I would imagine that you could make a new follower and just have a split-leaf style spring, but you would have to make a bullet seating catch to hold the rounds down.

Alternatively and likely much easier, you could buy a new rifle....
 
I never tried that. Maybe to consider - most detachable box magazines have lips on top that hold cartridges in there - the bolt strips cartridge out of magazine - I don't think cartridge touches the underside of the receiver at all - front of bullet usually runs into the feed ramp to get turned up into the chamber. Therefore, the "feed lips" are part of the detachable magazine. Several Mauser based rifles here with hinged floor plates - all seem to have milling or shaping on underside / inside of the receiver - I believe that is where the "feed lips" exist with an internal magazine.

I have a detachable magazine Parker Hale Mauser 98 in pieces on workbench. Looks as if there was milling done inside those receivers as "feed lips", even though the box magazine does hold those cartridges. As if the receiver's "feed lips" might be involved in steering the front end of the cartridge left/right to go up the feed ramp? Do not know what other brands might have done - worth to take a look first??
 
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So, I just tried - the barrelled receiver and bolt are likely from a Parker Hale 1000C or an 1100C. I installed a hinged floor plate mag box 98-124 as is used on Parker Hale 1200. I would say some work needed on the receiver feed lips - I did get one round to feed correctly from right side, with only that one round in the mag. With two rounds, left side jammed up pretty strongly, then scooted up ahead of the extractor, so was not actually staying on the bolt face. With full mag (5 rounds), I got top one to move forward about 1 1/2 inches, then pretty much jammed there. All the brass that tried to feed showing considerable scratch marks, so underside feed rails on that receiver not "ready" to accept cartridges. I had not previously noticed feed issues with that rifle, using either of the detachable magazines I have to use in it. Is chambered in 308 Win.
 
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I have a model 70 being modified from a standard box magazine/floor plate to a blind mag as we speak by a member of this forum.

But your idea to convert a DBM is a stretch
 
chuck nelson said:
I have a model 70 being modified from a standard box magazine/floor plate to a blind mag as we speak by a member of this forum.

But your idea to convert a DBM is a stretch
Click to expand...

the DBM still has a floor plate though similiar to the rem700/mod 70? but the box clicks into the bottom floorplate?
hmm interesting, whos doin this? :D
 
I don’t know if this will be any help, but I have Remington clones that were made for detachable magazines. What would have been feed rails in the action is machined away to make room for the detachable box, and if a top feed box and follower were substituted it would fit but not work. The cure is a Wyatt center-feed box and follower which has its own feed lips the way a DBM does.
This could give you another tree to bark up.
 
I have never had a "blind" magazine rifle, but I have an aftermarket stock for one. There does not appear any "clip" or attachment for the bottom of the follower spring - as if it just slides and wiggles around down at bottom like it wants to - that may be an error in my guessing. If that is true, I would think you could remove that internal magazine box from your floor plate, stuff a follower and spring into the mag well, and close your floor plate - try to load and feed through the magazine top area. Likely would tell you pretty quick if inside of that receiver will work as "feed rails" or not. I have now found another two rifles that will not work, but I do not have an A-Bolt to try that.
 
I approve of this idea... a blind box mag will never get lost and looks sweet. It's my second choice only to hinged floorplate.

As others have said, the magazine will have the retention/feed flanges and the receiver most likely devoid of them. If buying a different rifle is out of the question, personally I'd look for a smith with stock duplicator and have your stock duplicated except for mag well. That's the easy part. Modifying or building a box magazine could be complicated and might not be a simple case of custom inlet, plopping the mag in with the grip removed and install new, flat base plate and figuring most appropriate way of securing it in the inlet. It could be that simple with a double stack mag as you could reload from top down as a traditional BBM or HFP mag loads... most detach mags require a front to back insertion of rounds. Remington 760 mags for example would permit such a repurposing if you could secure them properly in the inlet.

I'd opt for a new rifle because of the expense involved in converting. But I like this thought... new choices are more limited now to detachable mags and some of those are obtuse trapezoidal jobs in equally gopping plastic stocks. But if the cost of conversion brings end cost within a grand of a fine Cooper, I'd go the whole mile for the real McCoy... at least Cooper will chamber the rifle in something desirable.
 
I took the dbm parts off a 70 classic and put the receiver n a floor plate style stock with floor plate, feed and worked fine. Like stated earlier a model 700 that’s factory dbm or clone cut for aics mags won’t be able to have a floor plate put on and function as the feed rails are cut for the mag. LRI in the states is out with something for 700 dim/floor plate combo? now might interest you. No idea about an abolt, it’s not a popular rifle to modify. Can you top load the magazine while it’s in the rifle?
 
I would say you are out of luck with the a bolt. It is made to feed from the mag.

Only option might be to chop the top of the mag off and secure it in place, however after trying to load an a bolt from the top, you will soon find it is built the way it is for a reason.
 
m1008 said:
I took the dbm parts off a 70 classic and put the receiver n a floor plate style stock with floor plate, feed and worked fine. Like stated earlier a model 700 that’s factory dbm or clone cut for aics mags won’t be able to have a floor plate put on and function as the feed rails are cut for the mag. LRI in the states is out with something for 700 dim/floor plate combo? now might interest you. No idea about an abolt, it’s not a popular rifle to modify. Can you top load the magazine while it’s in the rifle?
Click to expand...

yeh they are kind of good because u can use them in many ways, use it top load or hing it down an even take the whole loaded mag out on its own, clicks back in... i like it. but the box itself is heavy AF
 
Should be able to make it work and function like an adl rem or any other blind mag. Question is why and what are you willing to spend to make it work. I understand the appeal of nothing to go missing and some weight savings. I’d imagine it would cost more than the rifle is worth to have a blind stock made or alter a composite stock, new trigger guard some way to mount front screw+++.

On the Winchester classic 70 detachable mags the springs are goofy/not a traditional spring and follower. Maybe dissemble a mag on you abolt and see how it functions (spring and follower wise). You’d have to really love it to spend the coin and see it through. You’ll never get back what you put in if you decide to sell.
 
WhelanLad said:
yeh they are kind of good because u can use them in many ways, use it top load or hing it down an even take the whole loaded mag out on its own, clicks back in... i like it. but the box itself is heavy AF
Click to expand...

So you can top load while it’s in the rifle, like an hinged floor plate set up? Isn’t that what you want?
 
My pure guess would be it is about weight reduction - compare blind mag to hinged floor plate - at least as per the Rem 700 ADL's that I have seen and the blind mag stock for a Win 70 Ranger that I have here - just a trigger guard loop, no mag box, no floor plate - no opening through the bottom of the stock - therefore virtually no "bottom metal" - might be as much as several ounces (60 grams) difference? Although his floor plate already has a number of holes bored through it, so maybe not quite as much weight savings as is "normal"?? Again, I have never had one - I presume just a raw wood "box" for stowing the rounds, follower and follower spring - not even a metal liner for the magazine area??
 
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haha- never said it was a fantastic idea chuck!

im thinkinnnng. epoxy with a shell of box with lips and a spring under neath could work.

il sus it over summer. almost there
 
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