I didn’t see any detailed posts on this with pictures so since i was doing it i thought i would take some pics and post them. Hopefully it can help someone else that’s doing it and they can avoid a few PITA mistakes i made. This should be super simple and if i do it again it will be but the first time i definitely learned a few do's and don’ts.
This is what i started with...
Removing the bottom plate is easy with a small flat blade screw driver. Simply put it in the hole in the bottom of the mag and gently pry back while pushing the screwdriver forward. The plate should easily slide out. Just be careful not to slip and stab yourself in the hand. There is a spring in there but i found it doesn’t come flying out easily because it gets caught on the bottom tabs.
The follower only goes in one way but the spring can go in two ways and one of them is wrong. Make sure that the spring is properly seated in the center tabs when re-assembling the mag.
If your just putting in the couplers then you’re pretty much done. Just slide the couples in place and thats it. I found that i could not put a fully loaded mag into my Tar21 with the bolt closed. This bothered me so i decided to modify them so i could.
I used a file and a precision measuring tool was almost essential as well. YOU DO NOT NEED TO TAKE OFF MUCH MATERIAL so measuring constantly (every 5-6 file strokes) is important. I would not recommend using any power tools like a dermal, grinder or sander. The file takes material off almost faster than you would want. If you file them down to far you could make a over cap mag. Ask me how i know this...
The first one i took off 2mm, my thinking was the bullet was approx. 9mm and i could only push the rounds down about 1mm with a full mag. I figured 2mm was a good start....wrong! This made an 11 round mag which i promptly disassembled as if the police already knew and were going to be kicking in my door any minute. The second one i was much more careful and found that 0.2-0.5mm was all that was needed to put the mag into the TAR with the bolt closed. It took a bunch of assembling and disassembling to get it right and each of the mags was not made exactly the same.
A few things to keep in mind that might help you...
- As you will see in the pictures i used snap-caps for testing the mags, even though the bolt was closed i wanted to make sure there was no way a live round could get near the chamber.
- On the factory base there is a small tab that sticks up where the follower contacts. This holds it up about 1mm. The mag couplers do not have this. It took me quite a while to notice this and it will mess up measurements if you’re using the factory back plates to test the mags. I solved this with the next point...
- When testing the mags flip the factory bottom plate upside down. If you insert it this way you dont have to worry about tab and it will slide in and out without clicking into place. Also you dont want to use the couplers for testing as they are a lot harder to get apart and should be that way. If you take them apart multiple times you could make them lose.
- Don’t file both parts of the follower the same length! I found that when the back bottomed out the front could still push in and i think this caused a problem i will mention later. Bullets are tapered so my thinking is the front part of the follower needs to be taller than the back so it bottoms out evenly.
Ok previously i mentioned the mag that i took 2mm off of and messed it up. I will post how i fixed this but i would suggest avoiding this PITA and being careful the first time.
I considered throwing it out and getting another but decided to fix it. I wanted to fix it in a way in that there was no way it could become an illegal mag if my fix broke. I decided that tape, glue, cardboard and plastic were out of the question for the parts that the follower contacted in case it wore out and came apart. With my luck i would probably not know until someone checked the mag.
I found that a 4x4 electrical box cover was almost the right thickness. I cut it out as close as possible to the right shape to make sure it couldn’t move around in there. Then i put a piece of plastic i cut out of a milk jug between the bottom plate and the metal piece. This fixed the problem but wasted a lot of time.
I also thought i would post these pics as well. I notice this after i had completed everything and maybe I’m way too paranoid but it still worried me. I found that if i tried to push a round straight down it was obvious the mag was full and it wouldn’t go in. But if i pushed the round closer to the bullet it could spread the mag a bit and roll in under the front part of the lip...it would actually stay there. Even if you could get it into the gun without it popping out this would certainly cause a jam. What worried me is if some cop did this and said look it holds 11 rounds.
Im not sure if the original mags did this or not because i didn’t have one to test. Im thinking this could be because i took too much material off the front part of the follower.
My final words on this would be to take your time as because it would have saved me a whole bunch of time doing it right the first time.
Also removing all 10rnds from a mag after each test i found was a huge pain. I found the easiest was to remove the bottom plate, you just have to be careful of the spring. After i installed the coupler and didnt want to take it appart i would put my small flat blade into the mag catch hole in the side and take some of the pressure off. Then the rounds just fell out the top, there could be an easier way that i dont know of though.
Mag capacity laws are so stupid! Somehow i felt like i could be doing something criminal by an 11th round almost going into my mag. Rediculous!
To bad these dont come in black, i was considering painting them but figured they would look terrible in no time so i decided not to.
This is what i started with...
Removing the bottom plate is easy with a small flat blade screw driver. Simply put it in the hole in the bottom of the mag and gently pry back while pushing the screwdriver forward. The plate should easily slide out. Just be careful not to slip and stab yourself in the hand. There is a spring in there but i found it doesn’t come flying out easily because it gets caught on the bottom tabs.
The follower only goes in one way but the spring can go in two ways and one of them is wrong. Make sure that the spring is properly seated in the center tabs when re-assembling the mag.
If your just putting in the couplers then you’re pretty much done. Just slide the couples in place and thats it. I found that i could not put a fully loaded mag into my Tar21 with the bolt closed. This bothered me so i decided to modify them so i could.
I used a file and a precision measuring tool was almost essential as well. YOU DO NOT NEED TO TAKE OFF MUCH MATERIAL so measuring constantly (every 5-6 file strokes) is important. I would not recommend using any power tools like a dermal, grinder or sander. The file takes material off almost faster than you would want. If you file them down to far you could make a over cap mag. Ask me how i know this...
The first one i took off 2mm, my thinking was the bullet was approx. 9mm and i could only push the rounds down about 1mm with a full mag. I figured 2mm was a good start....wrong! This made an 11 round mag which i promptly disassembled as if the police already knew and were going to be kicking in my door any minute. The second one i was much more careful and found that 0.2-0.5mm was all that was needed to put the mag into the TAR with the bolt closed. It took a bunch of assembling and disassembling to get it right and each of the mags was not made exactly the same.
A few things to keep in mind that might help you...
- As you will see in the pictures i used snap-caps for testing the mags, even though the bolt was closed i wanted to make sure there was no way a live round could get near the chamber.
- On the factory base there is a small tab that sticks up where the follower contacts. This holds it up about 1mm. The mag couplers do not have this. It took me quite a while to notice this and it will mess up measurements if you’re using the factory back plates to test the mags. I solved this with the next point...
- When testing the mags flip the factory bottom plate upside down. If you insert it this way you dont have to worry about tab and it will slide in and out without clicking into place. Also you dont want to use the couplers for testing as they are a lot harder to get apart and should be that way. If you take them apart multiple times you could make them lose.
- Don’t file both parts of the follower the same length! I found that when the back bottomed out the front could still push in and i think this caused a problem i will mention later. Bullets are tapered so my thinking is the front part of the follower needs to be taller than the back so it bottoms out evenly.
Ok previously i mentioned the mag that i took 2mm off of and messed it up. I will post how i fixed this but i would suggest avoiding this PITA and being careful the first time.
I considered throwing it out and getting another but decided to fix it. I wanted to fix it in a way in that there was no way it could become an illegal mag if my fix broke. I decided that tape, glue, cardboard and plastic were out of the question for the parts that the follower contacted in case it wore out and came apart. With my luck i would probably not know until someone checked the mag.
I found that a 4x4 electrical box cover was almost the right thickness. I cut it out as close as possible to the right shape to make sure it couldn’t move around in there. Then i put a piece of plastic i cut out of a milk jug between the bottom plate and the metal piece. This fixed the problem but wasted a lot of time.
I also thought i would post these pics as well. I notice this after i had completed everything and maybe I’m way too paranoid but it still worried me. I found that if i tried to push a round straight down it was obvious the mag was full and it wouldn’t go in. But if i pushed the round closer to the bullet it could spread the mag a bit and roll in under the front part of the lip...it would actually stay there. Even if you could get it into the gun without it popping out this would certainly cause a jam. What worried me is if some cop did this and said look it holds 11 rounds.
Im not sure if the original mags did this or not because i didn’t have one to test. Im thinking this could be because i took too much material off the front part of the follower.
My final words on this would be to take your time as because it would have saved me a whole bunch of time doing it right the first time.
Also removing all 10rnds from a mag after each test i found was a huge pain. I found the easiest was to remove the bottom plate, you just have to be careful of the spring. After i installed the coupler and didnt want to take it appart i would put my small flat blade into the mag catch hole in the side and take some of the pressure off. Then the rounds just fell out the top, there could be an easier way that i dont know of though.
Mag capacity laws are so stupid! Somehow i felt like i could be doing something criminal by an 11th round almost going into my mag. Rediculous!
To bad these dont come in black, i was considering painting them but figured they would look terrible in no time so i decided not to.
