Hi, new poster, 527 Carbine sight parts

[armoredman]

That was one he was going to try, but the space is very narrow, so IIRC, he couldn't get that one to work right. Now an adapter kit to fit....

[SteelHorseCowboy]

It is some tight space for sure. Do you recall whether he tried polymer or steel?
I wish there were x39 guns that use mags a bit more similar.

I did just look at the feed lips and you were right. Only about the rear third of the lips were even in contact with the cartridges. That perfectly explains the failures to feed and the follower jumping out while I was fooling around with it. Now to work out why it's so hard to depress the rear of the cartridges while loading it.

Or I may hang it up. I was already planning on ordering at least two more. I'm going to do that and order a single stack AK mag to tinker with, and I might just turn this mag into a bob sled. I'll wait until after I try to modify the AK mag, because if that doesn't work I'll play around with just the follower. I looked at the followers from my magpul double stacks, and I think I could easily get those to work but I'm not going to try. I'd rather experiment on something I don't mind throwing away.

Right now, the mag seems to work better with my home made follower and pinching the feed lips, but I'm still fighting to get more than three rounds in.

[armoredman]

The inside walls of the mag are smooth, no rough spots? Wonder if it narrows down as you go down for some reason. I have a Masuer that doesn't like more than 4 in the mag, but it's been converted so many times it has the right to complain.
He's using steel, to the best of my knowledge - he's a very old school guy, works with wood and steel exclusively.
If you get that single stack to work, you might work with Manticore or someone similar to make a conversion kit, might sell. I'd probably buy one or two.

[SteelHorseCowboy]

The inside of the mag body seems perfect. My follower does like to snag on the whatchamacallits. The little cut outs that seat against the bottom of the mag well? I can work that out, but I'm not sure I'm going to bother. There's a sharp corner on my homemade follower.

I have no clue why I can't easily load more than 3.

[SteelHorseCowboy]

Well, it took a bit longer than expected, but I finally received my two new mags. Both function just fine out of the box, but I only cycled 5 rounds from each one without firing. I expect they'll be fine.
The followers still like to tip a bit, but nothing like the one I got with the rifle, which had that broken follower.
Speaking of, I just turned it into a "bob sled" single shot mag. Didn't get much time to fiddle with it before my next range trip, so I had to do something.

I disassembled the mag, no floorplate, no spring or follower. Turned it upside down and dropped in a round and then the follower. Then I gently clamped it in a vise. The object being to simply hold the mag upside down with the round resting on the feed lips and the follower resting on the round. Then, with the mag upside down, I carefully filled in between the mag walls and my cheesy homemade follower with rubber cement. Would have used JB Weld or something else, but rubber cement was the best I had.
I let it cure over night. Next morning I was able to slip out that round, and then I ground the feed lips off so that they wouldn't interfere with dropping one round on top of it at a time. Smoothed the edges down, and it was good to go.
It's a cheap, nasty looking piece of redneck engineering, but it functions exactly as intended.

[SteelHorseCowboy]

Oh, quick question:
Has anyone ever had any trouble with these mags that they suspect could be related to leaving them loaded?
I'm from the "leave 'em loaded" camp personally. Have never had a problem with it. The idea that metal fatigue comes from working metal back and forth just seems like a sound theory to me. I thought about it this way: if I took a piece of straight wire, bend it in half, then straighten it right away, it'll take just as much effort to bend it again right away, as it would to bend it again a year from now.
Just figured I'd ask for future reference, it seems many guns have certain quirks and differences. They'll most likely be left unloaded since it's not intended for home defense and my fugly bob sled seems easier to use on the range.

Actually, this is the only mag I've ever had a problem with from any mag fed firearm I've owned or ever used.

[Ron M.]

I've never had a problem with magazines for my 223 or 7.62x39 527 carbines. I normally carry a spare loaded mag in my jacket or cargo pants pocket when I'm out woods walking. I often forget to unload the spare mag for weeks at a time. I do make a point to clean and oil all my rifle mags at least once every couple of months.

[SteelHorseCowboy]

Yeah, I clean and oil mine regularly too. Some folks start screaming about blasphemy if you oil your mags, say it's going to ruin the primers in the ammo. It's not like I dunk 'em in motor oil and then load them up while they're still dripping. In my area I have to protect carbon steel against rust, and as much as many mags cost, I can't afford to slack on that. These 2 mags cost me a full day's wages before taxes, plus some change. I'm not running them bone dry like some folks scream is the only way on earth to do it. Oh man, I was the subject of a hard core flame fest a while back over this subject. Those folks should try living in a hot and humid swamp before telling me I'm going to hell for leaving a light film of oil on my mags with a rag.

[painter]

I don't leave much oil on the inside of my mags, but use a CLP type of product and wipe the excess off. I get more liberal with the exterior because skin oils will cause rust in any climate.

[SteelHorseCowboy]

Exactly how I do it, except on occasion I just use an oily rag. Depends on how dirty they are.

[painter]

Not as much of an issue in bolt action rifles. Pistol mags will get dirty faster if they're oily, especially rimfire. One member here uses paste wax.

[SteelHorseCowboy]

I haven't had an issue with it. And the only 22 pistol we have is my son's P22, stays surprisingly clean for a .22.

[SteelHorseCowboy]

I've lost my freaking mags! Haha!
I can laugh about it because I know they're somewhere in the house.
Went to the range yesterday and was going to try them out under live fire conditions. Don't expect them to operate any differently that dry cycling, but you never know.

Couldn't find 'em! Was in a bit of a rush to go hit the fishing hole before heading to the range, so I didn't look every where. To show how worried I am about it, I haven't looked for them since then either! Really, they 'round here some place...

Ugh. Might as well get to it. Ain't got nothin else to do at the moment.

[armoredman]

Find 'em yet?

[SteelHorseCowboy]

Heck no, no more than ten minutes after I posted this last night I started throwing up. Looks like whatever's been kicking my stepdaughter's butt finally got around to me. It's been about all I can manage today just to get out of bed, feed myself, and take a shower. Glad I've got plenty of sick days saved up at work.