By far the crappiest AR mag I own, is the 10rnder that came with my Bushmaster... I was wondering, if anyone had a good idea on how to limit it's capacity to 5 rnds, to make it hunting legal??? That way, I don't have to shell out for a 5 rnder, and get some use of the POS they sent out with the rifle... If the baseplate(plastic) could be removed, it'd be no sweat - it has what seems to be a plastic retainer pin through the mag body, that will move a little, but won't come out...

I'm thinking about either punching it out, anyways(likely breaking it in the process), and replacing it with something - and installing something to limit the travel of the follower to 5...

Or, drilling a hole in the plastic baseplate, installing a heli-coil, and a fastener of some sort to stop the follower at 5 ...

Any other ideas???


  - georgestrings

You mean they are acually going to check to see if it can hold more then 5 rounds?

Can you disassemble the mag at all? If so add a blob of jb weld to the botom of the follower to limit the travel.

Well, here in NY, it's illegal to hunt with a semi-auto rifle who's mag holds more than 5 rounds - apparantly, that's a common game law in many of the states... A game warden might check it, yes... I haven't found a way to disasemble it yet - without breaking something, that is... BTW, it was pretty easy to cut capacity on an AK 10rnder... Still looking for suggestions...


   - georgestrings

I believe that the ten round AR mags that Bushmaster sells is designed to break if anyone attempts to open it up for modification.  

could you do a little cutting/ filing/ bending on the bottom edge to form tabs that will accept a USGI floorplate?  as long as it can't hold more that 10rds afterwards i think you would be OK.  another option that i have seen Candians use is to use a sheet metal screw in the side to stop the follower from going down past the 5rd mark.  it looks kinda like a hack job, but works.    

Having had a couple post ban POS mags just come apart at the seams in the past, here is what I've found out.

The "plastic retainer pin" is actually a piece of steel as near as I could tell. Conventional disassembly is not possible. Disassembly is nearly impossible.  I said nearly because it can be done with a little effort and a complete dis-regard for the life of the mag...

I noticed that BFI uses a nice  green anti-tilt follower in these post ban POS mags.  Why have a green anti tilt follower in a 5 or 10 round magazine?  I wanted the follower for one of my 30s and I wasn't worried about destroying the POS mag in the process.

Use a screw driver or some other tool, preferably one that won't scratch the follower.  Tip the front of the follower as far down as possible allowing the rear of the follower to tilt forward. The rear of the follower should get *stuck* allowing you to take the tool out of the mag body without movement of the follower. If it doesn't get stuck, just insert your finger behind the follower and hold it while you remove the tool. Then insert the tool behind, which really is now underneath, the follower and pull the follower towards the front of the magazine. Eventually you should be able to pull the follower out ass first (EDITED TO ADD: at the front of the magazine) with a little finessing.

To reassemble, pull a bit of the spring out of the magazine, affix the spring to the follower and then insert the follower into the front of the magazine nose first and push down (EDITED: on the rear of the follower)  while also pulling the rear of the follower backwards (EDITED TO ADD: once the back of the follower clears the feed lips)  It should go back in, once again with a little finesse.  Use your tool to depress the spring and follower a few times to ensure everything works smoothly.

With that, a person can replace the (green0 follower with a (EDITED: Black follower) and/or block it however you see fit to limit the capacity to 5 rounds etc. I will caution however that the above process may cause the poor welds commonly found on the post ban BFI mags to come apart, attempt at your own risk of losing a poor POS mag. If you currently don't use the magazine, and don't have anything better to do. (EDITED TO ADD: it beats washing the dishes)

Hope this works out for you.

ADDITION:  Getting the follower out isn't very hard at all.  Once you get it out it should be apparent how to get it back in.

Sly

(Edited for Clarity?)

georgestrings: I have a couple of the Bushmaster 10-round magazines. They are date-stamped 2002 & 2003 and are grey teflon coated. I have used them quite a lot without any malfunctions or problems.

If you are interested, Bushmaster has a  magazine that is made exactly like the 10-rounder except for it being blocked for 5-rounds. It costs about $15.00.

This is the first I've heard of anyone complaining about the "POS" new style BM mags.  Those comments were always reserved for the franken-mags.  Now that the new style mag has been out for a while, are people beginning to experience reliability problems?  Mine work fine except that one only holds 9 rounds.

Thanks for the suggestions, gents - I'm going to ponder it a little while longer before I act...

GRH2 - The idea is to get some use out of the 10rnder, and end up with a hunting mag without spending anything - thanks, anyways...

semiauto - Well, all my other mags are either Colt 20's, or GI 30's - so, the Bushy 10rnder isn't in their league, IMO... It hasn't malfunctioned, per se - but when loaded to capacity, doesn't like to seat in the mag well unless the bolt is held back... I mostly resent that it only holds 10 rounds, instead of 20 or 30(I realize that isn't Bushmaster's fault, though)...


  - georgestrings

georgestrings,
I edited my earlier post to clarify how to fiddle with disassembling a post ban AR mag.
I would also like to clarify my earlier statements as well...

semiauto,
I'm not flaming you here but have you ever heard anyone praise any reduced capacity post ban magazine?

Now that semiauto jogged my memory of those old "Postban Frankenmags". It was those cut in half - riveted together early post ban mags from BFI that I had come apart.  I have yet to have one of the newer style mags with the plastic plug in the bottom come apart ...Unlike some folks, I know when to call a spade a spade.  After having those early reduced capacity mags fail me I have concluded that any POST BAN magazine, read: altered from original configuration, is in fact a piece of crap. I won't use the post ban AR mags and so the new style  hasn't had the opportunity to fail me.  It isn't the manufacturers fault, the blame falls on the politicians and bureaucracies who think they know what's best for firearms enthusiasts. The manufacturers are just trying to comply.

So in short, I don't reserve my comments only for those early style "franken-mags"...I reject them all using a "blanket" opinion.

Sly

As far as I know those "POS" mags are actually post ban Teflon coated Labelles cut down to accomodate only 10 rds.  Labelle had the BM contract before the ban.

... Probably would in Arizona. I'd say your best bet is a good concept of form and a piece of hardwood.

Sly - Thanks for the tip - now that I've got the follower out(without breaking anything, hahaha), I can fashion a hardwood block that'll sit inside the spring coils to limit follower travel.. I like that idea rather than screwing anything into either the mag body or the plastic baseplate... Should work out just fine, and atleast I get some good use out of the 10rnder(newly converted 5rnd hunting legal)... I'm with you on the post ban mags - if it didn't come with the rifle, I probably wouldn't own one of them - 20's and 30's for me, thank you!!! Also agreed on your assessment of where to place the blame - squarely on the socialist POS pols - and NOT the manufacturers... After all, if the manufacturers had just laid down and quit(like the gun grabbers wanted), there wouldn't BE any "post ban" black rifles... Once again, THANK GOD for capitalism!!!

Thanks again,   - georgestrings

Here's a little update, incase anyone's interested:

After a little exam, and experimentation, I decided to use a piece of 5/16" allthread, cut to a length of 3 and 3/16 inches... After grinding off a tiny bit of the threads for about 2 inches, it was a nice snug fit in a hole in the baseplate, towards the back of the mag(inside the spring coils)... I then put a little epoxy on that area( just to make sure it didn't rattle loose, somehow), and pushed it into the baseplate until it bottomed out... This ended up being just the right length to limit the follower travel to 5 rounds... It is a little tricky to re-install the follower, but wasn't all that much a big deal... I tried it out, and voila - I now have a 5 round hunting mag!!! If done properly, you should be able to see about 1/16 " of the allthread by looking through the slot in the mag body for the mag catch, when held at eye level...

Now, to some, this might seem like too much effort, instead of just buying a 5rnd mag - BUT, it didn't cost me a dime, and now I'm getting some use out of the post ban 10rnd mag that came with my rifle... And, after it's figured out, it really wouldn't take all that long to repeat the process... Besides, I've got time, and not all that much $$$...

Thanks to all for your replies, and especially to I-M-A-WMD for clueing me into how to take out the follower without butchering the mag altogether...


  - georgestrings

georgestrings,

Glad I could help.  

I would recommend, if you have one laying around, that you install an old black follower. (At one time, I had 60 of the black followers laying around which had been replaced with the green ones)  The green anti-tilt with the leg at the front of the follower may give you problems fitting the follower back in with the plug in place.  If you get tha mag up and running before the post dies, let us know how it worked out for you.

Sly

I-M-A-WMD - Well, the "limiter" DID catch the anti-tilt leg on the green follower a little(during re-install), but I was able to overcome that with a little finesse... That's why the length of the "limiter" is so critical - too long, and the green follower won't go back in - too short, and it'll allow 6 rounds to be loaded...

Actually, after looking at it again, it was the post on the follower that the spring attaches to that just caught the "limiter" - not the anti-tilt leg...

I haven't shot it, yet - but after manually cycling it through a few times, it seems like it's going to work just fine... It's feeding every round, there's been no binding(follower or spring coil), and it locks back when empty, so I'm pretty sure it's going to work just fine... I've got a few of the black followers kicking around, too - but really wanted to stick with the green one... After a little wiggling, it went into place, no prob(seems like a similar method for accomplishing ALOT of things, hahaha)... Thanks again, bud... I saved a couple of $$$, and it gave me something to do on a crappy upstate NY winter morning - it's snowing like a bastard at the moment!!!


  - georgestrings

I-M-A-WMD, no and I too wish that they didn't even exist.  But they do and I use them at the range to save wear and tear on my pre-bans.