I have several Uzi mags that I am going to modify to work in my Colt patern 9mm settup.  I have only cut one so I could make sure it works well before messing up the whole lot of them.  On the last two rounds it jams (fail to feed).  When that happened I remembered that I read of a fix for that, but I can't for the life of me remember where.  Can someone here help me make my mag work?  Thanks.

I haven't heard of the last two rounds failing to feed but I suspect it's due to the mag not sitting high enough.  The last couple of rounds in any of my UZI mags tip nose up and ass down and the bolt barely catches them.

With the mags I got from DSA I had to take some off of the front where they butt against the feed ramp so that the mag would go far enough up.  Then, I marked and hacked out the notches for the mag catch and the bolt catch.
It didn't take much, just a couple of light passes with Ye Olde Dremel on that front lip and it was up enough.

Thanks JED.  I'll give that a try.  Mine are DSA mags too.

Welding a small nipple on the back of the bottom shelf of the follower might also help with this.  I have a pic of a colt 9mm mag that appears to have a nipple on the follower.

Can you post the pic or email it to me?

look where the arrows are pointing.

[img]http://photos.ar15.com/ImageGallery/IG_LoadImage.asp?iImageUnq=12623[/img]

I'm looking at an UZI follower and a Colt follower and I don't quite get it.

'splain to me Lucy, how do you get the nub high enough and far enough back.  In my IMI mags there is only a few thousands of a channel back there and on the Lyttleton (DSA) mag there isn't any channel.

It looks like a nub going straight up wouldn't trip the catch and would also interfere with the rounds.

I'd love send a batch of followers out and get back  ones that hold the bolt open.

Others have said things like this and I'll put it this way:  Figure out how to make a $30 25 round mag that holds a Colt open and you've just built the better mouse trap.  I think that's the case despite the AWB sunset.

The nipple is only purpose is to push the back end of the cartridges up just a little more so the bolt doesn't jump over them.  They have nothing to do with holding the bolt open.

I know which nipple that is.  I'm talking about the part of the Colt follower that actually contacts the bolt catch.

I don't see how that can be added to an UZI follower without messing things up.

I think the factory colt mags were custom made mags.  Not converted from uzi mags.

That's right.  Colt factory mags are very similar to UZI mags but are not quite the same thing.  

The biggest difference is that the Colt mags have a channel up the back and the UZI mags don't.  The channel is for the nub on the follower that contacts the bolt catch.

Too bad someone doesn't make a plastic replacement follower (for less than $20) with a spring loaded detent that pops out and contacts the bolt hold-open.

That's what it would appear to take, as you mentioned before, there is no room for the nub without having the channel in the rear. It seems it would be a little too convoluted to me. It can't pop up before the last round is fired, can't be pushing up too hard on the round, but has to push up hard enough to lift the bolt catch; plus it would probably have to tilt back somewhat to contact the bolt catch.

It would be nice though if someone could engineer such a contraption.

I'm not the first guy to think of it and the way I'd do it isn't even exactly original.

The trick is to make it a little lever or ramp that comes out of the back a little ways.  That way the spring pressure required is minimal and the spring tension has nothing to do with tripping the bolt catch.  If you could grind a little groove in the back of a steel follower and then spot weld the right little strip of springy steel in place it should work and not screw with the rounds against the follower.