Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors OT - BSA magazine project

I didn't quite get as far as I though this week, underestimated the problems. I did get one almost complete but had trouble when I curved the rear over to hold the cartridge, I used thicker material than the original (22 Ga, 0.030") to make it easier to weld and the thicker material will need to be thinned at the rear to allow the cartridge to be high enough for the bolt to pick it up. In the example shown I took some material off the front of the magazine so the whole magazine would sit farther up but that did not work well. I have 8 other bodies yet and should get all the rest to work, I think even this one can be fixed to feed well with a little grinding.

When I welded them i found my Tig skills seemed to have diminished a little since the early '70's for some reason, I used to weld occasionally every few years, at least once every five or six... The main problem I found was my having eye balls that required tri-focals and trying to see to just seal weld a tight fitting seam when only running 20~25 amps with a 1/16th tungsten, not a very bright or big arc - but I still can see to grind, which a skill that has saved many a poor welder. I did get some bleed through on the weld and will have to also grind the inside rear, as it is now the rims of the test cartridges hang up on the rough spots.

I did not get a decent follower made & just have a rather crude one made of a strip of sheetmetal.



[img]http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa105/GeneBB/BSA%20magazine%20project/first%20complete%20mag/BSA%20%20magazine%20left%20side_zpsakwqtlil.jpg~original[/img]







Video of magazine being put in gun

Video of magazine being taken apart



I did take more picture of how it's done but they are not available yet.