Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors OT, BSA magazine project update

Another stormy day so I finally got back on the project. Starting with 10 sets of blanks I finally got one done to the point where I think I will stop after putting some final touches on the finish I applied a couple weeks ago (have 1 more functional and 7 far from done, only lost one so far - bent backwards). I got it to take & feed 7 rounds but now that I see how much undersized I had to make the follower for that to work I think the originals must have only held 6 rounds (as will the rest of mine).

After all this work the magazine came out looking like a POS after I applied finish (almost exactly the way I wanted it to look). When I showed it to a couple people and said I made that just a few weeks ago they look at me kind of funny, probably just surprised anyone would take credit for making something will a blue job that looked that bad (definitely not Turnbull quality).

Here are two pictures showing Kiwi's original (top) and mine in the white.




Here' mine as I think I will leave it -




CONTINUED IN NEXT POST - to many pictures to display in one

With flash -


Without flash -


With flash -


without flash -

What sort of bluing process are you using?

Van's 'cold blue' applied with heat, then rubbed with burnishing compound to remove the blue from the high wear areas, Plum Brown applied with heat to give a rust finish on the parts where the blue was removed, then left in boiling water for about a half hour to stabilize it all, which I am not sure was necessary, then another round of burnishing compound to produce wear areas, then wrapped it in wet paper & put it in a high humidity closed container to try and give it some real rust spots. Final touch up was with Brownell's Oxpho cold blue used cold & Plum Brown used with heat to blend in areas where the colors didn't show a good transition or showed bright spots.

Words to describe this? Stupendous comes to mind. Brilliant is another one. Job well done, Gene!

Which took longer, making the magazine or doing the bluing?

Looks GREAT !

Excellent craftsmanship!

Wizardry comes to mind...

Van's blue is great stuff when used with a little heat.

Wow.

Great Gene, Now everybody get out there and find those orphaned BSA pumps!!

Brilliant Gene
No other superlative would give better description
How did you go on the little screw
Cheers

I use cut down #2-56's from a Brownell's screw kit, which is smaller than the measurements of the original you sent me, but they did not require the head to be turned to a mushroom shape to fit the slot like the larger originals. I did use lock washers to get them to stick out a bit farther, they were very hard to push on to assist in loading the magazine with the smaller head and that helped - they really must be there just for that because the follower can't come out the top even with out them. I had problems finding #2 lock washers, I had to order 100 pcs so I have some to sell! When I found places that sold them individually they always wanted $5~$6 dollars shipping and no local stores stocked them, I got them added to an order from a place I used to work (the shop that let me use their equipment to make them).

By the way, does your original only hold 6 rounds?

Hi Gene
sorry its taken so long
Finally got a day off
I checked my mag and can only get 5 in
But as the photos I sent you show mine has a spring repair
as to whether this makes a difference is hard to say
I don't have a copy of the Golden Century, but all the info I have read no where can I find how many rounds the mag are meant to hold
Cheers Graham

Graham, I had not looked at the information on this site for a long time - www.rifleman.org.uk/BSA, they have a picture of a loaded magazine and it has 6 rounds. I had to shorten my follower from the spec's you gave me by a lot, both top & bottom, and lengthen the slot in the side of the magazine a little to get 7 rounds to load. I think all the rest will be made to hold only 6, even though this one seems to function fine with 7 -
load_zpsqnkcd0vi.mp4
BSA%20feeding%202_zps0pq1ts4v.mp4

Outstanding!

Hi Gene
Yes I missed that, I think you have nailed it by being bang on the money with your 6 shot mag
very impressive
We used to have a retired gent in Australia that could produce any hard to find mag, and do very could copy he finally pulled the pin at I think 82 but you could with the skills you have gained create yourself a very lucrative side line to fund the interest
But end of the day your life your choice
The 1 gent over here is hanging out to see how you are progressing
and 2 others have put their hands up
Great job Gene