It's a cold rainy day here without much to do and even thought the project is not done I can't so much with it until I get access to some shop equipment again on Monday so I thought I would show what progress I have made.

Several years ago I purchased a BSA pump 22, I felt it somewhat related to the early Savage 22's because it took a box magazine, something that is now quite common in 22 bolt actions and semi-autos but very rare in pumps - I know of only 3 companies other than Savage that ever made box magazine fed 22 pumps.

Unfortunately the gun I bought was missing the magazine (I bought another a few years later, also missing the magazine). I spent a lot of time trying to find an original, or any magazine that might fit, and finally gave up on that. Kiwi recently purchased a gun that had an original magazine and took the time to send me many pictures of the magazine that included details of it taken apart.

I finally got a good start on the project. I still have to make some special dies to form the feed lips, the edges of the slot and drill holes for the catch, but I was not going to do any of that until I was sure I had figured all the bend allowances for the body well enough that it would fit. The parts for the bottom are cut.

Here is one of the many pictures Kiwi sent me of the his original -


I am trying to make the magazine look as much like an original as possible, which makes it much harder.

One step was solved when I found a copy of a 1997 CAD 3D program on eBay very cheap, it was a program I used for many years at a place I worked so I just had to do a quick refresher to begin using it. It won't run with new versions of Windows but works well on my old computer using XP. Using Kiwi's drawing and measurements from the gun I drew up the magazine (some in 3D) and also drew flat layouts of the parts - these were converted to .DXF drawings and emailed to a local Laser cutting company to get them cut, by doing this the drawing does not need any dimensions on the complicated curves or even the size, the laser just cuts to the lines I sent them.

The drawing is full scale on heavy card paper so I can cut out parts of it to use a templates if needed, I actually cut out and formed a paper magazine body and fit it in the gun to be sure it looked right before I got any metal cut.

The body as shown here has been through 6 different forming set-ups that used several custom made dies and still will need at least 3 more operations with more special dies to complete the form, and then a welding operation (now you know why I put this off for so many years)-



link to more pictures including 1 video

The forming could probably have been done with a vise, a hammer & good pair of pliers but I opted for a 180 ton press-brake capable of forming 10 foot of 1/4" plate -


link to more pictures showing all the forming operations

As always - just fascinating!! Thanks!

Now I know why no one makes fenders for my 68 Cuda. Wow. That is nice work. Thanks for sharing that with us, Joe.

Wow Gene, that's a $1000 magazine!

As always Gene, you're the guy. Who else would have taken the time and trouble to complete your journey? One of my neighbors keeps telling me if you need something done I've got a guy. Bricklayers, welders, carpenters, tree fellers he's got a guy. Whenever someone asks me a question about a problem they're having with a .22 pump I tell them I've got a guy. I doubt any of them have ever stepped up to the Campfire and PMed you. I wish you well on your quest for a working magazine.

Looking Very good Gene
Must be great to have access to all that equipment and the knowledge to use it
Kiwi

Yes Gene, This is great! You have single-handedly saved another rifle model from going extinct!

Very impressive Gene. Will we see a working copy in Wellsboro this July?

Really just amazing.

Having the equipment to make stuff doesn't do any good with out someone putting in the effort to send the information needed to know what to make - thanks for all the time you spent taking measurements & pictures for me. (I know it's been quite a while, I hope you weren't beginning to think your time was wasted!).

I hope to have them complete by the end of the week. I had 10 body's and bottoms cut and managed to get 9 good bodies through the operations done so far (bent one backwards, could still make it work, it would just have the slot on the left side). I finished drawing up the follower today but still am considering doing something less involved than coping the original.


Here are the BSA's, bottom one has the paper cutout magazine in it and the other a partially completed one (bottom one is also threaded for a suppressor, quite common on guns from England). I probably should have just been happy with the tube fed versions.

The estimates on production of the pumps is around 5000 of the tube fed and only about 1000 for the box magazine fed (I don't think I will find much of a market for any extra magazine I might end up with).

BSA = Birmingham Small Arms and started in the 1860's. Between wars they started making bicycles and then motorcycles, at one time, when they also had Triumph and Norton, they were the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world.

You will be surprised
Now I'm into the .22 cal collecting there have been the odd request for BSA mags
Don't forget NZ is part of the British Commonwealth
so a lot of English goods came out here including firearms
No I hadn't given up on you
I know how long it takes to get time to get pet projects started let alone finished when a person is busy
Cheers

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.

WAY COOL !!!!! I don't believe that there is one in ten thousand that could accomplish a feat like this. Way beyond my skill set .....

John

Damn Gene that is good
I'll take my hat of to your skills
Cheers Graham

That is simply marvelous, Gene! I wouldn't attempt that in a hundred years.

Now you need to make up a pattern for Savage 23s!

And pre-War Colt Woodsmans, and Savage .45 Autos.

Ah crap, since we are going down this road let's also throw in the High Standard HD Military! Good functioning mags for those buggers are hard to find.

I'm beginning to understand the inflated value of Winchester .22 magazines.

Really a labor of love Gene, and worth every Christmas morning smile you put on a kid's face.

I'm gonna add my vote for 99C x 284 magazines

I have 3 of these rifles and only one magazine. Their would be demand for custom made magazines

Really impressive job Gene.

Not quite done but far enough to do one last post. I was working on followers & scrapped the first attempt - I am self taught on a milling machine and I now appears I am not a very good teacher! I used some cold rolled mild steel & should have heated it & cooled it slow to relieve some of the stress, it did not get real hot form the machining but still warped enough during one operation that it became unusable, I will use a different procedure on the next attempt.

With a temporary follower made of bent sheetmetal I was still able to load 7 round & cycle them but the 5th gets hard to load and the 6th & 7th are a really difficult.


I did do some test shooting with 4 & 5 rounds loaded & after some minor adjusting it cycled quite well. One of the problems is with the gun, the firing pin is used to eject the cases and it's missing a screw that pushes on it, right now it just hits the rear of the action and moves just enough to eject, if it is pumped firmly enough. The closest I can come to measurements for the screw size is that it's a 5/32-40 (or maybe a #7-40) and is not something that is available anywhere. A #6-40 goes in very lose and since it would be getting slammed by the firing pin I don't think that would work for long, and re-tapping to an #8-40 would not work because the clearance hole in the rear of the bolt is to small.

Here is a video of it being test fired - BSA test firing

Hi Gene
The threads on a BSA
are British association BA
Check the charts
BA Pitch is 47.5 Deg
http://www.motalia.com/Html/Charts/ba_chart.html
Hope this may help
Cheers Graham