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Post by HMC710 on Aug 26, 2018 20:50:48 GMT -5
Hey mtndrew,
I don't make adapters any more. Our M1 Carbine "AR" mags are working well for 1.55" - 1.7" rounds. This will handle the 357 ARMag, 10mm Mag, and M1 Carbine. I've been focusing on the Short mags: 1.28 - 1.4" for the TCM, Tokarev, etc. I'm using Brand X bodies because the internal geometry is easiest to work with. However: once I get past 5 rounds loaded, the feed lip dimensions work against me. If you load up 15 rounds and drop the mag, rounds will pop out.
Did some work on our previous design which will help, but I don't know if its the answer. I was hoping to get enough working mags to invest into injection mold tooling, but that is going to mean a lot of sales to pay for it.
We are still prototyping but it looks like this last run of Beta mags will be the last of this design. I've got the next gen sketched up and will see about machining parts in the next month. Just very busy at work and travels....
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Post by HMC710 on Sept 23, 2018 19:50:21 GMT -5
Got 3 Gen2 mags built today (I started this design before the ones we did the Beta test on....., so Should have stayed on my original track) and Mag3 worked and fed. I used Beta followers which have a different BHO, but the concept works. Did three different feed ramps and Ramp3 is the best so far. Now to find a similar magazine spring and make some more parts. Hopefully, with no travel plans so far this week, I can knock out some parts for full range testing next weekend. Mag capacity will be approx. 15 rounds and we'll see if we can adapt the parts to larger mags.
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Post by HMC710 on Sept 24, 2018 21:53:40 GMT -5
Tweaked two of the mag set ups tonight and loaded a few hundred rounds of TCM. Hopefully will get some serious range time this weekend.
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Post by HMC710 on Sept 27, 2018 21:31:07 GMT -5
Three new followers made and test went well. Need to open things up a bit to handle the 762x25 Tokarev without messing up the TCM..... We'll see how it goes
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Post by HMC710 on Sept 30, 2018 19:55:13 GMT -5
Tested yesterday evening with 3 mag set ups. Got some nose high jams so test was not a full success. Mags hold 15 rounds, but we did not get through a full mag without a nose up jam. On the other hand, the gun shoots. Threw 5 of the 40 gr Nosler Varmint down at 25yd target. Gave it 4 clicks left and added 5 factory Armscor 40gr JFN with the same load and was surprised it just opened that group up a bit. Did some work on things today back at the shop and it helped with mag 3 and made it worse for mag 2. Tried to get some video done to slow it down and analyze it but not high enough speed to do any good. Mag 2 indicated a direction we might take, so I'll see how much time I can spend on things this week....
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Post by HMC710 on Oct 7, 2018 20:27:58 GMT -5
Total bust this weekend for testing. All bad. With the short bottle neck case, it act different than a 9mm and everything seems to hit at the wrong time. I really don't care for the mag bodies I'm using, but it make machining parts the easiest for testing. Going to make a drastic change, hopefully tomorrow and see where it helps and where it hurts......
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Post by HMC710 on Oct 8, 2018 22:23:16 GMT -5
I'm happy to say it helped. Best cycling so far, but I've been here before..... Hope to get more live firing set up before I'm wheels up again.....
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Post by HMC710 on Oct 23, 2018 20:45:56 GMT -5
Should have 5 Beta mags done for TCM testing this weekend
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Post by HMC710 on Oct 24, 2018 20:47:30 GMT -5
Just assembled 2 Gen2 mags with Rev 5 and Rev6 ramps. Rev 6 Hand Cycled great so we'll see what happens with live fire this weekend....
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Post by HMC710 on Oct 25, 2018 21:12:10 GMT -5
Its times like these I really miss my indoor test chamber..... You never know how things are going to work unless you can live fire at will. We have 6 of the Gen2 mags set up with different geometries and doing cycle tests with them. Hopefully the weather will cooperate this weekend or I'll make a trip to the local range and put the new Gen2's through their paces.
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Post by HMC710 on Oct 29, 2018 20:42:44 GMT -5
Well after the failures with the M1 and Tok set ups, I was looking forward to the TCM tests waiting for the next failure to occur. But you know what they say, a bad day at the range, still sucks. I burned up all my Armscor 40gr JFN bullets, so all I had was the 9r bullets. Some I loaded to 1.28 and some I loaded to 1.19. The "short" mags will take a 1.40" round, so there is some gap here.
Had 6 mags to test, all with various geometries. None of them cycled 100% for the 100 rounds I went through. Nose high jam was the #1 failure 99% of the time. I had one with a double feed.
Did the shorter rounds have a role in that? I don't know, but probably didn't help. I do know that the longer the round, the better they feed.
As I stated somewhere, these are all poly mags and the feed lips are what they are. With metal mags, you can tweak them to see what happens. Two of the bodies I cut the lips back a bit to shorten up the "hold time" in relationship with the follower & ramp. I did not swap ramps between the two feed lip mags.
What I though was my best hand cycling mag was my 3rd best testing live fire. Some made sense why they jammed, others didn't. I keep threatening to find a slo mo camera to watch what happens.
On a side note, I have looked at adapting a Glock lower to use TCM mags. The magwell can get modified to hold the TCM mag, and a new mag release would have to be made up to fit the TCM mag. The issue is the double stack single feed mag. The feed lips hit the bottom lugs of the AR bolt. Technically they can be ground down to fit, but I haven't got fed up enough with our mags to sacrifice a $200 lower and $50 bolt.
Plus. doing those mods would be at least a $200 shop bill. That's why I got away from the Tok mag adapters. I'm hoping to find a dedicated mag set up for $30 - $50 that works. Then if there is enough demand, send it out for injection molding and knock out 1000 of them.
We'll keep at it.... in our not too spare time....
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Post by HMC710 on Nov 10, 2018 21:50:16 GMT -5
Spent some time at the loading bench this last week.... it was long over due! First on the list was the 30 Carbine that we had chambering issues with last week and then on to the TCM. L - R we have 40gr Factory = 1.28"; 33gr SP = 1.38", 34gr HP = 1.38", 40gr HP = 1.39", 40gr vmax = 1.55", 55gr FMJ = 1.59", 75gr Amax = 1.69" As I reported last time, the 9r handloads didn't function in our new mags as well as I had hoped. We ran them at 1.28" and it was hit or mis if they would give a nose high jam or not. Today we tried some real bullets! First off were the 55gr FMJ in our M1 mag set up. We had 3 versions of the M1 set up and the 55gr had 1 nose hi jam on bolt drop but the rest fed from all three mags. The 75gr Amax also all fed from the M1 mags. I only loaded 5 at a time as my range time was limited, but I plan on going back tomorrow to finish up some other testing. Next in line was the Tok mag test for round up to 1.38" Mag C fed 100% and Mag 1 had a nose I jam on bolt drop and fed the rest of the rounds. I did not test the 3 other mag set ups due to time, but testing was much better. I'll try and get some more in tomorrow.
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Post by HMC710 on Feb 24, 2019 21:38:41 GMT -5
Didn't do much ShortMag testing with the TCM this weekend, but I did run some 55gr FMJ at 1.58" oal through our M1C mag with 100% feed. Sent prints to the machine shop to see if we can make some parts and get 50 of the M1 mags out. They work with the M1 Carbine and TCM reloads. Did a few rounds of testing with the Tok mag (1.38") and the TCM with either long 9R bullets or 34gr HP with mixed results.... we'll keep at it
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Post by HMC710 on Mar 4, 2019 23:19:56 GMT -5
Built 3 all new mags from scratch Sunday primarily for a couple 10mm builds we are doing. Trying to find the magic set up that feeds everything..... and we hit a neat option. Tested the set up on the Tokarev and got some good results so tried the same thing with the TCM. I'm out of factory so used 33gr spitzers at 1.38". 1st few tests were normal, feed some, jam one, repeat. Made some more adjust and just hand cycled and live fired two 10 rounds mags. Would like to tweak it just a bit and see if it gets better or worse and then test with multiple uppers. New mags look good, lets see if actually have made some progress. Got quote back from machine shop today for mag parts.... I'm definitely not charging enough...… As you know, we've been on this mag train for a long time and just haven't hit that sweet spot yet so we'll see if this one is any different. H
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Post by HMC710 on Apr 1, 2019 20:57:06 GMT -5
Cut a PSA Glock lower to accept TCM mags and factory loads feed pretty good. The 9R's do ok. Still need to tweak the geometry a bit and then decide if I'm cutting mags or making a new mag catch for the PSA lower. Ramp / follower geometry is a compromise so need to load up a bunch more ammo for our Short Pistol AR mag testing.
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