Posted: 1/23/2009 9:27:46 PM EDT
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Hello, I was looking for a tutorial on how to rivet a USGI magazine into a California legal 10/20 or 10/30 mag and could
not find to many, so i decided to just do it, and make my own tutorial. So hopefully this will be helpful to others looking to do the same. Enjoy! On a second note, I cannot guarantee this will work with all magazines or followers, so please measure everything before trying this to ensure it will work with your hardware and fit into your lower reciver. On a third note, I am NOT an expert on law and legislature, and i am writing this tutorial for INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!!! Some say that this method of making legal 10 round mags is not permanent enough to stand up to gun laws in certain states. I cannot and will not be held responsible for misuse of this information or the techniques used in modifying these magazines. Please research your local laws and decide if this method will conform to your local states laws before modifying your magazines. Again, i will not be held responsible for the misuse of this information, and it is just that. FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!! With that said, lets get started! First, here are all the tools i used to modify these magazines, from left to right Standard rivet's (I used the 1/4") Pointed awl Drinking straw Pen/Sharpie Handheld rivet gun Ball peen hammer You may use whatever you have on hand. 
1. Open your box of 20/30 round magazine rebuild kits. (I would like to hope you ordered your mags in REBUILD KIT form..) 
2. Insert the follower into your magazine body. Be sure to hold it into place with your finger so it stays in place while you insert rounds into your magazine. 
3. Carefully insert 10 rounds of .223 ammunition into the magazine (Dummy rounds would be preferred for safety but i did not have any to use for this tutorial.) Be careful not to let the follower turn sideways, use pressure from your finger inserted into the magazine. Once full, give it a rap on your hand to insure all the rounds are seated properly while holding pressure on the follower. 
4. Insert a device to be used for measuring the distance from the edge of the follower to the bottom of the magazine. I used a drinking straw for this since the marks can be easily removed if you fuged up marking it. be sure to keep pressure on the follower the whole time to ensure the mark is correct. 
5. Transfer the mark you made onto the magazine body. 
6. Remove all the rounds and the follower so you can safely drill into the magazine. 
7. I chose to wrap the magazine in a dish towel and insert into a bench vise to ease in the drilling process. You can skip this step if you don't have access to one. 
8. Then use an awl and ball peen hammer to divot the magazine so your drill bit does not walk around when you start your hole. (you can see some of the finish was chipped of in the process, these magazines were teflon coated. Not a big deal, the rivet will cover this.) 
9. Carefully drill your hole into the magazine. You may wish to have someone spray the bit with WD40 if its dull to ease drilling, but it is not needed. 
10. Nice clean hole! 
11. Now insert the follower and spring back into the magazine, you will need these installed, because once the rivets are in place, you will not be able to insert them. 
12. Do not yet install the floorplate. Having the floorplate installed while the mag installed is illegal and should not be done since you will have a high cap magazine on your hands. You should press the spring and mag on your work bench while you do the next step. This picture illustrates what the floorplate looks like after you complete installation of the rivet. You should not install the floorplate while the magazine capacity is not restricted to 10 rounds or less. You may also wish to weld the floorplate or insert some kind of nylon block, ext, if you feel the rivet method of makeing a 10/20 mag is not safe enough for you under current california law. I find it plenty safe for me, but i will probably weld the plate on mine at another time. 
13. Insert a 1/4" rivet into the hole in the magazine and install with your rivet gun. 
14. Magazine with rivet installed. 
15. Reinsert 10 rounds into the magazine. Take another round and try to insert into the magazine to verify it will now only accept 10 rounds. As you can see, i could not insert the 11th round. If it does, your markings were off, or your rivet folded up in the wrong way. You can drill out the rivet and install another, this may resolve the problem. If not, you may need to install another rivet into the other side of the mag to assist in keeping the follower in place. I installed two rivets anyway just to make sure that if one ever decided to fail, the other will still hold back the follower. 
17. And here are my 10/20 mags. To finish off the magazines, you can color the rivets with a black sharpie. I did not do this since i did not have any around. It looks much nicer when they are colored black to match. 
Well there you have it, hopefully this may help out others trying to make there own 10/20, 10/30 legal magazines. Thanks for reading! |
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Bingo! We have a winner!
Yet another of the Great Unwashed who thinks a simple rivet makes the mag permanently restricted to low capacity. Wrong. Permanence in instances like this is required by 12020(c)(25)(A) PC: A feeding device that has been permanently altered so
that it cannot accommodate more than 10 rounds. Even though level of permanence is not defined, if it's easy to remove/recover capacity (rivets are easy to remove) it ain't permanent. If the mag, however, essentially has to be destroyed to recover capacity then you're in much better territory. Bill Wiese San Jose CA |
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Quoted:
Bingo! We have a winner! Yet another of the Great Unwashed who thinks a simple rivet makes the mag permanently restricted to low capacity. Wrong. Permanence in instances like this is required by 12020(c)(25)(A) PC: A feeding device that has been permanently altered so
that it cannot accommodate more than 10 rounds. Even though level of permanence is not defined, if it's easy to remove/recover capacity (rivets are easy to remove) it ain't permanent. If the mag, however, essentially has to be destroyed to recover capacity then you're in much better territory. Bill Wiese San Jose CA Bingo, Bingo, Bingo! You just posted exactly what i was going to reply! Permanence is not defined  . Your going to tell me that the 10/30 mags being sold with the only a small notch pushed into the mag to retain the follower is more "permanent then mine? Give me 60 seconds and a screwdriver and i could reverse that, but they are being sold everywhere. Anything that can be made can be taken back apart and made not permenent. It just depends how much time you want to spend.
Bobby |
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Bingo, Bingo, Bingo! You just posted exactly what i was going to reply! Permanence is not defined . Your going to tell me that the 10/30 mags being sold with the only a small notch pushed into the mag to retain the follower is more "permanent then mine? Give me 60 seconds and a screwdriver and i could reverse that, but they are being sold everywhere. Anything that can be made can be taken back apart and made not permenent. It just depends how much time you want to spend.
1. Just because it's not formally defined doesn't mean you should not make a more-than-reasonable effort to achieve some level of permanence (i.e, destruction of major parts of mag to try to reverse capacity limitation). When something like this is undefined, it's the judge that gets to determine matters of law. And he may well not think pop rivets are permanent given they can be drilled out clawed out with some nippers etc. 2. Just because outta state idiots not understanding CA law are selling 10/30 mags into CA with bent tabs doesn't mean they'll stand up to a test. 3. I sure as hell wouldn't own one. You may be rich and can take risks. Remember, a screwup here risks leading to an AW charge on a rifle with a BB/Prince50 (as opposed to a 'featureless' rifle that can drop mags). Bill Wiese San Jose CA |
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Quoted:
Bingo, Bingo, Bingo! You just posted exactly what i was going to reply! Permanence is not defined . Your going to tell me that the 10/30 mags being sold with the only a small notch pushed into the mag to retain the follower is more "permanent then mine? Give me 60 seconds and a screwdriver and i could reverse that, but they are being sold everywhere. Anything that can be made can be taken back apart and made not permenent. It just depends how much time you want to spend.
1. How much effort would you define as reasonable?? If I inserted a block to hold the follower and welded the bottom plate, you could just hacksaw the mag, rip it out and spot weld back together. All easy to do in my measly 1 car garage in no more then 30 minutes. So who is to define reasonable effort for me? Should I take the rivets, weld those, JB weld on top of that, weld the floorplate, insert a follower restricting rod, press in a holding tab into the side of the mag, and toss in a little duct tape in the mix just to make sure it all stays together? All of the things I just stated are used to make mags legal in CA and all are easy to revert. In the end, it is up to the judge, your right. 2. Well CA is letting these mags in, so I would assume that they are OK with them. Haven't heard of a case of anyone getting busted with these easy to revert mags. Don't think they have plates welded to their mags either. So how would these mags be any more permanent then my magazine mod? 3. do you run a featured build w/BB or prince50? If so, what mags are you using? 10 rounders? As stated in my tutorial, if you don't agree with the idea, then don't build one. Simple as that. I just posted it up because I know many people from CA do this to mags. Just thought I would put up some info on how it could be done. have not heard of a case of them getting busted for rivet modded mags either. Sure it could be different/better, if you want to fill the mag with cement just be safe, go ahead. |
nice work
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I like that as a start but would glue a rod inside the well before sealing the bottom with JB Weld.
Actually I use a MonsterMan grip so I can use my pre-1999 magazines. 
I do have some shorty magazines and don't mind them at all. Even with the MM grip I like the 20-round magazines as it allows me to get just that much closer to mother earth while shooting. |
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A feeding device that has been permanently altered so that it cannot accommodate more than 10 rounds. The question becomes what is the definition of permanent. If the mag was made out of 1" steel plates and welded together, I could still disassemble the magazine. The Earth is not permanent. So doesn't the definition of permanent become a reasonable modification requiring the use of tools to modify? Nothing is permanent. |
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I just don't understand why you are concerned about this, bweise.
You have to disassemble the magazine (which requires the use of tools) and then you need to use tools to remove the rivet. After removing the rivet, there's still a hole in the body as testimony to its having been a ten rounder. That hole is permanent. So is the rivet, unless it is intentionally removed. It isn't going to just vaporize after and presto!, you have a 20 round magazine. That speaks of a degree of permanence, at least it does to me. |