I need magazine spring rivets! Where to buy?

[browningautorifle]

When we'd order small stuff like this, sometimes we'd get it and sometimes it would return as..."No requirement". Then there were the cheek pieces for the C7 rifles(M16A2)...turned out to be new in the paper cheek pieces for M1Ds...by the dozen...

[Peter Laidler]

During my days at Aldershot, some blanket stacker indented for 500 or so loo rolls. Back came a telephone querie from another blanket stacker higher up the food chain and sure enough, 500 loo rolls it was. They duly arrived in a xxxxxxg great contractors lorry (these things come direct from the manufacturer on contracts now.....). Not LOO rolls....., as in toilet rolls, but those xxxxxxg great 3' diameter, paper industrial BLUE rolls of workshop hand wipes. The lorry driver of course just shrugged his shoulders with the stock '........it's xxxx-all to do with me mate' well known phrase or saying and off he went! Red faces all round - or should that be blue faces? I expect that the workshops have just about used them up by now.

[Brian Dick]

Hey Jim, We're the cheekpieces dry rotten? I sold an M1D a few years ago that was straight from the DCM program and it had all of the accessories with it new in the wrap. The new owner unwrapped the 1950's vintage cheekpiece, wanting to install it on the rifle and it fell into pieces from dry rot!! We had a Hell of a time finding him another original one. They used to be a dime a dozen but not anymore!!

[browningautorifle]

These were perfect and new. Stores man didn't say where they came from but it was our system. He came to me to find out how to put them on the Colt/Dimaco rifle...all perfect with the screws and thong...NEW. Sealed in package.

[Brian Dick]

Nice find. Didn't the Canadian Army have a Battalion of soldiers armed with US M1 Rifles and Carbines during Korea or is that mythology? I remember reading it somewhere. It would make sense that these type items were still in stores if so.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

If you mean the "Rivet, Spring, Platform, Magazine".........

Overall Length:- 0.130" (+0.010")
"Head" diameter:- 0.15" (+0.01")
"Body" Diameter:- 0.075" (-0.002")
"Body" length:- 0.110" (+0.003")

Material: Mild steel, left soft.

From: A.I.D. 1320A,
Specification S. A. 435A
Sheet 4 of 4

Also identified as:

Vocab number:- BAA 3411

If you can't get any from the "usual suspects", it should be a "one coffee" job to whip up a couple on a basic lathe, be it yours or someone else's.

There is a catch, as always. You will need to find an appropriate set of tools to correctly fasten these dinky little rivets.

If you don't have said tools, seek out your local "miniature engineering" enthusiasts (steam engine buffs).

Good luck!

[browningautorifle]

Didn't the Canadian Army have a Battalion of soldiers armed with US M1 Rifles and Carbines during Korea

Not as far as I know Brian. The old hands told me of being issued US weapons when they went to train in the US and the FN was just starting service. I thought that was neat until I went stateside for training and was issued an M16, later in Australia and M60...but we didn't have battallions issued US rifles. Now, First Special Service Force on the other hand, they were Canadian/U.S. troops and were issued US weapons...but that was WW2...

[Brian Dick]

I'm familiar with the Special Service Force. I also have a copy of "The Tangled Web" by Summers, about Canadian web gear up into the 1980's. It shows Canadian troops destined for service with the Americans in the Aleutian Islands wearing battledress with US M1 steel pot helmets, web gear and equipment. They are still armed with Canadian weapons. Interesting stuff. I have a Canadian Infantry Training Pam here for the U.S. M1 Rifle so they had a pile someplace!

[browningautorifle]

Yes, we had the CAMT's up until not long ago. I collected the FM's the platoon held for all the US weapons in the 90s and took them home. I don't think it was that we had a pile but there were some employed in CFE (Europe) at the time the FN was just coming on line. You can find them with electro pencil C broad arrow marks. Germany only...not here. They were used for guard on the airfields...