Magazine - Some tips

[imarangemaster]

I originally posted this on the CMP carbine forum, but think it has value. If you have been a or a lifelong carbine shooter like me, or a carbine collector, something as mundane as the correct way to assemble, and easy way to clean carbine magazines is a no brainer. There are so many new people (many noobs), however, enjoying carbines, and so many magazines coming in from gosh knows where, I thought I might share it here, too...


Well it is a dismal day, the wife is out of town, and I can't shoot because of my bad shoulder. Since I want to start shooting carbine matches in the spring after my shoulder re-build, I decided to break out my box of Carbine magazines, break them down, clean and lube, and in general check them out.

I have about (20) 15s and (12) 30s, all GI. The ones I use on a regular basis (3-4 15s and 2 of the 30s) have been cleaned and lubed regularly. The rest just went into the carbine mag box in the safe when I acquired them.

What is interesting is that I found when going through the 15s that I have collected through the years that several had the follower in backwards, and 5 of them had the spring in backwards. That is about one third that were put together wrong. Another discovery was that many of the magazines, the rear of the bottom was spread, allowing the base plate to be pushed into the magazine, not catching on the edges.

For those new to carbines, the longer edge of the spring goes to the rear, as does the longer guide of the follower. In the picture, the rear of the magazine is to the left. This set up is true of the 30 rounders, too.



For cleaning I use two shotgun 12 gauge mops on handles. One with WD40 to scrub the inside, then one with a light amount of break free to lube. It works great. For surface rust, WD40 and a BRASS brush is good. Anyway, after cleaning, the bases were pinched in slightly by the rear groove, and re-assembled with springs and followers in the correct direction.

I hope this helps those new folks having feeding issues with their carbines.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.