Swiss chargers drying out

[Shinhoto]

I'd love to know how you've made your DIY stripper clips, do you have any photos of the process or a write up?

[Aragorn243]

I have five white ones (blanks) coming from the Netherlands. Same ebay seller had a couple different colors available. I just went with white because why not. Everyone has the brown ones.

[Aragorn243]

Oops, white ones came with a block of wood in them for the blanks. Wouldn't have thought they'd go to the trouble for that but they did. Haven't tried getting it out yet but looks to be well glued. Lesson learned.

[Low & Slow]

Got four or five of the red (training?) ones. I have no worries about longevity with these, as the cardboard appears well protected. Certainly hard to lose.

[Aragorn243]

Follow up on the blank chargers. I got the wood out without too much difficulty. Took about 10 minutes each. Started prying it out in little sections with a very small screwdriver. Once about half was out, the remaining piece usually came on in one big chunk. There was some slight tearing of the paper on the inside, like one layer of 20 separated but it doesn't appear to have weakened them. I may paint them with some glue just in case.



I would not take a chance to save a couple of bucks however. I won't do that again but as I now have at least five chargers and I hardly ever shoot, I should be fine for when the world as we know it comes to an end.

[deadwood83]

7.5 french works quite well per BLoke on The Range YT video "[003] BotR Strip Club: French MAS 36 Charger With 7.5mm Swiss? K31 / M1911 / G11 / G96/11 / K11"

Mosin sort of works per video "[002] BotR Strip Club: Mosin Charger With 7.5mm Swiss? K31 / M1911 / G11 / G96/11 / K11"

3d printing might be the best bet for cheap replacements. JawsTec offers glass-reinforced nylon HP printing services for decent prices. (USA only) and NorthRidge has their injection molded K31 repros for about half the cost of originals (25/2) as well as a bunch of originals. NEW ITEM! K31 SCHMIDT RUBIN RIFLE POLYMER STRIPPER CLIP (SET OF 2) (repro plastic) ORIGINAL SWISS K31 STRIPPER CLIP. (original)

FWIW, you can get 3d printers that with time and tuning will print things like these without issue. I was looking for Bikal .22lr biathalon magazines (were selling for $100/pc at the time) and printed functional mags on a $230 3d printer using a $20 spool of filament.

the final mags were NOT printed in orange, but all my testing was done with orange because that's what I had on hand. That was in 2018, and the mags are still running. They probably cost me less than $1.5 each to make; including the piano wire coiled and baked (winding also done on a separate 3d printed jig in a drill motor). Just avoid PLA material for anything that will be in a hot car.


As for the original query, if you are interested in making them last and less interested in historic accuracy I would honestly consider a thin 2-part epoxy brushed on with an acid brush. Wax may work, but won't add any structural strength to the cardstock construction so you will still be fighting disintegrating pulped paper product. Shellac might be alright as suggested earlier, but moisture is the enemy of both shellac and paper. A couple coats of a thin/runny epoxy on the card sections only (inside and out) will probably outlast the charger retaining clips which would go first from metal fatigue.