Many of us by now have seen or heard about a Hart AR15 magazine conversion for an HK93. This adds a sleeve inside of the 93's mag well, and even if it wasn't a permanent conversion, you couldn't readily change it back to accept a 93 magazine. Recently, CTREE products introduced the side plate conversion for Magpul PMags. Not a bad idea, but the side plates are affixed to the magazine via glue/epoxy. They're not cheap, either. I like my MKE 93 mags, but I had an issue with one having the feed lip damaged this last weekend. In my anger and disappointment, I had an epiphany of sorts: the HK93 magazine looks almost like an AR15 mag with a sleeve permanently attached at the top. Could a person with some skill in sheet metal stamping create a sleeve that will fit over an existing AR mag allowing it to be used in a 93? If the fit was nice and tight, and it was anchored properly, you wouldn't have to worry about any issues with glue, plus you could switch back and forth between AR and 93 magazines without altering your rifle's mag well. I like the idea of 30 round magazines, but the factory 93 mags are so damned expensive for commoners like me. I figured that someone much more intelligent had already thought of this and determined it was a bad idea, but I couldn't get it out of my head, so I purchased some 22 gauge steel, cut a 2"x7" strip, and set out to create such a sleeve.
I had success with bending into shape and slipping it onto an AR magazine. It seemed to hold tight, so I spot welded it together. Initially it looked good, but there were a couple of problems: 1)it needs a vertical channel pressed into it so it will slip over the mag catch bump on right side the AR magazine. I don't have the tools to do this cleanly, so I just made a vertical cut in the sleeve; and 2)I cut the mag catch opening too high and the rear of the mag sits too low. As it is now, the bolt won't strip a cartridge. On the positive side, however, the sleeve fits solidly on the magazine, and had I cut the mag catch opening at the proper height, it would function as it was designed. The magazine and sleeve slide easily into the magazine well, and the it locks positively. It does take a little effort since my mag catch lever has the anti-rattle spring and it rubs against the magazine. Live fire testing would prove how durable it would be in the long run.
Anyway, I'm just a dope who became pissed-off and motivated, and I had some fairly good luck on the first go-round with this project. Somebody explain to me why I'm wrong and this is actually a bad idea so I don't keep wasting my time with it. Or even better, somebody with some actual talent should try to tackle this so we can all benefit. What say you?
I had success with bending into shape and slipping it onto an AR magazine. It seemed to hold tight, so I spot welded it together. Initially it looked good, but there were a couple of problems: 1)it needs a vertical channel pressed into it so it will slip over the mag catch bump on right side the AR magazine. I don't have the tools to do this cleanly, so I just made a vertical cut in the sleeve; and 2)I cut the mag catch opening too high and the rear of the mag sits too low. As it is now, the bolt won't strip a cartridge. On the positive side, however, the sleeve fits solidly on the magazine, and had I cut the mag catch opening at the proper height, it would function as it was designed. The magazine and sleeve slide easily into the magazine well, and the it locks positively. It does take a little effort since my mag catch lever has the anti-rattle spring and it rubs against the magazine. Live fire testing would prove how durable it would be in the long run.
Anyway, I'm just a dope who became pissed-off and motivated, and I had some fairly good luck on the first go-round with this project. Somebody explain to me why I'm wrong and this is actually a bad idea so I don't keep wasting my time with it. Or even better, somebody with some actual talent should try to tackle this so we can all benefit. What say you?
