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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Mag Lengthening


MarkTX

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I built a whelen and would like to lengthen the mag a little. Right now its about 3.31 and I would like to know how much longer I ca get and how to go about . Do I file and clean it up.

 

Thanks

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I built a whelen and would like to lengthen the mag a little. Right now its about 3.31 and I would like to know how much longer I ca get and how to go about . Do I file and clean it up.

 

Thanks

 

On my Whelen I filed both ends of the mag well to about 1/2 their original thickness. It gave me plenty of length.

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If you go to www.charlesdaly.com and go to the bolt action rifles action page (if it's still up - they are out of that business now), go look at the .375 H&H length action (model D).

 

You will note that for the longer actions they have cut off the front of the magazine well down to the tg then welded a new round front in it's place. That's the same thing my barrel guy does on those to lengthen the mags for magnums. Costs around $30-40.

 

If you just need a few thousandths then I guess you just have to file. A standard length M-98 mag should handle any 30-06 length cartridge, but if you have an intermediate length then you have work to do.

 

Brad

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Be advised that while you can file down both fron & rear, when you get them as thin as half the original they can and will deform from recoil. The harder kickers will do this.

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If all else fails, you can try and get some commercial bottom metal from somewhere. I've altered two receivers to fit them and all you really need is a dremel and some patience.

 

Out of curiosity, does the average 35 Whelen need the mag lengthened? I ask because I don't know; I've never played with a Whelen. Depending on COL, you may be able to save yourself the aggravation of filing anything if it will work as is. Just a thought.

 

Jason

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I've always welded a small piece of stock in front of the triggerguard and them milled (you could file just as acurate just takes more time) the front larger. If you look at a aftermarket trigger guard you'll see they're all (at least the ones I've seen) opened to the front, not the rear. Like Z1r said, thin guards tend to bend under higher recoil and If you're using a longer cartridge, you'll probably have higher recoil. But if the cartridge fit but only hang up every so often, I wouldn't be against dressing it down a little bit with a file.

-Don

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As of right now I'm still working up loads and the 225 sierras touch the lands at approx. 3.350. With my mag. @3.310 I've been loading COL 3.300 which leaves me about.05 off the lands. On my other rifles I've found in the neighborhood of.01 or there abouts off the lands works best. It may not be the case with the Whelen but if they do work a little better closer to the lands I wanted to see how much trouble it would be to lengthen the mag.

 

Thanks fellas

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