Back With Some Real-Steel!
So with all the projects we’ve worked on involving airsoft we switched it up a bit and delved a little into some more complex “real-steel” firearms projects. One of the ones I’m particularly proud of is merely just an accessory accessibility upgrade, but a major step in the right direction!
Without further ado we’d like to introduce the first of the 4112 series of upgrades, which are our own unique designs, based upon 12 gauge chambered firearms. We give you the 4112 MAGLOVE.
Yes, it’s a bit ugly right now in its V5 prototype form, but we’ve got it to work perfectly under heavy use, and we’re putting functionality over form factor first!
This project has a very specific purpose, to allow the use of ProMag Saiga 12g magazines with the JTS M12AK. See, there’s only a few choices of magazines that work 100% with this gun, and you’re limited to buying online for both of them here in AZ. That’s where this guy comes in. Without this adapter your choices for mags would be the CSSpecs mags which are fantastic pieces of kit, then there’s the standard mags which you can find in a few places and work exactly as they should and are reliable in my experience. But once again, unless we order online we can’t really get those. Plus, the wait feels like an eternity at times. So, while those are technically available, I thought there could be more options available as there should be.
We’ll start the brief history of this project by saying that every time I would go to my LGS (Local Gun Store) I’d see Pro Mag Saiga mags quite often. So one day I just had a “screw it, let’s do it” moment. I thought, “why wouldn’t I be able to use these, my gun is a Saiga clone, these are made for Saigas, why not?”. I of course later found out why that was of course. When inserted lock on between the mag and the gun wasn’t solid enough and the mag would have lots of lateral play and would, in long term, completely wear out the mag’s catch. I then set the mag aside for a while, giving other projects precedence for a while.
A few months pass and the need to create took hold, and inspiration to restart the MAGLOVE project took hold. So I grabbed the mag and studied it extensively in and out of the magwell. I noticed some interesting things about how it locked and how it could be improved. My first idea was to just shove a wedge of some sort into the well and it would take up the space.
Safe to say it worked, but wasn’t ideal at all. The wedge fell out under manageable recoil, so that option was out.
I then got the idea to mount something on the well to keep the mag in place. That also worked but seemed in the way. It did better under recoil, but effected magazine changes for the worse, so that was out.
I then broke out my calipers and a piece of paper and got to designing what would be the best outcome for this project so far. I designed a sort of clamp shell specifically using the magazine to its mounting advantage. It features a wedge that forces the mag to use the full area of the mag’s front catch while preventing the mag from backing out at all. It also features side fins that center the magazine and stabilize it. The magazine sits so nicely in the well that, when inserted, you could grab the gun by the mag and shake the hell out of it, and it won’t come loose.
I went to the range to test it out to see how it compares, and I was just so happy that it worked as intended my cries of victory were probably louder than the gunfire around me. I will not though, while it did work from light loads to 3” buckshot magnums if it was at setting 3 (highest gas setting) while using the 3” magnums it would pop out, but while in setting 1 (proper setting for said round) it functioned 100%. My theory is that since this was still a prototype I used a low infill for the print so under the highest recoil it would cause the print to “squish” ever so slightly causing it to pop out.
That being said, if used correctly with the right gas setting, this problem never occurs. So printing at a higher infill is pretty much unnecessary.
I’m planning on tweaking the design a bit to make it look better, because as of right now it’s not sexy enough and could be better looking. Plus, I’d like to test my theory on infill. After all that’s completed I plan on making a injection mold of it and then testing that out with different plastics.
If you’ve made it through that mess of words I salute you!
You have a great day, and I’ll see you next time
-Punch