July/August 1978 - American Handgunner

Now you see it trimmed down to manageablesize. Note the smaller butt, thesquared off trigger guard, and the combatsafety.butt. Then you can weld the cut off bottomback to the upper part. Rememberthat great care is required in aligning thetwo parts so the magazine will remaintrue. However, you can do this easilyenough with a spare magazine body andclamp and shims. A close fitting mandrelwould be best, but making one takesmore time than a single shortening jobcan justify.Regardless of the method you choose touse, it is necessary to clean the inside ofthe magazine well at the joints. This permitsthe magazines to enter and ejectfreely. Get rid of all heat scale and roughnessas well as surplus metal. Not onlymust magazines enter freely but theymust fall clear of their own weight whenthe catch is depressed. After filing, polishthe inside of the well with abrasive clothglued to shaped strips of wood.Now, with the slide on the frame andthe magazine catch in place, put one cartridgein a magazine and then insert ituntil the catch engages. Scribe aroundAMERICAN HANDGUNNER JULYIAUGUST 1978the magazine body even with the butt andthen press the magazine in as far as it willgo. Use hand pressure only. Now againscribe around the body while it is heldthere.Next remove and disassemble themagazine completely. Make up a hardwoodplug to fit inside the body. Insertthe plug and clamp the magazine in yourvise. Now saw off the bottom W belowthe second or lowest scribe mark. Thensaw through the front of the body justbelow the first or highest scribe mark justback through the radius to the beginningof the flat sidewalls. Trim out this arcshapedpiece of metal and true up all cutedges with files.Insert a block of steel or aluminum thatis push fit in the magazine body. It can beseveral thicknesses of strip if necessary.Now clamp tightly in the vise. The visejaws must be true and the lowest scribemark must be flush and parallel withthem. Quickly bring the overhanging bitsof magazine sidewall to red heat, tap overoutward at right angles, down on visejaws with a smooth hammer that formsflanges just like the magazine possessedoriginally.Finish this by filing or grinding theedges of the flanges you've just producedso that the original floor plate will slidesmoothly over them. Remove the floorplate and flow low temp silver solder intothe seams where it is folded back on itselfto form the front tongue. As for themagazine spring, you just need to clip onecomplete coil off the bottom. Now bendthe last half-coil up as it was originally.Assemble the shortened magazine andinsert it in the shortened gun butt. Polishthe reworked area if necessary for freeinsertion and removal and make certainthe magazine catch engages properly.If the butt has been shortened by ourfirst method, the floor plate will extendwell beyond the front strap. Cut away thisexcess, flush with the front strap, thenradius all edges of the floorplate smoothlyso it won't snag hands or clothing. Now,back to the shortened butt. As it ischopped off abruptly in the curve of thebackstrap, it probably won't feel right inyour hand. Install the grips and saw themoff flush with the butt. Test how it feelsand do a little shooting, if necessary, tobe certain. If it feels okay, you justhave to file or grind the sharp edges to asmooth radius and your butt shapingis done.However, if it doesn't feel right, startfiling and grinding on the bulged backstrapuntil the gun feels and handlesright. I prefer to cut the hump off entirely,giving it the shape of a Colt .45 autowith the old flat mainspring housing.Now if you used the first butt shorteningmethod, you'll find that nearly all theswell at the bottom of the front strap willbe cut away. By the second method, itwill remain but there will be a step whereit joins the rest. There will be a dogleg atthe backstrap joint. Personally, I preferto eliminate this swell in any event. Itadds far more weight and bulk than itssmall amount of handling benefit isworth. Simply grind or file it off, fairingthe entire front strap into a straight line.When this is done, the second methodwill leave a small U-shaped notch wherethe original funneling cuts through. I likethis as it leaves a point of purchase wherethe front of the floorplate can be graspedif for some reason a magazine becomesstuck. For the same reason, when thefirst shortening method is used, I goahead and file a notch at the same pointafter the strap is straightened.27