Thread: Replacing no longer available rifle parts..

An amateur gunsmiths best tool to start by mastering is the humble file

You can never have too many of them and they are not all created equally

Originally Posted by muzza

most files available today are rubbish. what happened to high quality english files?

Like everything, manufacturing moved somewhere in Aisa

Originally Posted by muzza

most files available today are rubbish. what happened to high quality english files?

Still good files available at specialist engineering suppliers

DTD in CHCH is good and will get what you want
Should be one such like in every city

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

that is the fly in ointment...cost effectively.
some time back there was a link posted to making a flintlock rifle from scratch....right from heating and beating bar into a barrel tube,welding it together..long before electric welding,rifling it by hand...everything by hand...and it worked......but the time required was eye watering,out of context.... in context not so much,it was fellas job and two weeks work so price tag was two weeks wages sort of thing.... if your magazine took you say 6 hours of folding and filing by hand to make....you would have a magazine...but you would be reluctant to pay 6x$30 = $180 plus for one if could find it on shelf...all things in context.
there are fellas out there who have made extractor springs for JW105s out of car spring...lots of filing involved...but it worked and gun still functioned afterwards....

Easier still, jump-start with some 1/2" schedule-80 seamless steel pipe and create an ugly smoothbore .58" musket.

Originally Posted by mudgripz

I think we need to clone old Gundoc, Akaroa and a few others to keep knowledge alive..

So ...we should be able to duplicate springs - coil ones, and if need be flat mag springs. Here's the rest of the challenge - how to reproduce say this Marlin mag cost effectively:

Attachment 204641

On the subject of magazine spring sourcing:

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/4001079872684.html

Those aliexpress springs look very interesting - probly find exact shape/tension for mags amongst them.

Bottom line - there are alot of very good points coming up. Access to springs in NZ and aliexpress, making of flat mag springs, machining of occasional pins/extractors, and poss CNC/3D of unavailable mags. But alot of mags are still available from the UK site. This outfit (thanks threefootsix) has all sorts of mags for our makes - CZ (for Norinco JW15/27 too), Marlin, also Voere, Krico and Winchester etc models. I'm going to do a trial run thru police with 67 form, plus import agent, order a batch of say Marlin bolt/semi mags, and see how easy it is. (Click on magazines here and you'll see this company's big range):

https://riflemags.co.uk/magazines/

Means we need not have 'orphan' problems with alot of our rimfires or other out-of-production makes/model rifles. I'll give this another week or so, check the import process, then go through posts and do an executive summary - key points. Identify exactly what we can do to ensure parts supply for the rifles. I don't think we are going to have a problem. Bit helping one another and some kiwi ingenuity and I don't see anything we can't manage.

This is the most reliable magazine I have ever used
Lots of moving parts but it feeds all different brands and bullet weights reliably



The rifles that use this type of magazine are usually of a simpler design and have fewer parts and are therefore easier to keep running long term

And they generally use less ammunition

Originally Posted by mudgripz

Those aliexpress springs look very interesting - probly find exact shape/tension for mags amongst them.

Bottom line - there are alot of very good points coming up. Access to springs in NZ and aliexpress, making of flat mag springs, machining of occasional pins/extractors, and poss CNC/3D of unavailable mags. But alot of mags are still available from the UK site. This outfit (thanks threefootsix) has all sorts of mags for our makes - CZ (for Norinco JW15/27 too), Marlin, also Voere, Krico and Winchester etc models. I'm going to do a trial run thru police with 67 form, plus import agent, order a batch of say Marlin bolt/semi mags, and see how easy it is. (Click on magazines here and you'll see this company's big range):

https://riflemags.co.uk/magazines/

Means we need not have 'orphan' problems with alot of our rimfires or other out-of-production makes/model rifles. I'll give this another week or so, check the import process, then go through posts and do an executive summary - key points. Identify exactly what we can do to ensure parts supply for the rifles. I don't think we are going to have a problem. Bit helping one another and some kiwi ingenuity and I don't see anything we can't manage.

Looked at that UK site, no mention of Gevarm or Norinco brand in their mag list.

Originally Posted by akaroa1

This is the most reliable magazine I have ever used
Lots of moving parts but it feeds all different brands and bullet weights reliably

Attachment 204772

The rifles that use this type of magazine are usually of a simpler design and have fewer parts and are therefore easier to keep running long term

And they generally use less ammunition

the 3D printing or backyard wooden or plastic shaped magwell blockers,turn your garden variety mag fed bolt action into one of them there ammunition friendly slow firing rifles,funnily enough I learnt to shoot with a borrowed TOZ that had no magazine and that was a good 43-44 years ago...so its not just a new issue.

Originally Posted by Finnwolf

I NEED a mag for a Norinco 10A (semi auto) it’s a 10 shot magazine.

It’s made of plastic and it’s splitting down the front plus the ‘lips’ are disintegrating.

Been looking for another mag for ages and it appears they’re made of unobtanium.

One technique of joining plastic across cracks is to have a number of tiny threads of steel wire cable, like 5mm long. Lay them across the gap, and touch with a hot soldering iron till they "sink in". Do each thread a slight angle from the preceding one so they "key".

Originally Posted by akaroa1

This is the most reliable magazine I have ever used
Lots of moving parts but it feeds all different brands and bullet weights reliably

Attachment 204772

The rifles that use this type of magazine are usually of a simpler design and have fewer parts and are therefore easier to keep running long term

And they generally use less ammunition

Easy to forget that the only order-of-magnitude (ten times faster) increase in firing rate was in going from muzzle loader to breech loader.
That said, fast follow-up shots really require that imperfect, inorganic magazine.

Originally Posted by Finnwolf

Tried the super glue idea but it did not hold when the mag got filled. I suspect oil had impregnated the plastic at the split hence the glue not holding.

Footnote: I found on the net a review of rifle identical to mine but was labeled as a JW14, on my rifle the area where the ‘JW10A’ is stamped had been ground off prior to the 10A being stamped.

Now if my failing memory banks are in any way still functional - that model Norinco was a knock off of a Stirling from the Phillipines, which was in itself a knock off of one of the Eastern European .22's - maybe an early BRNO/CZ or somesuch?

There is a steel-bodied mag you can get that does fit the Norinco mag well, I'm trying to recall what needed to be tweaked and it might have been the top of the mag out a little and the feed lips in a twitch as the plastic mag body was a bit chunkier everywhere apart from the front. The piss off with those, was that the mags work ok with the split front when they are in the gun you just can't load the damn things. I think with mine, I tried a plastic weld on the front first with a steel rod behind it to keep the shape. That split again after a few weeks, but with the new melted plastic in there the rapidfix powder stuck nicely.

I see 3 possible outcomes. I am really hoping for the first one.

1) Gunsmiths get more business, and more money changes hands, resulting in a happier, safer shooting community serviced by a healthy cohort of well trained and experienced smiths. This is the high road.

2) The pool of old firearms in circulation begins to malfunction due to worn or broken parts, and these are scrapped and replaced with newer models. Everyone stays happy and safe because of this. This is the middle road.

3) A new cohort of stingy, unskilled Bubbas emerge from the woodwork, and most older firearms become increasingly unreliable and unsafe. Sadly, most of the resultant deaths are Bubba's mates, rather than Bubba himself, so the problem perpetuates. This is the low road, paved with good intentions.

Sadly, government controls over firearms and parts, as well as who may work or make these and intervention and restriction on the importation of parts will favour the middle and low roads. The high middle roads are walked by those with enough funds, while bubba walks the low road either because he doesn't have enough to get a professional on the job, or buy a working firearm, or he suffers from the Dunning Kruger effect and believes his abilities with firearms is at God-level..

Originally Posted by mudgripz

We don't have much choice Milky - probably most of us have firearms in the closet that no longer have spares accessible in NZ, thanks to the govt. Bloody good rifles.. We need to find a way to reproduce spare parts as best we can here in NZ. Even if they do cost more, they'll ensure our rifles keep operating for the next 20 - and keep their value.

I bought a couple of the Marlin 22LR mags like the one above maybe 9 months ago for $60-70 each. One just sold on trademe for $124 plus post = $131. Contacted Western Gun Parts in Canada re these mags and they said no they have none but would sell thousands if they could get them. There is a small market here, but poss alot bigger one for some parts overseas.

Applicable to REM 788’s and TOZ 17’s and probably others as well given that there are still a lot of these functioning and will continue to do so for a long time to come. Can’t understand the Ruskies not doing a couple of big runs of TOZ mags. They would all sell in a heartbeat and be easy money for them.

Originally Posted by akaroa1

An amateur gunsmiths best tool to start by mastering is the humble file

You can never have too many of them and they are not all created equally

The innocent file in the hands of Bubba has probably given gunsmiths more work than any other tool!

Just found these guys, no affiliation but worth a look.

https://www.abreid.co.nz/page/gunsmithing/