GunLab (KnownHost) » magazine design

Mauser V9000 trench rifle

Chuck — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 03:21:28 +0000

While doing research on the 1917 trench carbine I came across a rifle that I have never seen or even heard of. The V9000. There is a video on YouTube posted by LAI Publications. I just fell for this cute carbine.

It also dissembles and the stock comes off.

There was a print of it taken apart.

I thank LAI publications for posting about this rare and interesting weapon. I decided that I need one in my collection. There is no chance of buying one and it is full auto so actually making one that is exact is out of the question. However I can make a semi auto one. As with all of my projects I need to design it from scratch. With that in mind I have started just that, but I am making a few changes to the design. First I will make it in 9mm and not in 7.62×25 Mauser. Second, I am going to make it to use a different magazine. I have never been a fan of the Mauser style magazine. they are expensive, a number of the ones I have do no fit properly and they are hard to fine.

My favorite magazine for my Broomhandle projects is the Finnish M/20 smg magazine. They are available at Apex gun parts.

It is a great magazine that I will cut down to 25 rds.

The first step was to design the lower receiver to use a M/20 magazine. I started this process with using a cut Chinese Schnellfeuer lower.

I was able to make a basic solid model but with the proper dimensions for the M/20 magazine.

There is a number of features missing from this model but, it is just a starting point. So I printed it out on m Bambu P2S 3D printer.

I was able to check to see if my magazine housing was dimension properly, and it was.

The next print will have the magazine release button. The rear of the receiver needs to be corrected. the bottom of the receiver is to thick and it receiver needs to have internal dimensions reduced. I am currently working on the second model receiver and should have it completed by the end of next weekend. I also need to add the dove tail slot in the front of the receiver

More on the Beretta model 57

Chuck — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 08:00:17 +0000

A friend of gun Lab dropped me a line looking for some information of the magazines that the Beretta model 57 30carbine used.

Here are a set of pictures that I took of the issue magazine.

I hope this helps.

Beretta AR-70 magazine modifications

Chuck — Tue, 31 May 2016 08:00:55 +0000

A couple of years ago I bought a Beretta AR-70 rifle for the reference collection. This was before the availability of replacement magazines for the rifle. Because of the total lack of spare magazines in this country people came up with ingenious ideas to modify existing magazines to allow them to shoot there rifles. I find it interesting to see how they did the modification. You never know about the future and what it holds for available magazines.

For those of you that may not know what an AR-70 rifle is, here are a couple of pictures of the weapon.

When I bought my rifle it came with a modified AR-15 magazine. So this is my first example of magazine modification.

What was done was to weld a piece of aluminum to the front and side of the magazine. Then they attached a locking notch on the rear of the magazine. The strip that was weld on the front allowed for positioning the magazine in the front of the magazine well for proper feeding. This was had fitted after it was welded on.

A couple of close up pictures of the conversion. You will notice that the side spacer was welded on one side one. Even doing this the magazine worked correctly.

You can also see that no magazine stops are present on the side of the magazine.

Later I was able to obtain original rifle magazines. This is what an original AR-70 magazine looks like.

This close up shows the magazine stops and what the magazine latch block looks like.

A close up review of this magazine shows four components for the magazine body. The right and left sides of the body, the wrap around upper support assembly with the feed lips incorporated into it as well as the stops that are pressed in. The final part that was added was the magazine latch block of the rear of the magazine.

Pete, a friend of Gun Lab, sent this AR-15 magazine modification. This is a very nicely done conversion. It allows the magazine, with a bit of work, to be converted back to its original design. What was done with this magazine was to make a sheet metal housing to fit around the original AR-15 magazine to allow it to fit and operate in an AR-70 magazine housing.

You can see in this picture that the housing was hand fitted to the rifle.

You will notice that with the fitted housing that the front of the sheet metal has been machined away to allow proper fit into the rifle as well as allowing for proper lock up in the front of the magazine well.

Here are a couple of pictures showing all the magazines together for a better overall understanding.

As with all magazines that had been modified for use there is a certain amount of hand fitting that goes with the project.

Older gun making video part2

Chuck — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 13:31:07 +0000

Today’s post is another of the video’s out there dealing with making the weapons of war in the U.S. This video deals with making the BAR and it.s magazine.

What is interesting is the pressing dies and method used to make the BAR magazine. I find the fixture design to answer question that I have on how to fixture something.

Enjoy the video

FN-FAL in 7.92×33

Chuck — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 08:00:07 +0000

In my list of want to do build projects building an original FAL is on the top. The very first FAL ever built was in 7.92×33 and was slightly different then the current FAL that we know today.

This rifle is missing and all that is left of it are the pictures you see here.

These picture are from the FAL book published by Collector Grade Publications. If you are into the FN FAL rifle this set of books is a must have.

This is Pete’s , a friend of Gun Lab, version of a 7.92×33 rifle. His solution was to put in a new ejector block of his design with a spring loaded ejector. Then remove 0.900″ from the magazine to fit the 7.92×33 round.

A side view of Pete’s rifle. Notice the larger then normal ejector block.

The magazine actually looks like the original.

You can see in this picture the fit on the magazine to the receiver.

You can see here how the cartridges set in the magazine.

This his new follower

A top view of the spring loaded ejector

This photo gives you a good view of the magazine well.

A nice side view of the larger ejector block.

He converted the rifle to take a smaller hand guard .

Gun Lab update

Chuck — Wed, 13 May 2015 08:00:50 +0000

Not a big post for today, just an update on the projects we are working on.

First and most important is the VG1-5 project. I received a call this afternoon late that the firing pins can be picked up from the heat treating firm. With this last piece we can send the second rifle to the ATFE for final testing. The second item on the VG project is that all the receiver flats are in the spot welding room and as soon as we modify the spot welders they will be on the line to finish. That will be this week.

The drawings for the MP-44 trunnions are solid modeled and material is ordered so we can finish that project.

The Japanese type 96 and 99 magazines have taken a step back. The first two stamping dies did not work as planed and we needed to send the magazines back. They are still on the drawing board as I need them for my own guns.

The AR-16 is still being solid modeled. We are getting closer but still more time is needed to finish this project. I only work on it when I have spare time and we know how that goes.

A member of our family here at Gun Lab located me an isolation transformer and with that I hope to get the wire edm powered up.

We have been doing a reverse engineering project on a German WW2 machine gun which is coming along nicely and I hope to have drawings in the near future and a solid model shortly after that. This project has been a real ball buster, but with the use of the schools cmm we are getting close now.

I am currently work on a few write ups for the site. Part 2 of the Winchester self loaders should be dome this week, a friend , O.H., is sending me some interesting photo’s and scan’s on a few weapons to post and the third installment on the Bushmaster pistol is in final editing.

This should answer all the questions that have shown up in my in basket. If there are any other question please feel free to drop me a line.

I do need help with a project though. I need manuals for the wire EDM. I am concerned that the batteries have died in the controller and I am going to have to reset the parameters. This machine came with no manuals at all. Here are a few pictures of the panels and model numbers.

Xerox copies are fine. I just need to learn about the parameters and set up of this machine. Thanks everyone for helping.

With nothing else going on I am going to hit the rack, tomorrow is another fun filled day for me.

Magazine manufacturing

Chuck — Tue, 05 May 2015 08:00:20 +0000

In this post we are going to look at making a magazine. In this case a 22lr pistol magazine. This magazine was stamped out on a progressive stamping die. In a machine that would look like this.

Not for the home shop.

So lets take a look at the steps that would be required to make a magazine. Starting from a role of steel metal to the final product. The sheet steel is removed from its coil and fed into the stamping machine. The process start with the initial cut and a pilot hole or holes that serves as a locator hole for following steps in the process.

This is the stamping strip from start to finish. So lets take a closer look at the individual steps.

First step. Initial cut of the magazine and two pilot hole for locating the sheet metal for the next step.

Second step. In this step you can see that the second hole is removed as the top of the magazine is finished cut.

Third step. This starts the initial bends

Fourth step. Now we are in the pressing of the ribs of the magazine.

Fifth step. Another bend step.

Sixth step. This is a bend step for the bottom of the magazine

Seventh step. Here you can see that the slot has been punched in for the follower button.

Eight step. The folding over of the magazine

Ninth step

Tenth step. The magazine stamping is separated from the strip and being set up for welding

Eleventh step. At this point the magazine is machined welded.

Twelfth step. The tab are now cut off and for all practical purposes the magazine body is complete

All that is required after this to verify fit and do your quality control inspection

Sunday answer 3-1-15

Chuck — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 08:00:36 +0000

The pictures from Saturday.

This is a bolt carrier for a Farquhar-Hill rifle. This bolt is from a drum type rifle. Here are a few pictures of it.

Rear sight

Gas system

Front of the drum

Top of the drum. Notice no feed lips. That was in the receiver itself.

This is the magazine version of the Farquhar-Hill rifle.

Interesting Spanish pistol

Chuck — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 08:00:33 +0000

On my trip through the mid-west I had a great opportunity to look at a number of great gun collections. At one of the stops I had a chance to come across a unique Spanish pistol. The pistol is not the unique part but the magazine is. It is a double column magazine that was developed in the late 1920’s. This is the write up from Wikipedia information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llama_firearms

Ruby Plus Ultra

The Ruby Plus Ultra was made between 1928 and 1933. It was an improved version of the earlier Ruby but had a 20-round double-stack magazine. Models with an extended 140 mm barrel, but standard length slide were available, as were models with selective fire capability. These features were most popular in the Asian market, and sales to both Chinese warlords and Japanese pilots are recorded. These were not purchased officially by the Japanese forces, but as private purchase weapons through the Japanese equivalent of the Army and Navy Stores. During the Spanish Civil War volunteers in the International Brigade also favoured these early high-capacity weapons.^[3]

^{This is a write up by my friend John D.:}

Believe the Plus Ultra had a longer production span than the Wikipedia article states: actually 1925 to 1937, possibly early 1938. Gabilondo dramatically improved and revised their products in the wake of lost French ‘Ruby’ pistol contracts at the end of WW I to keep their facilities occupied. The Plus Ultra was introduced with a number of other updated Gabilondo products in 1925. Never saw Gabilondo material describing it as a ‘Ruby’ either, just Plus Ultra. Ruby name may have been attached to this pistol by sellers downstream, but Gabilondo was trying to live down the WW I Ruby pistol’s dubious reputation. It may even have been an attempt to get in on the French RFQ for high capacity handguns which birthed the Browning High Power and the Petter SACM 1935 / SIG P.210. Or it possibly stimulated the French to RFQ a high capacity handgun! Regardless, it is the first production handgun with a double column magazine in the grip and there are several references to it in official French military correspondence.

The Llama trademark was registered in 1932 and Plus Ultra pistols were never sold under the Llama brand name, so most authors quote 1933 – the year Llama branded pistols entered production – as the terminal date. But Gabilondo and their many ‘affiliates’ continued to make and sell non Llama brand pistols into the Spanish Civil War. You find considerable usage of these pistols by Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and these pistols were not generally available within Spain before the Civil War so there were no stocks on hand. Firearms parts production in the Basque region only ended with its capture by Nationalists in the middle of 1937. Assembly operations continued into early 1938 under Nationalist control until parts stocks were exhausted. Basque region firearms production converts to Spanish standard models under the Nationalists, but their unique designs do not resume production until after the Nationalists vanquish the Republicans in 1939.

There is some confusion over the magazine capacity of these pistols. My pistol’s magazine holds – and functions well – with 20 rounds of 7.65x17mm, but does not function with 22 rounds although you can stuff it with 22 rounds. Might be an issue with the semirim on the 7.65x17mm cartridge – the semirims seem to hang up in the case extractor grooves when the magazine holds 22 cartridges. Spanish 7.65x17mm ammunition may not have had as pronounced a semirim as American produced .32 ACP ammunition. This is how the 9x23mm Bergman/Largo cartridge evolved from the .38 ACP/Super cartridge. My pistol might also have a limp magazine spring, Spanish spring steel metallurgy of this era is pretty sad. Gabilondo reportedly advertised the pistol as having 20, 21, or 22 round capacities during its life. They might have made some changes to the follower during production, but all the Plus Ultra pistols I saw at Interarms in the 1970’s (where they all entered the USA – from Thailand of all places!) had the same grip frame dimensions and the magazines were interchangeable.

Now on to the Pictures:

The complete pistol first.

You will notice that the pistol grip is longer and the barrel is slightly longer as well.

Now to the magazine.

The front of the magazine.

The view of the follower.

The bottom.

An interesting pistol.