CZ 75B magazines

[rccar]

What is the size of the block? For a 16rd mag.

[Lead Waster]

I did this, I took the mecgar parts kit and cut a ONE INCHE piece of aluminum bar stock. I just took the magazine body to Home Depot, to their metal bar section, and tried different bars in the body to see which one would fit flat against the back of the magazine (or was it the front? I forgot).

Then I put the follower in the magazine, then tool the spring and pushed it against the follower to give it tension and loaded 10 rounds into it. NOTE: I never put the base plate on, which technically you can't or else you're a felon.

This gave me a good idea of where the follower would be when 10 rounds are loaded. Now here is the mistake I made... if you fit it for just 10 rounds, then that 10th round will be squeezing in there. Better to give maybe a half diameter (ie; around 4.5 mm!) slack so the magazine would take 10.5 rounds BUT NOT 11!

Now since the base of the magazine has a plate, you must account for the width of that plate. I'm pretty sure I ended up with exactly ONE INCH long bar, but like I said, it makes it too tight. You have enough play to go less than one inch ... experiment!

Then I took that little piece and I bevelled three sides of one end of it and smoothed it over (rounded it) so the spring would not bind. Then I mixed up epoxy and epoxied it and clamped it in place. MAKE SURE THE FOLLOWER IS ALREADY IN THE MAGAZINE!

Toss 10 rounds in there maybe to make sure you have enough space for them but not for 11. Make sure that the bar is NOT FLUSH to the bottom of the magazine or else the springs plate will not fit in!

Then wait however long it takes for epoxy to cure. Assemble your 10 rounds magazine and weep as you look at it for the ridiculousness that it represents, but also know that you did things legally.

They work great! AND they are half the cost of 10 round CZ magazines.

My only issue is this ... on my SP-01, for some reason, they bind on the grips where the 10 rounders don't and they only do this SOMETIMES. The solution was to loosen the grips, which is stupid, so the real fix for me is to sand down the insides of the grips...the thin AL grips from CZ Custom.

That and the fact that I made my block to fit 9.97 rounds instead of 10... GRR AND I can't take them apart to redo them, so I'm guessing it's pretty permanent.

I'm just thankful that this is an option. $20-25 magazines I can deal with, but $45 ... ouch!

[JeremyS]

^^^ yes, because that is much simpler and more reliable than buying OEM 10-round magazines for $32 each (see link I posted earlier) ...how often do you take them entirely apart and clean the inside of the body, clean the follower, the spring, etc, like basically anybody would recommend you do every now and then?... Oh...

The epoxy, metal, and time spent have to cost more than the $7 extra cost for the OEM mags.