Question about "manufacturing" High Capacity Magazines

[boxbro]

Back before the now expired federal ban, I "manufactured" a high capacity magazine for a Para Ordnance P12, is this legal to possess in CA ?
If I take it apart to clean it, does reassembling it = manufacturing ?

Let me give a little more detail, I took the mag extension from of one of these for the p14:

http://www.ammoclip.com/images/Para/para_ordnance_p14_45acp_15%20round.jpg

and added it to a regular P12 mag using a modified spring.
This effectively made it 14 +1 and it gave me a more comfortable grip as well.

I am afraid that this would/could be construed as manufacturing even though it was done long before there was any CA law prohibiting it.

[Ding126]

Hmmm

[Glock22Fan]

If it was legal to manufacture it when you manufactured it, and it was still in one piece when the laws came into effect, it is legal now, even if you have stripped and rebuilt it since the law passed.

If it was in pieces when the law passed, then it would, IMHO, be illegal to build it into a magazine since then.

This is all complicated by the statute of limitations. If it happened three years or more ago, then it is too late for you to be prosecuted. More recently, they would have to prove it.

[boxbro]

Well, I haven't even used the mag in over ten years since I don't have a P12 anymore.
But, finding and reading a LOT of things on this forum made me more paranoid aware of things, so I recently took it apart.
That way worst case scenario it would just be parts.
I have been considering getting a P12 again, which is why I asked this question.
I'd like to use that mag exclusively.

Here's my next question, I technically can't get a replacement spring since the spring was a MacGyvered spring to begin with.
How would I replace that spring since it was never available from the factory and can't be bough as a part or in any rebuild kit ?

[Glock22Fan]

Can't help with the spring, but if you have had the magazine for over ten years you should be good to go, assembled or not. However, if you do not have a P12, then the magazine might as well be dismantled. Not necessary, but it might avoid drama if your house is ever searched by ignorant cops.

[boxbro]

So basically I am screwed if I ever need to replace the spring ?
It's a shortened spring from an extended P14 mag which would be a replacement part, but does cutting it and modifying it constitute manufacturing ?
There is no law against "manufacturing" parts is there ?

[Fjold]

I'm trying to understand this, Was it already a 12 round magazine that you owned prior to Jan 1, 2000?

If it was, then you can add an extension and make it a 100 round magazine if you want, it's already a "high capacity magazine"

[boxbro]

I'm trying to understand this, Was it already a 12 round magazine that you owned prior to Jan 1, 2000?

Why yes, YES IT WAS!
That's all that was available at the time anyhow!

If it was, then you can add an extension and make it a 100 round magazine if you want, it's already a "high capacity magazine"

Is that how it works ?
So I can MacGyver any high capacity mag into anything I want using real factory parts or parts I make ?
Simply because they were already high capacity mags ?
In addition, I can take another High capacity extended P14 mag and a high capacity P12 mag and make another one ?
What if I want to change it back since I wouldn't want to permanently lose one of my 15+1 P14 mags ?

[curtisfong]

assembling != manufacturing

[bwiese]

Boxbro,

You already had a hicap mag you legally owned/acquired in CA (pre 2000).
You increased its capacity from 12 to 14.

There's only one level of "high-capacityness" (over 10rds), and you already legally had it: you can't make it "more high capacity" from a legal standpoint.

There are no additional levels or tiers of hicap status: the threshold has already been crossed.

You could have done this before or after 2000 and it would not have been relevant.

A high capacity ammunition feeding device is just that. If you have one and modify it to fit a new gun - but it still functions in the old gun for which it was designed and was legally acquired/possessed - that's fine.

I would add that destroying the old functionality to make it work in a new gun could risk being regarded as manufacturing/creating a new hicap mag.

[69Mach1]

Usually a +2 baseplate for a high cap magazine doesn't require a new spring. You can use the existing one. If you give Paraordnance a call, they will probably send you a P12 spring.

[motorhead]

manufacturing a replacement spring is not manufacturing a magazine. even if the mag was molded out of black tar heroin you could still make a spring for it. the spring, by itself would be legal, the mag not. midway has wolff p14 mag springs.

[boxbro]

I would add that destroying the old functionality to make it work in a new gun could risk being regarded as manufacturing/creating a new hicap mag.

When you say new gun, are you saying "different" gun ?
IOW, different gun than the magazine was originally intended for ?
Reason I ask is because I would be using this in a "new" P12, not the old P12 I originally used it in.

[boxbro]

Usually a +2 baseplate for a high cap magazine doesn't require a new spring. You can use the existing one. If you give Paraordnance a call, they will probably send you a P12 spring.

IIRC, the P12 spring was not strong enough to feed the last round properly, and the P14 spring was too big to get the 14th round into the mag.

[E Pluribus Unum]

Back before the now expired federal ban, I "manufactured" a high capacity magazine for a Para Ordnance P12, is this legal to possess in CA ?
If I take it apart to clean it, does reassembling it = manufacturing ?

Let me give a little more detail, I took the mag extension from of one of these for the p14:

http://www.ammoclip.com/images/Para/para_ordnance_p14_45acp_15%20round.jpg

and added it to a regular P12 mag using a modified spring.
This effectively made it 14 +1 and it gave me a more comfortable grip as well.

I am afraid that this would/could be construed as manufacturing even though it was done long before there was any CA law prohibiting it.

The federal ban expired in 2004. It is now 2009. This means that even if what you did was illegal, the statute of limitations has expired and you are exempt from prosecution anyway. Also, because possession is legal... they are legit to use.