Thread: CZ 527 3 round magazine modification

Hi folks,
I've had this project in mind for a while now, so when a spare magazine came up on trademe I jumped on it. I love my CZ527 in 7.62x39 but I hate that the balance point is right on the front of the magazine. For the past 11 years this has annoyed me.

One hunting trip, when my magazine catch spring stopped working and turned my rifle into a single shot. I got to experience what a flush fitting mag felt like and this led me to searching for a solution.

As they say “Google is your friend” with a couple of hours up my sleeve one day I did some research and found the link at the bottom of the post which gave me the confidence to try this.
So with a bit of tape, a dremmel and some fire, I’m going to try the modification, hopefully without wrecking a good magazine.



The bottom metal has webs that need removing.



With the webs removed it was out with a file to dress back the burrs and reshape the bottom metal. A touch of cold blue, oil to stop the bluing and it’s done.

On to the magazine
I’m trying to figure out how much to remove, I muck around with some rounds and the bottom metal before coming to 23mm.



Make a few lines and colour them in, making sure you leave a 2mm high step to hold the magazine base on.



A bit of cutting and filing dresses the magazine up nicely.
A test run with the magazine and some rounds finds that I can fit 4 rounds in the magazine with a bit of room left over. Measuring the base of a round (11.3mm) I take a punt and drop all the marking another 8mm.

Round 2 for marking out and cutting.



It's fire time now, the 2mm steps need to be annealed before putting the magazine in a vice and bending the steps outwards with a parallel punch and a hammer.
Sorry no photos of that part I forgot….



With the steps now bent out. A bit of tidying up and test fitting of the bottom of the magazine, we get this:



Now the magazine has a plate that sits between the magazine bottom and the spring. That needs the front end thinned out to fit in the step of the magazine.

One side partially done, the other side still to go.



The shortened magazine fitted, the mag comfortably holds 3 rounds. Note, I didn’t cut the magazine spring and I probably won’t, unless there are feeding issues.



Magazine and off cut



3 round magazine



Full length 5 round magazine.



Something I haven’t done in the pictures is modify the magazine catch, there is a little lug on the back of it that needs removed in order to facilitate the removal of the magazine.

I’m pleased with the result and can’t wait to get out and see how the feel of the rifle is. All the rifle needs now is a cerakote job to stop that pesky rust.

Here is the link to the website that I used as reference to mod the mag.

https://public.fotki.com/Rbertalotto...-magazine-mod/

Cheers

Awesome, nice job.

I have done something similar with plastic Howa mini magazines.

Well done, looks a lot nicer to carry.

the norinco mags go well with similar treatment....sure are nicer to carry short like that.

primo!

Nice job with a lot of patience thrown in!

If I may suggest, if the balance point is just forwards of the magazine, then you might like it better if you radius the leading edge of the magazine floor plate.

Cool project well executed. Given that most hunting rifles are carried way more than they are shot it puzzles me that so many of them come from the factory so impractical to carry.

Originally Posted by Cordite

Nice job with a lot of patience thrown in!

If I may suggest, if the balance point is just forwards of the magazine, then you might like it better if you radius the leading edge of the magazine floor plate.

I quite like the shape of the magazine now, as I can hook a finger around the magazine to hold the rifle so that it is slightly pointing down. But thanks for the suggestion it's definitely something to look at when I have taken it for a few more walks to see if there are any more improvements to be made.

I had a 527, great rifle but the mag was a pain at times, nice mod, even improves the lines of the rifle .

They did the 527 mag in .223 as a 3 shot, my Ebony came with one which I swapped out for a 5 shot as its primary position in my collection was a goat gun at the time. Was it not available in 7.62x39 as a 3 shot?

as far as I am aware, I could be wrong though, CZ only offered the 3 rnd mag for 223 sized calibers. I did have a look for 3 round 7.62x39 mags but if they made them none were for sale here or in America. I'd been considering this mod for quite some time and i had been looking around for a factory alternative for 3 or so years.

Originally Posted by 20 Bore

as far as I am aware, I could be wrong though, CZ only offered the 3 rnd mag for 223 sized calibers. I did have a look for 3 round 7.62x39 mags but if they made them none were for sale here or in America. I'd been considering this mod for quite some time and i had been looking around for a factory alternative for 3 or so years.

Was a while ago , I thought it was a 5 round mag as it hung down a fair way.