Anyone with a Tikka who has tried to seat long bullets in their reloads, will have come across the problem that the magazine length is way too short in Tikka mags.
If you shoot a medium sized round it's easy to just buy a mag length bigger and you will have ample room, but if you shoot 223 etc then the feed lips on the mag are too wide, so it's a no go.
There are other modifications for the 223 magazines online, but I didn't like them too much, mostly because they looked ugly with screws in the sides of the magazine and they also don't fix the other problem on the Tikka that single round feeding doesn't really work in the factory magazines.
Recently I was bored at home and was looking into 3d printing stuff and decided I'd try to design a new longer follower that could be 3d printed, that would allow longer bullets and also allow easy single loading of rounds into the rifle. Because the new follower is longer, the back of the magazine needed to be cut out and a spacer put in there. Hopefully the pictures are in the correct order and show the new follower against the normal one, the spacer that is put in the magazine and then the magazine finally assembled.
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The design work was pretty easy, and I found a website online that links you too people that own 3d printers, so had a guy in Auckland print my designs for me.
The hardest part of the project was cutting the back out of the magazine, but with a dremel, chisels and files, it wasn't too bad. The new spacer I designed is quite a tight fit so I'm not sure I'll even bother gluing in in place like originally planed. With the back cut out and the new spacer and follower installed, just need to test it out and do any final trimming of material if the follower hangs up on anything.
I haven't tested the magazine by shooting the rifle yet, but testing on the couch suggests that the mod works great, the rounds feed well and single loading of rounds into the chamber works too. I have since receiving the 3d prints, re-designed the follower and made a few modifications, and found a different type of 3d printing that will offer a more accurate print and hopefully a nicer finish on the follower.
