Anyone know how to disassemble a Remington 51 (original) magazine?

Y

yggorf

New member
I have an original Remington Model 51 magazine that I would like to thoroughly clean and possibly re-blue. The bottom plate seems to have been "permanently" installed with two through pins/rivets.

Am I missing something else that would allow me to open up this mag and remove the spring/follower? I can always drill out the rivets and replace with shop-made rivets or pins, but hope to avoid this. I've tried tilting the follower to the extreme forward and back and it doesn't want to come out that way either.
 
If I recall, the mag is kind of similar to a factory gi style 1911 mag, only smaller.
When you tried to tilt out the follower, was the mag spring still pushing up against the bottom side?
If so, try this. With something like a punch or screwdriver, push the follower about 2/3 down. Slide a pin through one of the holes in the body, just below the follower. Take the "pusher" out the top. The follower should now be free inside the mag body. You can now tilt it around much further than before, and can usually slide the follower out by creative tilting. Once out, put the mag, feedlips down against something firm, and pull the pin out. The spring will come out the top. Note how the spring is installed before fully removing it.
To put it back, you need something that will push the spring, and not go inside the top coil. Push it down far enough to put your cross pin back in where it was. Then work the follower back in opposite the way it came out. Push it down against the spring, and pull out the cross pin, ease up the follower, and you're done.
 
Any time you remove a follower that way, try to use your finger or something like a pencil to control the spring before removing the tool that is holding it. If the spring comes up with enough force, it can damage the feed lips, or even break hardened lips. Just putting the feed lips on a solid surface is not always enough to prevent that. The same is true when you capture the spring again to reinstall the follower; don't let the follower snap up against the feed lips.

Jim
 
What Gunfxr described is the correct process for the 1911 mag, and will work on many others as well. It should work on any "solid bottom" magazine.

I fully agree with JamesK, as well. It is always better to put some pressure on a spring and "ease" it out, rather than letting it just spring away. Do the same when reassembling. Put a little pressure on the follower before removing the pin/punch/screwdriver you are using to keep the spring captive, and then after removing the pin, ease the follower back up.
 
Worked!

I had initially tried the 1911 mag method (using a cross-pin/punch to hold the spring down, but it didn't work because the spring would not release from the bottom of the follower. I thought perhaps the spring was also spot welded on.

But after not hearing any other suggestions and hearing you folks say that the 1911 method should work, I went back and tried again with a bit more prying up the bottom of the follower this time. It finally did come apart from the spring and things are apart! It seems corrosion was holding the spring to the follower.
 
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